Goodbye 2021

I took my last vacation day yesterday.  I made more progress on the Butterflies and Umbrella Ladies.  I have the medallion center almost complete and will be building out the rest tomorrow, I hope.  

I have to sew the seam at the top then I’ll be adding about a 5” wide strip on each side of the medallion.  At the top and bottom I’ll add an additional segment that will bring the piece to about 80” in length.  

I originally thought about adding just the floral peach at the top and bottom with no piecing.  Then I thought that was too blah so thought about adding a slice of the solid behind the butterflies in the middle of the floral.  Better but still….yawn.  I continued to play with ideas on the design wall in my mind.  I moved on to a strip of the floral between the solid…noooope.

Yesterday when visiting with my friends while sewing I arrived at the idea of the blue bordered by the peach floral bordered by the solid.  This is what I currently plan to insert in between the sea of peach floral.  I’ll be taking some measurements on the bed to see where to place the strip.

Almost done!!

Happy New Year to all.  I hope to be sewing away the day tomorrow to set the precedent for the year.

Design As You Go or Cobbling

With the main elements of my quilt complete I started designing the elements.  I decided on a window frame look and then placed the umbrella girls and small hankies.  I lay out a few strips to see where to go next.

Today I assembled more of the units.  I decided to frame the hankies to bring their size to match the umbrella ladies.  

I then joined all the side centers.  Before I left I auditioned the size of strip the will join the sides to the center.  My friend suggested a narrow border similar to what was used in the frame.  I felt it needed to be much larger and we agreed a 2” finished width would do the job.

I imagine giving the pieces a floating feel and I think the wider strip will achieve that.  There will be about a 5” slab border of the floral print.  I’d like to add 15” or so to the top and bottom.  I don’t want it to look like I just slapped it on after giving up!  No plans for heavy piecing.  We will see.  Stay tuned! 

Merry Christmas

May you enjoy the day with those close to you.

Merry Christmas!

December OMG Complete!

My goal this month was to finish adding embroidery details to my butterfly hankies.  I did that and am beginning final assembly.

It’s been awhile since I did embroidery and had to watch a video to remember how to do the stem stitch.  It came back pretty quickly.

I outlined the bodies of the butterflies to give more definition.

I moved on to begin assembly.  I started the frame and hope to have that portion complete this week.  It will be fiddle to assemble but not difficult.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

I’m linking with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for OMG completion..

December 2021 One Monthly Goal

I met with the ladies at church today.  I played with the layout of my quilt ladies after having made a few sketches last week.  I snapped pics as I went.

Original proposal except the background was to be a peachy solid.  I felt it was heading to the blah side so changed it to the floral fabric as the background.

New idea number 1.  This idea was sparked because I thought my client said she would hang it on the wall when I cautioned her about over washing.  I thought this was better but a little lopsided looking.  I did love the big hankies in the center.

New idea number 2.  I redistributed the ladies and hankies.  To me this was so much better.  My client really loved this one.  Definitely my favorite to this point.  I have visions of sashing the butterflies to make them look like a window.  I have a beautiful blue solid to do the trick.

New idea number 3.  I felt like I already had a winner but had sketched this idea so thought I’d give it a try. I wasn’t really liking where it was going so gave up.

My goal for December is to add the embroidery stitches to the butterfly hankies.  I’ll run a stem stitch along the upper edge of the wing, either side of the body and add antanae.  I may have to buy more black floss but that will be easy enough.

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts One Monthly goal linkup.