OOAK.biz Blog

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?