Carolina Lily and trapunto quilts

Three rows sewn together ( the ugly seams between blocks won't show through once batting layer is in place behind )

Top three rows

Just a reminder - here is the Quiltmania pattern photo of the original quilt :

The original was quilted with wreaths in each of the plain blocks, and cross hatching elsewhere. I'm thinking this might be enhanced with some trapunto in the wreaths. 

I have done a little trapunto in the past. Here is my small sample quilt made in a machine trapunto class a few years ago with Deborah Louie:

I wanted to practise more at the time, so I thought I'd try in a wall quilt. I was very keen on "blended" quilts then (where piecing blends together) but unfortunately all the work of the trapunto doesn't exactly stand out on a blended quilt! It just ... blends.

The blended quilt hanging in my bedroom

 Here are some photos of the quilt in better light that shows the trapunto quilted floral chains:

All that trapunto makes for a rather stiff board of a quilt - nothing cuddly about this one! But it is fine as a wall hanging.

The back of the quilt

That was machine trapunto. A good demonstration of this method is shown in Kathy Wylie's blog. It is a very different process to hand trapunto.

If I was to do machine trapunto on my Carolina Lily quilt I'd need do the first quilting/batting stage now, before the quilt is sandwiched together. Then I'd have to machine quilt all the wreaths again in the second quilting stage, once it was all sandwiched. Sounds like a lot of machine quilting..... ?

So I considered hand trapunto  - have never done this but think it looks lovely. I had a look at Tim Latimer's hand trapunto video - a great demo.  I might do this -  hand threading the yarn into the back of the quilt (on the wreaths) once the machine quilting is finished. The advantage is less time at the machine (which I don't enjoy much) and more time sitting with handwork (which I do enjoy much)! You can also control how much stuffing is used - I don't want it too stiff this time.

Ideally I would hand quilt the whole thing but my arthritis does not allow that. Hopefully it will cooperate with the trapunto yarn threading :)

Back to make more Carolina Lily blocks now.....

Baltimore Album block 23

One of my favourite blocks - and made with one of my favourite greens - so all good fun to make! I am not a "hearts" girl so I made the hearts green in this block to make them less of  a feature.

I did the whole block using my usual back-basting and normal needleturn applique. But I have just read on Repro Quilt Lover blog that parts of this particular block might be easier done in reverse needleturn applique and I can see that. The narrow parts on the petals could more easily be made very narrow that way I think. Interesting....

I have experimented (rather randomly!) with reverse applique in parts of my Baltimore Album. Thought it might aid with layering and add some depth - centres of buds etc - and found it very useful. It combines well with back-basting but adds an extra step. You first back-baste the under layer in place, and then the top layer, prior to reverse applique.

I feel a bit nervous showing such close-ups of my applique - could have taken a wee bit more care with stitches and thread colour but never mind! These are all closeups of different earlier finished blocks.

the pink centres in bud are reverse appliqued

pink in petal area is reverse applique

reverse applique yellow in centre of  knot and in curved bows, but not on wider ribbon ends

 

Do have a look at the blog I mentioned because Taryn shows her beautiful block there - looks wonderful quilted!

I've now finished 5 blocks of my Carolina Lily quilt and still going strong...

Little hexagon purse

Little Hexagon Purse ( Brigitte Giblin pattern) in Smithsonian green fabrics is finished and I have to say I think it is pretty cute! I don't think I'll bother with a chain or ribbon. It will be a handy clutch to transport small bits of sewing and a chain might be a nuisance.  

Lined in cream linen

That's it - short and sweet today.

                                             Happy sewing!

Lots of yellow and green

My Carolina Lily quilt has become a production line  - lily flowers at various construction stages

Pile of bias stem, and lots of English paper piecing

a few finished blocks

Meanwhile, I may have contracted yellow-and-greenitis (I am sure there is such a thing) ... because I couldn't resist starting another little yellow and green project. Some time ago I got the pattern/hardware for Brigitte Giblin's Little Hexagon Purse.

The bag pattern and some of the hexagons I cut out

I have long had a much-treasured little (really little) collection of Smithsonian yellow and greens. Then I recently topped these up with a lovely purchase from Sherri. At about the same time ( lovely coincidence ) Kathie very kindly helped me out with some green that I had run out of for my Baltimore Album quilt. I can spare a very tiny bit of that. So now my collection looked like this:

Smithsonian greens and yellows

It seemed just the right project to use these fabrics - and as they are all only small pieces it needed a small project. The purse will be made entirely of half inch English paper pieced hexagons. Here is one side completed:

Now it seems I am working on three EPP projects at once - can't have too much of a good thing?! There are stars ( Mary Leggett's star bouquet quilt), the Carolina Lily and the Hexagon purse. 

Just to show the comparative sizes of the project pieces...

There has been quite a lot of yellow and green in the garden too!

Golden Ash

Happy Mother's Day for tomorrow :)