Quilter7x

You gals made me laugh! :lol:

I wish I had taken a "before" picture of just the FQ packs I got from JoAnn's. They are yellows, pinks, greens and the blues. Then Beth went through my stash and pulled out all the rest of the fabrics. We went from 2 FQ's to all you see there! How nice it would be to not have to buy any more fabric at all.

I'm doing a black background.

I went to a demonstration recently where the lady uses the blanket stitch for raw edge applique. She puts batting and leftover fabric for the backing. When she finishes the blocks, she joins them with a little strip, then puts a regular backing on and stipples in the open areas. That's my plan with AOTH as it stands right now - subject to change in the future! :lol:

TOOMANYUFO'S

Lesley, I want your quilt. It is awesome! It is so me, I love everything about it. Can I copy it? You added embroidered hearts around the corner blocks and in the small borders. How did you make the sm borders? It looks like you appliqued pieces to a black strip? The quilt in the book has, I thought,printed fabric borders or is there a template in the book I am not seeing? Did you enlarge the big borders 142% as well? I can't tell from the picture is your embroidery floss metalic? It looks like hand embroidery. Any way it is a good thing for the JTG club, they can work out the bugs for the rest of us. Your quilt is stunning.

sandpat

Diane...I'm interested to see the technique that you are talking about. Thats why I love these group cyber sews, I learn so darn much! I'm not sure from your description whether that will be applique, trapunto, quilt as you go or a combination, but I can't wait to see!

Toomany...I think you'll have to stand in line to pinch Lesley's quilt..LOL!

Quilter7x

I left the sample at home, but can take pictures of it and post it here. I loved her method, but want the quilt to be around for a while, so I am going to turn the edges under using the freezer paper/starch method then use the blanket stitch on them.

I know Lesley trims the bulk from the back of her pieces, I'm going to leave mine because I want the 3D effect.

sandpat

I'm like you...don't care for the raw edge. I normally do applique exactly like you just described..turned/ FP/ blanket stitch. I'm needle turning this one and trimming it away..only because I'm making the quilt large enough for a queen and I haven't forgotten how heavy Jane ended up being. I didn't trim on her at all....should have..:roll:

Quilter7x

I didn't think about the weight of it by not trimming on the back and your Jane has a lot of applique on it. The weight of it can be good and bad. Good because it will keep you warm, bad because it's heavy!

sandpat

Oh...it was bad when I was shoving that baby through my machine quilting it! :shock:

Quilter7x

Hmm, another good point. Maybe I will have to send this out to be quilted.

Lacelady

Firstly, no, I don't mind at all if you (or anyone else) wants to copy something I have done with this quilt.

Yes, I enlarged by 142%, but in practice that comes out just a tad under 1.5in (finished) wide, so I cut them at 2in and machined a good quarter inch seam rather than a scant quarter inch. Big borders enlarged by 142% also.

I thought I had put pics of how I arrived at my narrow border here, but it was on my PDA (page 490) It might be better if you have a look there, as I am having huge problems trying to upload pics here at the moment. In essence, I couldn't find a border print I liked, I tried semi circles, no not quite what I wanted, so adapted the semi's to sort of bracket shapes. I made two strips, back to back appliqueing with needleturn (i.e. 4in wide black to start with), and then cut them lengthwise through the middles. After I had a good length done, I still wasn't quite happy, so then I embroidered small hearts between each dip.

I am embroidering with two strands of DMC stranded cotton(floss) shade 742 in stem stitch.

The infill between the corner blocks looked very bare to me, so I used the small heart I had put in my narrow border, and nested it with slightly larger ones to embroider.

Quilter7x

I bet a lot of people are going to be doing your curly wurly design Lesley. It really adds to the quilt. :thumbup: