Dogwood Blossom Quilt Weekend

I am finally back to work, 5 days off in a row.  On the downside, it took my Doctor's orders to get me to stay home and out of the water and out of the sun (no tub baths, no tampons, no sex and no swimming----yes it was that kind of surgery).  On the upside, I was able to spend the entire time sewing at home.

Here is my version of the Penny Sampler Camp Dogwood Blossom Quilt....this is the halfway point with the petals, I am making a queen size version and there are 120 separate applique petals in my quilt.  In this shot I had finished pinking and turning 60 petals and had 60 more to turn inside out. The pinking blade made quick work of the pinking parts!

I love this sew and turn applique method, it lends itself to really strong shape definition....nothing wishy washy about my dogwood applique!

When it came to getting the petals onto the background fabric, I made a template on my pressing board.  Just a little painter's tape and a black marker that would show through the background fabric.

The inner markings were for the stabilizer square, I put the stabilizer down first, then the background fabric and pressed with the iron to fuse the two together.  This way I didn't have to horse around with measuring every time.  I then used a marking pencil to trace the X marking the center of the block so that I could place my petals and glue baste them to the blocks.

This worked really well, saved lots of time not having to measure each and every block.  If I were using an opaque background fabric, I would have put tick marks on the outer strips of tape....and then just connect the dots with my ruler.

I soon had a good sized stack of basted petals and could begin the sketch stitching that holds the petals in place.

With the white background and Tilly's obvious sense of feline entitlement, I am glad these will be nice and secure through multiple laundry cycles!

Tilly obviously thought the sashing fabric was hers too....I do not recommend swishing cat tails for any part of quilting, especially not when cutting.  I swear the true color of this sashing fabric is not that "electric."

It's Kaufman Essex Linen, in hot pink.  I have two 2 yard pieces, hopefully I will have enough to finish out the borders on the quilt and have a little bit of sashing for some pillow shams.  In for a penny, in for a pound right?

OK then....now it's time to make a quilt top!  Hopefully I will have the top all sewn up tonight and start working on the back, get that out of the way and get some  Penny Sampler heart blocks done too!!

Little bit of sewing going on

Ok, so I finished a bag, it turned out to be a gigantic bag....I was hoping for XL and I ended up with XXL.  There are worse problems, I guess.  I used this pattern, and wasn't really paying attention to the sizing....afterall, the video of the cute model strolling through the city wearing the bag didn't seem like an Amazon.....but if she was carrying a bag the size of my bag, she would have to be over 6'5". 

I apologize for the horrible lighting in the background....sun was going down and it was incredibly bright.  It works great as a weekender kind of bag.....it even holds my 17+" laptop with ease.  I need to shorten the strap a little so that it will be more comfortable to lug around when full.

I have been working on my first quilt top for a while now.....at first it was to be an Elizabeth Hartman Mixtape quilt, well....one thing let to another and I started cutting up my "tapes."  I like the new version ever so much better.  Nothing quite like drastically modifying a pattern for my first quilt.  So now I am trying to decide how to alternate the strips so I can get going and finish this baby.

Luckily I was staying in a lovely home with a big dining room table to spread this out for a week to mess around with the orientation of the strips.  My teeny apartment does not allow me this luxury.  I really need to look into creating a design board so I can go vertical with this stuff.