Stripey Strips with Pintucks

My latest double bed quilt came about because a friend had done a quilt in soft greens and yellows. It looked so calm and peaceful, and full of the promise of Spring, I just had to do a quilt in similar colours (with a splash of red).

So I started by making up these little 4" flower blocks.

Hand applique is not my forte really - it takes me ages, but I persevere because I love the way it adds so much to a quilt. I cheated in that I stenciled the green leaves onto the calico before sewing on the petals. I used a stencil that I cut from a piece of clear plastic packaging and Dylon fabric paint. I put the absolute minimum of paint on to my stencil brush, to avoid bleeding under the stencil, and I pounced more paint along one half of the leaf to add dimension, like in this leaf.

This is a link to the flower applique and leaf design. The flower is turned a little for each block making them all slightly different.

The strips of fabric are cut ½” longer than the 4½” needed. This is so that they can be trimmed to size after sewing them together. Also, instead of calculating the exact number and width of fabric strips to get the correct width of finished block, I sewed strips of random width together until the block was longer than needed and shortened by adding small pintucks to the wider strips.(It never does quite work out even when I try really hard and I usually end up with a silly small strip which almost disappears into the seam! ). I like the way that the pintucks add some texture.

This is a finished 12" x 12" block. The 4" squares either side of the flower have a bit of a swirly pattern on them.

I ran out of steam a bit towards the edge, but the plain-ish border looks fine when the quilt is on the bed as it hangs over the side. The outside border is more of the strips with pintucks. It's lovely to have a "Springtime" quilt on the bed when we're heading towards the winter months. Not that I really hate the dark winter - extra sewing time!

Happy Stitching - Anita

PS. Two lovely quilt exhibitions coming up on opposite sides of the world:

29-31 October 2015: Trevithick Quilters Exhibition. Elim Centre, Kerrier Way, Camborne, Cornwall, UK, TR14 8FH. Open Thurs – Sat, 10 – 4

12-14 November 2015: Launceston Patchworkers & Quilters Exhibition, Punchbowl Christian Centre, 100 Punchbowl Road, Kings Meadows, Launceston, Tasmania. Open Thurs - Sat, 10 - 4.30