I started a new quilt last month at my guild’s Run Away Weekend!
I have always loved these wild prints by Keiffe Fasset and others, but I really didn’t know how I would use them. I bought the prints at the Franklin Mill Store in Franklin MA. The magic carpet quilt idea was one I had a while ago, and I love the way these prints work really well for this pattern. The large lemon shaped leaves (instructions for cutting these are on the template instruction sheet) are made with the large side of the Grande template. The fabrics are all pre-fused with Mistyfuse before cutting. They are arranged on the purple background fabric in straight rows marked with the Quilter’s chalk line. What an easy quilt!
I am playing with a few new threads to work out the satin stitch along the edge of the leaves. Cathy Racine at Charlton sewing Center is a sewing machine and thread expert. She recommended this Hemminworth thread. It is Polyselect 40 weight and I am using it in my top and bobbin thread. I started with a very tight satin stitch, but soon realized that I was making all my edges fray as I ran the quilt back and forth through my Elna Excellence 740. So, I switched to a narrow zig zag at 2.2width and 2.8 length. I am working on sewing all the rows with a loose zig-zag to nail down the edges, then I will go back and do the slow, boring satin stitch over the zig-zag. The sheen on this thread is wonderful!
The satin stitch requires a stabilizer, otherwise I get stretching and tunneling, even with a fairly narrow stitch. The fusible is so soft, it does not act as a stabilizer along the edge of the fused pieces. I tried using parchment paper to stabilize the stitching, but that didn’t work very well. The parchment tore too easily, and bits of paper were coming to the surface and getting stuck in the satin stitch. Also, my stitches were out of balance on the back. Using OESD (professional quality tear away, lightweight) I got a much better result.
I will be at MQX this week, so stop in and say hello if you want to see me or Magic Carpet Ride in person!
Why I love to teach
My friend Penny has never made a quilt. In fact she doesn’t sew at all. Because she helps me in my booth at shows, I think it is important that she has a quilting experience. So we are making this quilt as her very first quilt! We found this antique quilt while we were on the road in California for a show. Penny and I both spotted the quilt, and loved it’s soft homey feel. I bought it for myself as a birthday gift (we were antique shopping on my birthday!), but I knew it would be the perfect quilt to get Penny hooked on quilting. I’ll let you know how that goes!
Last week, I lectured for the Concord Piecemakers in West Concord MA. There, I met the most wonderful quilters! One of these quilters, Diane is also a blogger who specializes in Paper Crafting. When I visited her site I had one of these “WOW” moments. Don’t worry, I am not suddenly going to start scrap booking instead of quilting! BUT, I love her motto, a little crafting every day and I know I can incorporate that into my quilting! Diane was kind enough to take photos during the lecture and you can see her blog about my lecture here. http://www.capadiadesign.com/2012/04/sue-pelland-leaves-galore-quilting.htm
So if you are ready to put a little applique into your life every day, come quilt with me! You can ask your guild to have me in for a lecture or class, or you can take a class with me at the World Quilt Show in Manchester NH in August. http://www.quiltfest.com/activities.asp?id=18H
Happy Applique!