OOAK.biz Blog

I’ve taken a break from my applique quilt to work on making a traditional style patchwork quilt. I had seen a picture of a blue and white quilt from the 1800’s online that I really loved the look of, unfortunately I can not find it now to offer a link to the site where I had found the quilt, but it was quite lovely done in white and a true blue material. If anyone knows of the quilt I might be meaning let me know please so I can locate it once again and link to it. Thanks!

Anyway, as for my recreation of the lovely quilt. I have decided to do a pink roses and cream with swirly-Q’s pattern.

This is a picture of the first finished block for the quilt with the side strip already sewn into position on the right side of the block.

Each block measures a finished size of 12″x12″ made up of 2.5″ squares of material.

I will make an eBook tutorial on how to construct the quilt after I have finished construction on it.

This is the rough draft of what the finished quilt should look like, as I said, if anyone has seen this quilt anywhere online but in blue and white (and with about a six inch white border all around instead of the alternating blocks like I have here), please let me know where you saw it so I can link back to the quilt that inspired me. Thanks!

The tree is starting to look more like a tree here. I’m still quite pleased with how it is progressing.

I have included a picture below that shows a detail of where I am working right now, which is the end of the knot-work of branches above the yellow flower.

I have a situation there where this small branch is supposed to end up branching off the main branch, then curling over in front of it. I finally decided that the best way to achieve the look would be to cut he main branch where it goes behind the small offshoot branch. When I cut the section out I cut this section as one piece, then I gently curved the offshoot piece a bit more so it overlapped the piece that it was to go over the top of. These were cut in basically the same position they are now, but i added a small bit more curve to the branch over the main branch just to cover the seams.

The way it is here is only partially finished. I will come back and tuck the rest of the branch, cut out separately, behind the offshoot to look like it is a complete branch, then I will finish stitching down the offshoot branch. For now, I need to finish sewing the underside of the first segment of the main branch.

I’ve been busy with a bunch of things, including getting new front and back doors installed on the house, so I was not able to update things here for a bit, but, I did get some work done on the Tree of Life applique lap quilt. It is starting to look like a tree, isn’t it? Or at least like a tree in the middle of winter that had a nasty run-in with a chain saw.

I will say one thing about this – it could well be the last time I ever make a hand appliqued quilt for selling. I already know I can never sell this thing for the time invested in creating it.

I am quite happy with the fabric I picked for the trunk of the tree. It is a deep rusty red with black mottling, and so far the mottling as fallen quite a few times where there would be a natural shadow effect. I can’t wait to see the finished quilt and see just how the rusty fabric worked out overall.

I took a couple days off from working on the Tree of Life lap quilt, back to it this morning with about 3 hours work into it as of now. Last night I had finished the flower I was working on, getting the leaf sewn into place on it. This morning I am working on the trunk of the tree, getting it sewn into place.

You can see the finished flower in the lower right of this picture, taken shortly after I started sewing the trunk down. This was taken a few minutes before I realized I would go blind making blind stitches in such poor lighting, so I added another four of the bulbs back to the chandelier. You can see the difference in lighting between this picture and the next one – both taken in the same location with the same camera.

In this picture you can see where I have the full right side of the tree and the first branch sewn, so have started up the left side of the trunk. The pins are placed maybe half a inch apart along the line to hold the applique in place. The stitches are made at about 14 to 20 stitches, or more, per inch. Yeah, I believe in making sure that my applique won’t go anywhere. I used to make Barbie^® clothing when I played with Barbies^® as a kid. My mom commented one day when she was looking at a dress I had made that the stitches were tiny enough that the doll could have done the sewing herself.

I am currently working my way up the left side of the tree trunk. I gave up on using the hoop I had used for most of the flower, finding out as I worked on a small pillow cover that I preferred to work without a hoop on applique. Hoops are great for embroidery, but I can move the fabric much more freely without one when I work on applique.

I am also not using a freezer paper backing. Instead my template was fused to the surface of the material. Why? Because I don’t like the thought of having to cut the back out of the fabric to remove the paper. This quilt is intended to be a usable piece when it is finished. I want it to be as strong as possible so it will hold up to many years of being crushed into car trunks, crumpled on sofas and thrown through washers and dryers. There is no sense in making something like a quilt if it can not be used as a blanket. Right?

Here is the first applique flower for my quilt I am working on. I have not added the leaf yet, merely pinned it in place for the moment with the needle and a few small stitches I think I need to tug out and redo. Ah well, at least I can see a flower now.

I think I’ll keep going to the next part and keep working and come back once everything is done to work on the decorative embroidery to help foll out the look of the applique pieces.