applique – Juanita Collins

September 27, 2015

Small stitching on Sunday: a mug rug

I’ve been wanting to try a technique that I’ve admired for awhile: a combination of machine applique and embroidery.

So today I pulled out my bins of fabric scraps and got busy. Luckily, I had a few scraps of Wrenly left over from a quilt I made last year. The Wrenly birds were perfect for fussy cutting the windows.It’s called a mug rug, which is an unlovely name for such a lovely thing. Basically, a mug rug is an over-sized coaster. Something pretty to put your coffee cup on, great for personalizing your desk at work (or at home).

This one is 6.5″ square…a good size for holding a cup.

The pattern is from Jenny at Elefantz.She makes lovely things.

I’m very happy with this little project. I experimented with a couple of other mug rugs, here, but this one definitely shows improvement in my technique. Yay!

Next time I’ll quilt the back ground before adding the applique. Stay tuned! Do you have a special mug rug or coaster that you love above all others?

January 19, 2015February 4, 2015

The Friendship Garden Quilt

Warning: this post is photo intensive!

Let me introduce you to The Friendship Garden Quilt!

It comes by its name honestly, because it started out life as a bee block!

I am part of a Flickr group quilting bee with 5 other ladies. We call ourselves We Bee Canadian. We each make 2 blocks for the month’s Queen Bee.

When it was my month to pick a block (a couple of years ago!), I asked everyone to please make me two bow tie blocks using garden-themed fabric.

Because we were all pretty much beginners, nobody’s 1/4″ seams were very good and the blocks didn’t square up very well. There were an awful lot of mismatched seams.

Then I had an idea!

I decided to cover some of the wonky seams with English paper pieced rosettes. Perfect! Before you knew it, I had hand-appliqued a flower in every single blank square, wonky or not!

Because a garden should be an absolute riot of colour, don’t you agree?

I used a bed sheet on the back. I think it would qualify as a vintage sheet. I remember having sheets like this on my bed in the 70s.

The quilt is hand quilted in circles.

I don’t think I’ll try to do hand quilting through a bed sheet again. I actually bent needles and had to use pliers to pull the needle through the layers. Ouch!

Mr. C. did a marvelous job behind the scenes, don’t you think?

I used black for the binding to set off the colours. Oh, how I love this quilt! It is so cheerful and bright and sunny! A bit of summer in the depths of winter.

I hope it will be as loved in its new home as it is in mine 🙂

These photos were taken at the sweet little Notch Hill Community Hall and Church on the only sunny day in January.

Linking up with the binding blitz at Julie Quilts and Lets Bee Social at SewFreshQuilts.

January 12, 2015January 12, 2015

catching up

I’ve written so many blog posts in my mind over the last several weeks. Sadly, none of them have made the (sometimes torturous) journey from my head to my fingertips and onto the keyboard.

So while I’m sorting it all out, and just to let you know that I’m still here, I’ll post a little update from the sewing room.

I finally finished The Friendship Garden quilt!

All that’s left is sewing on the label.

Goodness, I didn’t know if I would ever finish this quilt! It just kept demanding more and more. It was ridiculous! I’m only going to give you a brief glimpse here. This quilt has an interesting story but it hasn’t had it’s photo shoot yet. And you know me…a quilt isn’t truly finished until it’s had its picture properly taken, lol! So sorry…you’ll just have to wait for it.

Last September I started taking a class at my local quilt shop (Threads & Paper in Salmon Arm). The class is called A Quilter’s Garden. It is a beginners machine applique class. Let me stress beginners! It’s perfect for me. Exactly what I need, considering that I am still learning how to use my new sewing machine with all its various stitches and features.

Each block introduces a different skill, such as couching, and sewing on buttons with the button foot. Sadly, I cannot seem to master the button foot. Consequently, I’ve been sewing on all the buttons by hand. sigh.

And the couching. Well okay. I admit that my first try at couching was a complete and absolute bust. In fact, I was so nervous to try it that I didn’t even try! that’s how much of a bust it was! Instead, I decided to totally redesign the block. Completely. This block (below) isn’t even close to the pattern that we were given. But I love it!

Did you notice the sweet little diamond buttons eyes? They make me so happy!

Of course, I like to do things my own way, so haven’t exactly been following the patterns. I’ve kind of carried on doing my own thing..

For instance, there aren’t any birds in any of the original patterns. None! Now, I don’t know why, but I really wanted some birds in there! This quilt just begs for birds, don’t you think?

They’re so tweet!

And yes, I finally did attempt the couching (above). 🙂

October 3, 2014October 4, 2014

Update from the Sewing Room

I keep thinking of great bloggy things that I want to write about, and then I go off and do something else (like mow the lawn or hang out the laundry) and my ideas fly away like birds. Scattershot.

So instead I’ll catch you up on my sewing life.

I signed up to take a block of the month class at my LQS (that stands for local quilt shop for all you non-quilters who wonder what the heck I’m talking about.) It’s a applique class that will teach me all the cool things that I can do with my sewing machine beyond simply sewing. This is my first block. I added the bird and his tail is going to extend over into the sashing, which is why it looks unfinished. I HAVE to add my own creative mark, right? Right! It’s machine applique. I’ve never done machine applique before and I am still sitting on the fence with it. It looks very…manufactured (to me, anyway.) It’s a very different look from needle-turn-by-hand. I’m linking this new project up to the NewFO Challenge over at Cat Patches. The object of the challenge is to start a NewFO (new fabric object) every month, which can then become a UFO (unfinished fabric object), which is something I have no problem accomplishing, lol!

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And I also started a project from a book, which makes me eligible to link up with the Let’s Book It party over at Vrooman’s Quilts. The object here is to make a project from a book that you actually already own. What a concept! I have an entire shelf (okay, two shelves) of quilt books full of things that I want to make someday. So I have started an applique project from a book that I’ve had for years, called My Whimsical Quilt Garden by Becky Goldsmith Linda Jenkins. It uses needle-turn applique. Here is my first block, which is NOT finished yet.

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PLUS, I made the Ring Toss quilt (blogged here) from my Project Linus book. So I am doubly eligible for the Let’s Book It party!

AND, my Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt is featured this week as part of the Tuesday Archives over at Val’s Quilting Studio! It’s really cool to see my quilt featured on someone else’s website! Go check it out!

And on the dress front…

I am still working toward my goal of sewing a dress out of real fabric (as opposed to a bed sheet).

Now…can I get a Whoop Whoop?

What are you making?

March 2, 2014

Vintage Dresden Plate Quilt

This Dresden Plate quilt was given to us by Kelly’s grandmother, Louise Collins when we were newly married, many years ago.

Louise was born in 1895. If she were still living, she would be 119 years old!

It was given to Louise by her good friend Cathy Dunbar of Vancouver, BC.

I am relying on memory, but I think Louise told me that the quilt was actually made by Cathy Dunbar’s sister, whose name I do not know.

The quilt appears to be machine pieced. The applique is done by hand.

It is hand quilted.

She used green thread 🙂

I don’t know how old the quilt is, but I am guessing it was made in the 1940s. At least, the fabrics appear to be from the 1930s and 1940s.

I am most definitely not a fabric historian, so if anyone of you can date these fabrics, please let me know your opinion on its age.

It’s in rough shape. The backing has mostly rotted away.

Definitely well-used and well-loved.

We used if for several years on our bed at the cabin.

I washed the quilt on delicate cycle and put it in the sun to dry. It was very grubby, but came out nice and bright.

This old quilt just makes me smile. I hope Cathy Dunbar’s sister is smiling down on us as we continue to use and enjoy it.