Monday 11 June 2018

Connections / Improv

I do like a challenge and the Curated Quilts Mini Quilt Challenge really appealed to me. This is my entry which measures 12½" square.

It was so nice to use colours chosen by someone else and these were specified as cream, yellow, mustard yellow, navy, moss green and grey. I managed to use all 6 of them.
I was happy with the "Connections" theme and my connections are the green strips, and if "Improv" means that it's a bit random and you keep changing your mind every few minutes about what to do next, then it's definitely improv!

The hand quilted circles on the yellow/grey blocks were a last minute decision

and I couldn't decide which way to have the stripey binding so I cut it on the bias. I had to be careful not to stretch it as I sewed - I usually cut my binding along the grain of the fabric.

You can see all the mini quilts entered so far in the challenge by clicking on this link - 
Curated Quilts Mini Challenge
They look lovely all together on the page

Have Fun - Anita

Friday 1 June 2018

Flowers - stitched lino printing

With lovely sunny days to tempt me outside in the garden there hasn't been a great deal of sewing. I did manage to finish this wall hanging of stitched lino prints.

Here you can see my original drawing, the lino cut and one of the prints on fabric before stitching.

I usually do the stitching in the evening without much of an overall plan - just whatever takes my fancy at the time. The fabric pieces are applied with fusible web. I use Steam a Seam 2 which has a very good hold and few stitches (if any) are needed to keep the fabric in place. All the embroidery stitches are very simple - straight stitch, french knots (lots of these!), chain stitch, couching and whipped stitch.

I sewed a tiny flange around to bring the three prints together - red around the purple flowers picture, purple around the orange flowers and orange around the red flowers. Then added a neutral border and "strange" binding.

You can read about adding a flange in this previous post.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday

Happy Stitching - Anita x