Next Steps on The Loon Lake Quilt

Progress on Day at Loon Lake Quilt

This is the quilt I've been working on lately, but I could not take it to Quilt Camp because it's not a good set-up there with with round tables.   This is where it stands now ... I've done a fair amount of work on it, though it's hard to tell from the last time it appeared on Sweet Leaf Notebook.

Since then, I've swapped out a few fabrics for what I felt were better choices -- on the log (again) and some of the lily pad leaves.

 

With the top sandwiched with batting and backing, the next step is to start stitching through all the layers with the quilting.  At this point, I stitched-in-the-ditch along the edges of each block to add some stability before I did the rest of the quilting.  The photo above shows in red (dramatic, but only for the purposes of illustration) where I stitched along those block edges.  In actuality, I used clear thread.

The next task was to outline all the appliqued elements.  The wool batting (Quilter's Dream) has been wonderful to sew through, and it makes thing pop out 3D style once they are outlined in stitch.  In the photo above, I quickly outlined those elements in read (again) to give you and idea of what I did this weekend.  It's not hard work. It just takes time and patience.  I've been working 1 block at a time, matching the outlining thread with the background of each block.  

Note: This is an older photo with some of the older fabric colors for the log.  

In this photo, you can see the stitched outline around the loon, and how it pushes the background down, and allows the loon to pop up, giving that 3D effect.

Here is one of the fish.  Some of the stitching (embroidery) happened BEFORE layered with batting and backing.  That stitching adds dimension and detail, but is relatively flat in the grand scheme of things because it's not attached to the backing or the batting layers.  It is limited to the quilt top layer.  Here again, you can see the outline stitching that makes this fish pop out of the background.

Here's the third fish.

The next step is to figure out what to quilt into the backgrounds.  I have some ideas ... but I'll save that for another post.  More to come!

Sweet Little Pumpkin #1

 

At Quilt Camp this past weekend, I made this sweet little pumpkin, using a pattern and some leafy fabrics from my mom's stash, and some orange scraps from my own stash.   I can even tell you that some of the oranges came from this quilt and this one.  

I added an extra layer of batting underneath the applique to help it pop up out of the background.  Adding an echo stitch about 1/4 inch away from it also helps make it pop up.

 

Here is a detail shot of the leaves.

I took the time to secure the edges of the appliques with a satin stitch, just to get the practice, and prove I can still do it. ;-)

Detail of the vine and pumpkin slices.  The center bit is set up kind of like a crazy quilt block.

 

 

If you think it looks familiar, it is ...  My mom used this pattern and made her own version, which I previously posted here on Sweet Leaf Notebook.   The binding fabric was tucked in with the pattern.   If you look closely, you'll see it's the same on both mine and my mom's pumpkin. How's that for continuity?  ;-)

 

This is the pattern, in case you want to look it up yourself.

Newfie Dog Quiltie

 

 

Newfie Dog Quiltie for me.  ;-)

 

It's on a snowflake background, because she loves the snow.  This one looks more like a caricature than my real-life sweet girls, but I'll take it!

 

I purchased these Whole Country Caboodle dog kits on sale at Keepsake Quilting.  The fabrics come as a pre-cut fusible applique kit, so all you have to do is pick your own background, and lay out the pieces, fuse and stitch them down.  

 

  

Detail - Newfie Face with blue highlights. 

I used my own fabric for the tongue, since I've only ever seen pink Newfie tongues, not red.

 

 

Thread Choices - Newfie

 

 Thread painting / applique stitching from the back.

 

 

The lights in her eyes are done with a Bic Wite-Out pen.  It makes it easy to target one little point, without getting out paint brushes and paint.  Easier clean-up, too!

 

Background quilting for this one is just a simple loop-de-loop pattern.  I might have included snowflakes, but those were already present on the fabric.  ;-)

 

Here are all three dog quilties together.  

 

Here's a real live Newfie: Sweet Sophie.

 

See separate posts about all 3 Dog Quilties:          

Golden           

French Bull Dog        

Newfie

3 Dogs in Applique: Golden

I purchased these Whole Country Caboodle dog kits on sale at Keepsake Quilting.  The fabrics come as a pre-cut fusible applique kit, so all you have to do is pick your own background, and lay out the pieces, fuse and stitch them down.  It went remarkably fast! Reminded me of doing Journal Quilts back in the day ...

They had all the favorite dog breeds for my family ... Golden Retrievers, French Bull Dogs, and last but certainly not the least: Newfies. 

The batting was pulled from my stash, unlabeled.  I think it's Warm and Natural, with zero loft. It will stay stable, not never sag.

I'll show you the details of the Golden Retriver here, and leave the other 2 for their own posts, otherwise this will get too long.  Each dog deserves it's own post!

