Anyone out there still working on Christmas gifts?
Yes, I do realize it’s January. I tried, I really did, but it’s been awhile since I’ve appliqued a quilt and I’ve forgotten just how much time it takes. I totally underestimated how long it would take me to finish and kind of forgot that I had lots of other things to get done before Christmas too. After many sleepless nights trying to crank it out it time I finally had to throw in the towel and admit that even if I worked around the clock it still wasn’t going to get done in time.
And then one glorious day (after New Year’s) I finally finished the top! There was much rejoicing! That is until I went to back the quilt and discovered several small holes in the backing fabric.
I tried to make it work. You know that moment when you definitely know it’s not going to work but you aren’t ready to admit defeat and try to your best to defy the laws of physics to make it work anyway? Yeah, that was me.
Maybe I can squeeze it in if I start really close to the edge. Angle it? Cut some of the top away? Maybe if I blink really hard it’ll disappear.
As I’m sure you’ve guessed, none of that worked.
Fine. Fortunately I was able to get a replacement piece, however I’d have to wait for it to be shipped out. I’m already late, so what’s another couple weeks?
sigh
But here we are, three weeks into January and about a week’s worth of me telling my husband one more day, and it’s finally freaking finished!
Worth the wait though, don’t you think?
This was a fun, albeit time consuming quilt.
I think the hardest part of this was finding fabric that would work for the appliques. After way too much time spent browsing tons of flower prints I finally found one that would work. Flowers were big enough, but not too big. They weren’t layered too much so that waste would be limited. And there was a coordinating fabric leaf print that would be the perfect accent!
The fabric was Timeless Treasures Glamor Large Allover Roses and Glamor Packed Leaves, which I believe is unfortunately unavailable anymore. But don’t fret if this is a technique you’d like to try out. There’s so much floral fabric out there that there is bound to be something that can work!
Using the turned edge applique technique, I made about a gazillion appliques. Okay, maybe not quite that many, but it sure felt like it.
I just layered a piece of lightweight interfacing on the front and sewed along the outside edges of the flowers, making sure to leave at least a half inch between each one. That meant that the entirety of each flower wasn’t always used. Sometimes I went one petal inside or cut some off intending to hide it underneath some leaves or another flower later.
I did the same thing with the leaves, grouping random sections together, making some bigger and some smaller.
After snipping and flipping and ironing for hours I finally had a pile of appliques ready to go!
For the background I made a lattice design using some hand dyed blue and white fabric for the sky and some store bought bark pattern (Keepsake Calico Brown Natural Bark) for the trellis.
I laid everything out on the floor and played around with the appliques until it looked just right. I really wanted the effect of roses growing on a trellis, so I made sure everything was connected.
Once I figured out the placement, I pinned them all in place so they wouldn’t fall off as I sewed.
Now all I needed to do was sew on all the appliques! Everything was attached using a zig-zag stitch.
I gave it a soft minky backing and a layer of batting so that it would be warm and cuddly!
This was a pretty fun quilt to make! This technique could be applied in so many fun ways to make some really awesome scenes! I’m imagining a flower vase on a table or a country garden. I’d love to hear your ideas!
