I’ve been playing with those little fusible flowers from the Stencil “Flowers 20” by Terri Stegmiller. This piece is a pale pink fabric… and bit of a change for me, as I don’t often gravitate toward those soft, pale, {but very beautiful} pastels in my quilting. These little flowers, though, just seemed to belong there.
After printing through the stencil onto fabric, I ironed to set the dye, fused the entire piece of fabric, and then cut the flowers out; fusing them onto the quilt top, and then appliqueing them free motion style, to the quilt sandwich. Free motion applique is quick! Easy! and … more FUN. Of course, you could also choose a decorative stitch to accent the edges of those cute flowers…
I added extra motifs, painting them directly to the fabric, with Jacquard Lumiere paints, such as the leaves and berries you see that are painted on.
This time it’s Basic Grey’s pink grunge fabric instead of aqua…
After quilting, and adding the binding, each flower was beaded with at trio of silver beads. I like to trim and square up my pieces after quilting, and add the binding because if I bead them first, it’s nearly impossible to get an accurate cut, as the beads get in the way of being able to lay the ruler flat against the edges by that time. So all my quilting, and even the binding, is added and finished when I start my beading {by machine} process.
This quilt also features words in a soft variegated pink thread: “plant your hope… nurture faith… in Christ… sprout… renew. Perfect for Easter, too.
It’s 7.5″ wide x 33.25″ long, and for sale in my Etsy shop.
I chose a variegated thread, in pretty colors of brighter pinks, blue, and greens to accent the flowers, and ‘bring them to life.’ This is a 40 weight tri-lobal polyester on top, and 50 weight Masterpiece 100% ELS cotton on the bottom. Here’s a picture of the back of this piece, which shows the thread tension, and also how it looks after beading, which I do by machine, {without a foot}.
These are tips I share when I teach class {and often here on the blog}. I own a Bernina sewing machine, and these two threads just play super well together! Want to know more? SEE MORE about thread play, tension, and needles, in a post I wrote: Learning the Thread Tango! Just a little fun I had with a “dancing with the stars” theme… I hope you’ll take a few minutes, to … well, take it in!
I try to be really particular about {always} tying off, neatly; clipping threads. That way, there won’t nasty ‘thread nests” on the back. If you look closely at the thread tension in the picture, you can see that the top thread shows a little bit on the back ~ that is exactly how it should be. I do NOT want to see the thread from the bobbin on the TOP of my quilt. {no no no!}
EnJOY your day
Comments 9
Went from here and browsed back through your blog – some stunning work. I have become a new follower 🙂
So pretty and I love that idea for the flowers
this is so pretty, leslie. and i was thinking as looking and reading through how wonderful it would be for Easter! 🙂
Love this runner! The beading is beautiful, but it's the embroidery that really catches my eye. Your choice of words is perfect – lovely, encouraging, and just right for spring time.
Very pretty piece Leslie! You did a great job. How you do your beads? I once saw it done on Simply Quilts by just sewing through the hole and over the side. Is that how you do it?
Have you been reading my mind? Your mention of your previous post–"Learning the Thread Tango–is timely. Just yesterday, I Googled about thread tension. I was never taught to sew so I'm always teaching myself. (Okay ,I lied–one Home Ec class in the 60's that I don't remember!) Anyway, I just read your Thread Tango post and it's awesome! It will come in handy. Thanks for mentioning it!
Big Hugs,
D~~~~
This is just lovely, Les. I also like that wee bit of contrasting cross hatching that I see in that last photo. Great!
I love how you use the stencil motifs as applique pieces. So clever! This is a lovely piece Leslie!
I have just started reading your blog too and your work is absolutely beautiful!
Just started reading your blog thanks to the Stencil Giveaway. These spring pieces are simply lovely!! Thanks for sharing them