Golden Retriever for my Dad on a background of evergreen trees, because he has a Christmas Tree Farm.

Thread choices.

 

Stitching and thread painting from the back.  It's a lot like drawing with a needle.

  

I had to study dog noses, to figure out what to do with that piece.  

Here's a practice drawing before stitching it out. 

 

Detail of the Golden Retriever. 

 

Detail of the background stitching.  Each dog got a slightly different treatment.  Dad's Golden got a loop-de-loop with stars. 

Even though these are all Christmas presents, I don't mind posting them here, because the recipients don't look at my blog, so I'm not worried about anyone spilling the beans ahead of time. ;-) 

See separate posts about all 3 Dog Quilties:         Golden          French Bull Dog       Newfie

Spring Teaser

This is what I've been working on ...  through the light box, so it has kind of an x-ray feel to it. 

I spent the last 2 weekends tracing and cutting the zillion little pieces.  Last night I started putting it together.  ;-)

More to come!

Finally Feels Like Progress ... Morningstar Quilt Top

Progress on the Morningstar Quilt!

Since October (at least), I've been working on the applique flowers and vines for the 4 corners and 4 diamond side panels of this Morningstar Quilt.  I can finally get back to sewing again -- Last weekend, I was able to start top-stitching the applique flowers and vines down.

I spent part of the day with a glue stick securing the pieces to the background.  Yes-- normally I would have done that with a fusible.   But this project posed some barriers to making that possible.

1) it would have taken hours to shape and iron all those bits and pieces with the fusible. (I did do one triangle piece that way, and it took an entire afternoon and a sore back.  No thank you!
2) Once I got everything in place at the light box, it was difficult to move it all to the ironing board where I could fuse it.  Things would invariably move in the transition.

Therefore, I decided it would be much easier and sensible to use the purple glue stick again, to glue it in place at the light box.  (I must have used a dozen or more glue sticks in the course of this project!) This seems to have worked out well enough, and saved oodles of time over the fusible webbing method.

Now back to stitching ...

I've missed my sewing machine these last few months!

  I used the open toe foot, but did not set up for free-motion stitching.  I wanted the feed dogs to help keep me on track, and to help provide an even stitch length.  Steady and sure got the job done in less time than I would have thought. Done in 2 afternoons.

 These are the threads I used for top-stitching the appliques.  Burgundies, Tangerine, and  mixed blues.  Although the applique flowers and vines were glued in place with a simple purple glue stick (the Elmer's kind you find in office supply stores, or with school supplies).  Purple worked better than the white, as the white tended to dry stiffer and white.  The purple dried clear, and was not so stiff.  That's my preferred adhesive for this project.  

The thread is a polyester embroidery thread from Thread Art.  Very strong, and very pretty.  You can get some pretty good deals on the sets on lack Friday.  It's so strong, I can even quilt with it.  I'm very happy with this thread!

Here is one of the completed applique panels.  This one fits in the corners of the giant star.  Each one of those bits and pieces was cut out of those pieces was traces to freezer paper, cut out of the fabric, and then turned under to provide a finished edge  The glue gave it a little body, so I didn't need interfacing for most of it.

Here is one of the other flowers, stitched down.

THe top-stitching went so smoothly, that I even had time this afternoon to set in all the squares with the Y-seams.  Again -- this is not a beginner project.  That said, the Luminous Lone Star class I took online at Craftsy (now BluePrint) proved very helpful for this project.    

It still needs the borders, but I'll save that for next weekend.

Then I'll have to sandwich it with batting and backing -- something I usually do at Quilt Camp where I have big tables and can work with my basting boards.   

Then I have to think about how to quilt it.  I have some definite ideas.  This is indeed on track to being finished by June for our 20th Wedding Anniversary. Wa-hooh! 

I'm really pleased with what I see so far.  ;-)

Like what you see?  This is the Lotus Quilt by Jinny Beyer.  I purchased a kit on sale a while back.  Perhaps they were having trouble selling these due to all that fiddly applique?

Theresa -- How did yours turn out?

The first one is the hardest ...

Last weekend, I worked all afternoon on stitching and stabilizing the applique flowers for the Morningstar Quilt.  From picking appropriate thread colors, to choosing a path around the objects, to 

The week before, I fused all the flower applique pieces to some black interfacing, and then cut around all the edges.  This helped to stabilize the pieces before I stitched the edges down.  Prior to that, they were glued (with a common school glue glue stick, like kids use) and fragile.

After some trial and error, I discovered that the tangarine / orange thread looked the nicest on the reds and purples  golds and oranges in the flowers.

