Applique update and other things.....

It has been a couple of weeks since  I posted here, and I am not really sure where the time has gone.  It has been busy, but finally I feel like I am catching up.

I have half way finished the machine quilting for the Ohio Star with zig zag setting.  I wrote about that last time.  I need to have it totally completed by 24th August, so have been spending 30 minutes here and there over the last couple of weeks. 

I just did some "in the ditch"machine quilting, and parallel lines along the zig zag part.  It is going off to a magazine, and it was kind of hard to explain how to do that, but hope it works out.  On that subject, I had an email from a lady the other day telling me that instructions for a quilt of mine in a magazine was wrong!  OMG!  I hate this.......I went and got out what I had written,  and it appears that the editors had changed what I wrote.  The lady had cut out the whole quilt!  Do you ever cut out the whole quilt before checking that one block is right?  I am really upset about it, as my name will be next to this error for many years to come.

This put me into a bit of sad spot for a few days, until I got a Facebook message from a friend congratulating me on my prize at the Melbourne Quilt show.  What prize???? was my reply.  Yes, I did enter a quilt, but no one "official" had been in touch (and still has not) to tell me I had won something.  I got a "runner up"in applique section apparently.......but have no idea if I actually won anything, and have not received my quilt back yet.   More on this story next time.

I decided to start a new applique project.  This is going to be my "traveling companion"for a while.  It is just red and white, which means I don;t have to take lots of different fabrics or threads.  Just one needle and one thread with the work.

I took some photos of the process.  I showed the photos of the original HERE

 I cut out the design, but folding the freezer paper into 8 parts

 I drew the design onto the back of the white background fabric and tacked in place

This is what the right side looks like when tacked in place

Cut away the fabric on the top, and turn under.  you clip the tacking, and remove it as you go

You can see here, that when you remove the tacking, the wholes are left and this helps you turn under easily.

When you come to a narrow piece like this,  you just slit down the middle and turn under

It just all stays in place until you are ready to turn it under

These are my tools.......straw needles and Auril thread

When you come to a tight spot like this you need to clip the inner curves

On the back you can check that I am keeping to the lines.  |My stitches look like little running stitches.  You can click on the pictures and get a closer look.

Here is one of the finished shapes.  I am really enjoying this one.  I love applique, and love doing this way with cut-outs.


If you are wondering......I am working on the next pattern for the Past Reflections.  Maybe over the coming weekend.  Stay tuned!