APPLIQUE PAINTBOX-I LOVE APPLIQUE

A HOME, AN OWL, AND A RAINY DAY!

Chuck Nohara has several pages of houses in her book 2001 Nouveaux Blocs de Patchwork all of which are either interesting, charming or unique.  So I knew I had to make a house.  I began riffing off her houses and then remembered this novelty fabric with 3 little girls in a charming tableau.  So once I realized they would fit in a 6 inch block, I designed the house around them and gave them a cat for their window ledge, pink gingham curtains, and a chimney for their fireplace.  Do you like it?

Here is another block inspired by Chuck's blocks but as a starting point from which I strayed far afield.  Chuck has several owls but I felt I needed to go further and here is where I ended.

I saw a photo of an owl with a moon behind it and thought what a perfect setting.  I made the moon larger, added a winter tree and perched the owl there.  The owl is made from Chez Moi fabric from Mimi.  This fabric was one of those which used the same colors but printed them in many different designs so it was so cheerful with lots of variations.  Both the owl and the house were labor intensive pieces of work.

There were several motives I wanted to be in the quilt-hot air balloon, boats, fishes, bees, beaches, villages, birds etc.  One of these motives was umbrellas.  I love umbrellas and the rainy days they signify.  Having worked on several ideas, this is what came to me:

This block captures the rain, the introspection of a rainy day, and a young girl protected by her umbrella.

SO........withdrawal....only 4 more blocks to go.  How can you leave me now Chuck-our time together has been so meaningful to me. If it had not been for Chuck, I would still be making Stonefields repeats and not gone on this flight of fancy.   However, as I told you last week, I have laid out plans so I will not be a total wreck.

Now that the main part of Chuck, Susan, and Me is one inch from the finish line, I have been giving more thought to the layout.  Since the body of the quilt is so complex with 143 different designs, the border should be simple.  I was thinking of putting a one inch border between each of the blocks but have decided against that.  I will stitch them all one next to another.  I will lay all of them out on the floor of one of my empty-nester bedrooms to decide where they should be placed.  In terms of the finished quilt, these 143 blocks will cover the top of the bed.

Now the border which will be the part of the quilt which falls to the floor.......I have given this lots of thought and decided simplicity is best.  Look what I found on ebay:

The piece is wof by 68 inches.  This fabric is Pom Pom de Paris by French General last made in 2011, one of the main fabric lines in this quilt, and very, very scarce.  I will cut it in stripes so the border will consist of a 7.5 inch of the above with Kona cotton matching the yellow.....well, you will see more later.  But I am so pleased i found this.  It came with a matching 10" layer cake which I will resell on ebay.

~~~~~~~~

I have been doing my homework ie free motion quilting practice.  

With each practice piece I learn more.  Some of this was quilted in heavier 40 wt thread.  The pretty parts are all 100wt which is so much nicer.  On the back of each practice piece is noted the type of batting, thread, and needle used.  This piece is one layer of warm and natural.  This is what I mean by learning-the last piece was way overstuffed-I thought the quilting would stand out more-wrong!

The practice pattern is cloned directly from one of LuAnn Kessi's great doodles for the most part-I added one different fill but the fun and creative layout is hers.

I used a new for me product to etch out the pattern on the practice piece-Frixion pen.  These work great-the ink flows easily and the pattern really shows up. The inking disappears under a hot iron-poof! HOWEVER, when the piece was placed in the refrigerator for a while-all the marks came back.  So....good for practice, not good for the real thing.  We have to stick with chalk or blue pens.

~~~~~~~

Applique Paintbox was visited by 5 new countries this week from diverse parts of the globe.  My wonderful visitors were from Israel, Bulgaria, China, Albania, and the Czech Republic.  That is so great-I wish they would leave a comment and a link so I could see their work.  Flags have been added to the growing international lineup.

~~~~~~~

Lastly, here is Blossom asking me if the kitty in the house block window ledge is her beautiful self.  Which it is.

See you next week and in the meantime check out the community links to see what your fellow quilters and designers are up to.

Happy Quilting!