Adding embroidery

While I am adding borders to the tops in my previous post, at the same time, this oldie has been revived to have some embroidery added.

The last time this was shown was back in July 2014.  As far as I was concerned it was a finished top ready for hand quilting.

It even had the centre part (where the flowers are) hand quilted.  Then I stopped.  Something was missing.

You know how much I love playing the 'what if' game.  So, what if some delicate whispy stems were added to the borders?

Can you see the hand quilting at the top of this photo ?  The backing had to be carefully folded and pinned back away from one side so that the embroidery could be added.  A few adjustments to the design and then I was working with needle and embroidery floss.

Two sides are done.  Now we are talking.  This is the something that was missing.  In this photo, you can just barely see the backing folded away from the left side of the hanging.

Three sides done.  Oh my.

Four sides.

Buttons were pinned on at the ends of each stem to see if this is the look that I wanted.  Oh yes!

Huge difference, wouldn't you say.  The before and after is amazing to me.

Now, I can finish the hand quilting.  The rest of this hanging has been marked up with quilting designs and is now ready and packed in a bag with all the notions needed for hand quilting.  This will be perfect for quilting during the cool mornings at the cottage.

Ah, life is good!

OK ... now back to those borders!

Have a great day!

Borders .... Just Borders

Well .... since I'm on a roll with UFO's and getting them to finished tops, I pulled out five .... yes ..... five tops that just need borders.

Again, me and borders.

So, here they are.

First one to work on is this patch top.

This shouldn't take too long to finish ...

Have a great day!

An Oldie ... Petals

Well, I dipped into my UFO stash and found this top that just needed borders.

The last time I touched this project was July 6, 2015.  Borders.  That is All it needed.  This is where procrastination pops into my life.  Me and borders.   The original inner border (on upper right) was chosen but later discarded and since I didn't have anything in my stash that suited this project, it got shelved.

A new striped fabric was found and is perfect for this project.  So, on they went.

 Then the outer border fabric and this is now a completed top!

Happy, happy days.  Another empty bin!

Now .... to pull out another UFO and deal with it!

Have a great day!

It's a ..... top!

My Chevron Legacy is now a top!  Yeah!

I'm absolutely thrilled with it.

Now to dip into my UFO stash and pull out an oldie and get it finished.

Have a great day!

Autumn Leaf

I finished this block at the beginning of May (but forgot to post about it).   This block was from a workshop that I took with Ruth Kennedy of Dancing Threads.  Love, love this block.  Ruth came to our guild for a trunk show last year and everyone was so impressed with her quilts that we had her come back again this year to do her workshop on Autumn Leaf.  Both times, Ruth stayed with me and what an honour to have her with us.

Now to make a few more of these blocks.  A perfect table runner for different seasons of the year.

While Ruth was here she was treated to an evening in the garage with the garage girls.   Ruth was just overwhelmed with the evening and all our stuff that we showed her.  So overwhelmed that she had a hard time to sleep that night because her brain was on overload.

So, what did we overwhelm her with?  First off are a few baby blankets for our hospital NICU.  Claudia came up with the idea to replicate a blanket from a gift bag for a guild challenge.  Aren't these lovely?

 This is Darlene'e version:

 Karin (on the right) wowed us with her raw edge heart quilt ......

 and more of her redwork embroidery.  Notice the wine glasses?  A little bit of wine with our evening.  Why not!

Meet Ruth Kennedy (in the centre).  She brought a lovely featherweight to work on.

 Our Antique Samplers (by Sue Daley) had to be admired by all.

 I showed off my split apple core.  This top needs outer borders and it can be done with.

 Claudia is making progress with her hexagon top.

 Jeanne worked on binding her slab block quilt for Ronald McDonald house project.

So, no wonder she had a hard time to sleep.  I, too have a hard time to settle down after one of our meetings.  The inspiration just keeps on flowing.  This is also why so much of my stuff is getting finished these days and why so many new projects get started.  When I see what the others are working on, well I want to make one too.  LOL

Have a great day!

Getting there .....

Two more vine sections left to do on the far right.  The vines have been sewn down.  Just left to do now is the leaves and I will make sure they are pinned on properly .... not like my oopsie from last post.

Almost done ...

Have a great day!

Oopsie Chevrons

I've made a bit of progress on my Chevron Legacy but had an major oopsie along the way.

In my hurry to applique leaves onto the left outer border, I didn't align the leaves to match up to the sequencing on the other borders and ended up sewing leaves that should not have been in that place.  See the leaves pinned to the applique leaves.  That is the leaf that should have been there.  Silly me.

Wouldn't you know it, but the back of the leaves were already cut away.  This is not going to be a walk in the park.  Now what???

Taking my trusted Crayola Washable Marker, the outside of the leaf was drawn all around.  This is going to be my guide line for sewing on the correct leaf.

The leaf has now been removed.  The excess threads will be removed.  Luckily there is enough seam allowance to enable me to carefully pin in place the correct leaf and applique can begin once again.

Here are two leaves that have been replaced.  It was a bit tricky but doable.  So, try it if you make a mistake.  There was a total of five leaves that needed to be replaced.

It was the outer border on the left that had to be corrected.  Now, we are all fixed up and ready for the remaining two borders on the right to be done.  It just irks me that I made a silly mistake in the first place.

Last week, my sister and I went to Ottawa for a few days to visit an aunt and cousin.  We took a bus from our hotel into the downtown core and walked around a bit after supper.  Tulips were blooming and my sister captured the special 150th tulip that The Netherlands developed for Canada.  Can you see the maple leaf in the centre of the tulip?  Isn't that amazing!  The Netherlands have been sending 10,000 tulips every year to Canada since WWII as a thank you for Canada housing members of the Dutch royal family during the war.  Every May, Ottawa has a tulip festival over the course of three weekends with approximately 300,000 tulips blooming.

I had never been around the Parliament buildings and how delightful it was to see the architecture.  What craftsmanship abounded way back when.

I liked the filigree on the rooftop of this building.

Have a great day!