Friday, August 26, 2016

Block 1 of the Rowdy Flat Library Quilt and Barbara Brackman

My quilt Stars in The Loft was recently shown on Barbara Brackman's blog Material Culture. You can read the post here.  What an honour and a thrill that was! This quilt remains one of my favourites!


I continue to work on my Rowdy Flat Library Quilt designed by Susan Smith. The yellow petals are stitched down and the raw edges covered with bias binding. I used a very lightweight cotton. It is like a lawn or a batiste and it was very easy to work with.


I used the same fabric for the next component which is four bows and a small heart.


Once the bows were stitched down I was able to proceed to the next step which was to add a wreath. The stem is made of bias tape and once again I chose to use my lightweight cotton. The pattern calls for scraps of all colours for the leafs but as much as I like scrap quilts I found it difficult to use random scraps so I chose to make the leafs with green fabrics. The lighter greens are at the top and the darker greens toward the bottom.


There are flower pots in each corner. The pot in the lower right is stitched down as are the little stems which are 1/8"! I thought that they would be difficult but in the end they were so fast and easy to do. I had considered using different fabrics for each pot so you can see that the pot on the left is a different fabric. In the end I decided to use a single print but cut out the pot from different parts of the print. The flowers will all be cut from different parts of the same fabric. The method I used to make the circles is not unique but it works for me. You can read my tutorial here.  I like to cut out all of my circles at once. In this case I needed 20 of them. In the evening I basted them so the edges could be gathered and I just left a long tail of thread so that I could draw it up when I pressed the circles.  There are butterflies to be added to this block and their bodies are small and I thought they would be REALLY difficult but I had an idea about a method that might made it easier so I tried it out and it worked like a charm. I plan on showing you what I did in an upcoming post.

I'll leave you with a close-up of the ink and embroidery details in the toile fabric.


Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H





11 comments:

  1. Your Rowdy Flats is looking fantastic. What an unusual and wonderful toile. Love it.

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  2. Lovely to read an update on your work! Hope all is well with you.

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  3. Good morning, your work is always so amazing-that is an honor to be found by Barbara Brackman I have learned allot of history from her too

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  4. Congrats on the shout out at Barbara's blog! That toile is such a hoot--I love how you colored it to be the centerpiece of your project. Happy stitching!

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  5. Yes congrats indeed!
    I do adore your skellies Karen. Id love them to have been my ancestors, they certainly look way more interesting than some of my photos of long gone family folks lol
    Hope your keeping well

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  6. Love your quilt it's going to be beautiful as usual.

    When are you going to start your quilt the A long

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  7. Love your block. Such an unusual choice of subject with the skeleton faces. A person has to look close for that surprise.

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  8. Such a fun interesting project with the coloured in skeletons! It's good to see what you are doing with it.

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  9. Karen that would be a thrill but then that means she knows where the best quilts are posted and yours is still one of my favorites I love this one as well and all the amazing working still keeps me in awe!
    Your RFL is coming along famously!

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  10. So many great things about this. Your work is always so inspiring ; )

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