I also learned that I needed to sew off the ends of the flower points.   If I tried to stop and pivot at those points, the point pulled up through the foot, and got crumbled up.  If I sewed off the edge, it stayed flat.  I was using the free-motion foot, but perhaps I could have chosen the foot with only a hole for the needle to pass through?

The non-stick oven sheet was very helpful for allowing the piece to slide around under the needle, and not get hung up in the uneven sewing table,

I also got one of the triangle pieces worked up, with all the vines and flowers glued / fused in place.   I cut some steam-a-seam into strips and pieced it around all those curves for the vines.     I still need to stitch it down.  Still thinking about what to use for stabilizer?  I want this to puff up a little like Trapunto, so maybe a piece of batting?  Or perhaps I should save that for the quilting stage?  Only 3 more triangles and 4 larger square corner pieces to go ...

There are so many things you need to know to make a quilt like this -- things that are not explained in the pattern.  Good thing I've been quilting for the last 15 years, and learned a lot of techniques through the years.  It all helps!

All that work -- and somewhere along the way, one of the smaller flowers got lost.  Can't find it anywhere --  Do I make a new one, and backtrack to do the threadwork again, or do I just wait it out, and see if it re-appears?

All that work today, and it feel like I didn't really get anything done.  I was sewing all afternoon, but don't feel like I have anything to show for it.  That's how I've felt the whole time working on these applique pieces.  This is the bottleneck stage of the project.  The putsy stuff.

Progress on the Polar Bear

Made some great progress on the Polar bear wall hanging at Quilt Camp this past weekend.

I worked up the background with 2 pieces of crushed velvet that have been waiting for this very moment in time!

The one said Northern Lights to me as soon as I saw it.

The other one was from a bolt of of crushed velvet that I had planned to make a dress out of --  in a previous lifetime, before I started quilting.  Those days are long gone!

This came as a kit from Quilting to Pieces Quilt Company in Appleton, WI.  They used a pattern by XXX, modifying it from a strange lavender Holly Bear to a much more agreeable Aurora Borealis Bear with stars in the sky.   I took it a few steps further with the velvet backgrounds and the crazy quilting stitches to applique the bear down. 

I did use the whites and creams in the kit to make the bear, but then I crazy-quilted all the seams down with different stitches.   I was also considering using scraps and laces from my own stash to make the bear out of linens and wools (left over from my wedding dress), but I didn't quite get around to that ...  Maybe another round?

I also trapuntoed the bear to make it pop out more -- more of a 3-D effect.  The bear is stitched to a piece of black fabric, then he has an additional layer of batting (actually -- recycled from a nice thick and puffy mattress pad).

I got so far as appliqueing the bear to the background, adding the borders, and sandwiching the batting and backing.  I did use the batting layer as a stabilizer for the velvet.  So the velvet is quilted to the batting before the bear was added on top.  I still need to go through all 3 layers now to finish quilting it properly.  Then the binding, label, and hanging pocket for the final finish.  The end is in sight!

Stumbled across this picture on Pinterest, but the source was gone.  If I knew where it came from, I would certainly give credit.

Progress on The Loon Lake Quilt

Detail Lark and Iris

At Quilt Camp in October, I made some progress on The Loon Lake Quilt.  I think this one is going to take me a good 25 years before I actually get it all finished!

Detail Lark with Thread-painting.

 Detail Irises

Detail Iris

 Detail Iris

 

Here's the whole block in context.

This includes the new color choices for some of the grasses.

 Here's a shot of the back of the Larks and Irises block.  You can see from this side just how much stitching I did that weekend--especially on the lower lark.    Some of it was just the applique to make sure everything stays stitched down.  The rest was the thread-painting.

 The amended loons now have striped necks.    Much better!
I didn't do much thread-painting on the loons because it just wouldn't be seen.
Rest assured that the pieces are sufficiently appliqued down.

 
I bought this as a kit with the pattern and fabrics in 2007 (or so).  I think one of the reasons I've been so slow to finish it is that I just have not been happy with some of the fabric choices that were included in the kit.  Hence, my reluctance to commit and actually finish it. 

This time, I "fixed" the loon blocks.  I wanted to see stripes on their necks, but that's not what was included in the kit.  It came with this speckled fabric ---  All this time, I've been trying to figure out what's not quite working on this quilt, and why I can't quite finish it ... This was a major sticking point for me.  But I'm working through it!

Here's the BEFORE picture of the loon and the previous choice for grasses.

Don't you like the neck stripes better on the shot further up?  I do!

I also sapped out some of the grasses in the irises and larks block.  Some of that was my fault -- I substituted something from my own stash that didn't quite work here.

After I got home and put it back up on the design wall, I realized I had not appliqued the landscape in the background.  I'll have to go back and finish that part some day.  Not a big deal--I just need to commit!

See the other Loon Lake posts here, tracking my progress with this quilt.