That quilt is amazing! it must have taken years to put together.

That is an amazing quilt. It would be "the nightmare" for me :-).
I have a hard time staying on track with things and often find quilt plans taking off in new directions. I choose to call it inspiration :-) .

Okay my fellow adventurers, I have a question: When doing a satin stitch on machine for applique, do you prefer to use specialty embroidery thread or basic cotton thread?

Depends on the look I'm after - and how much I have to do. Mostly I've used regular thread because until very recently, that is all I've had. For this quilt I'm going to use embroidery thread where I want more sheen, and regular cotton thread where I want a more flat look.


This more along the lines of the type of applique I've done

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psc86f6a93.jpg

I'm getting a bit worried about the fabric I ordered....... :(:( My Fabric Shack order, which has my border fabric, was despatched on the 19th November and has not shown up. Nor has my order of Kona premium from Hancocks, despatched on 24th.

Another order from Hancocks, despatched on the 1st December, arrived on Friday.......
If they don't show I'll be sitting this one out as replacing the fabric will be too expensive - Kona Premium is $18.80 a metre (39") here. Unfortunately there's no tracking for International orders. :(

I'm still waiting for my background fabric too - but it should show up today as it's in the town 12 miles away this AM.

You can always start late if your fabric shows up in the middle of January (or even much later)- there is nothing special about the order of the blocks so if you start on #4 (or any of them) its not going to matter at all - then you can go back and do the earlier ones as you have time. You could always to a test block with other fabric in the mean time. That is what I've been doing, since I'm so excited I couldn't wait to start LOL!!

I wanted to see what it would look like using a much narrower selection of colors - and since I'm doing machine applique, that part isn't going to take long either. I got kind of carried away working on it this weekend, but putting the colors together is the funnest part! I'm still doing my "bold/gold" one for the "real" one.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps7fa94ae1.jpg

My fabric arrived today. Gold Fairy Frost and several metallics, not sure if I'll use them all, but they sure look fun!

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psb0289f61.jpg

Knitette, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! I also am waiting for something to arrive in the mail that I ordered three weeks ago and haven't seen yet. It is very frustrating.

Macy those fabrics are fabulous!

I pushed aside all the things I had to do and worked on a test block. This block will probably go into my orphan blocks box, for although it taught me a lot it doesn't looks cohesive enough to satisfy my OCD. It was an experiment in machine applique, monochromatic color schemes, and contrast stitching! I now have a much better idea of what works and what doesn't, so I'm glad I took the time to make the block. I was going to post a picture but apparently, QB doesn't like the photo for some reason. I'll try it with my regular camera and post tomorrow.

Macybaby, those blocks are just beautiful! And so different from the look with the black background. The gold background selection will be really interesting to see. Have you seen one done in gold or what led you in that direction?
I thought I was getting all ambitious stitching out one test block but I am still undecided about just how much stitching I want to add so maybe I'll play with one more.

I made this Affairs of The Heart appliqued quilt on my embroidery machine. I have the digitized software. My quilting friends saved scraps for me. It still took lots of time to stitch out. I have the software in both 6" block and 8" block sizes. I only used the 6". If someone is interested in the 8", pm me. I will never use it. My machine does not have a hoop that size.