Applique Group

The first Wednesday of the month I meet with a group of ladies at one of the quilt shops in town. There are eight of us plus our fabulous facilitator. We have a great time together and I wanted to show you some pictures of their works. We are all working on the same pattern but making something different. Some are making wall hangings, some are making table toppers, and some are making a tree skirts.
Here are two more pictures. The one with nine blocks is all wool and the other one with four blocks is wool on fabric.

I will show you more tomorrow. Until then...
With Passion, Carrie P.

Great invention and guild meeting

I just finished getting my dinner ready for tonight. It is in the crock pot. I think the crock pot is one of the greatest inventions since the wheel. It is such a time saver and there is always leftovers that I can put in my husband's lunch to take to work. Saving money andmore time for quilting and blogging! What could be better than that.

I am a member of two quilt guilds in our area. One meets the first Monday of the month. The other meets the second Monday of the month. Last night our guest speaker was Mary Stori. She loves to embellish her small quilts with beads. She had some beautiful work. I have done some beading on one wallhanging that I made several years ago.


One of the members of the guild decided it was time to get rid of some of her books and magazines. Guess what I was looking for? Applique of course. Look at these books. I got them all for $11.00. What a deal!!<



I am so excited about the book by Barbara Brackman. I have been wanting this book for a long time. It is just black and white drawings but I can get so many ideas for my own quilts from these pages. It is going to be fun to really study the pages.

I thought I would share a Punchneedle project I finished. Isn't it cute? It is mounted on an Altoid box so you can imagine how small it is.

As you can tell from my previous entries I like to share different applique patterns with you. What I really like to do is share the free ones.

When I find them I will share them. Here is one for fall. http://www.patchpieces.com/Applique.html

Katie is having a great giveaway. Tell her I sent you.

With Passion, Carrie P.

Gone To Long

I have had a busy last four days. I won't bore you with the details. Some traveling, shopping, cleaning, sewing and paying bills.

I got to work on my UFO on Sunday. I have some pictures to show some of the process. Before I go through those I thought I would just share some information about this technique that I have learned.

First, it is a great way to use up those strips of batting that you have left over from quilts that were not big enough to use all the batting.

Second, this technique is great for straight stitching with the walking foot. I did a lot of stopping and starting on the blocks. I felt like the blocks needed that kind of quilting as compared to free motion quilting.
Third, I had read but forgot as I was quilting that you do not want to quilt at least a half inch of the edge of the rows or blocks because that is where you will be sewing them together. I had to rip out some quilting. So once I get the quilt put together then I will go back and finish the quilting.

Overall I like this technique when I want to do the quilting myself.

This first picture is showing the batting trimmed to the edge of the row and the backing trimmed half an inch from the edge of the row.

This picture show the rows pinned together with one side of the batting. The batting is from the top side is pinned to the rows. When I sew the rows together I put the batting down on the feed dogs.

After the rows are sewn together the batting that was not sewn down is now trimmed so that the edges meet. After that, the I fold one side of the fabric down and then the other side on top of that. Fold under the edge of the fabric and hand stitch it closed. Then I will finish the quilting. I had a picture of the sides folded and pinned but you really could not see the fold because of the fabric pattern. So now I am sewing the backside rows together and then I will be ready for the binding. Yippee!! I will show it when is done. I have to have it done by next Monday night when my guild meets.

It has taken up a lot of my applique time but I have finished two of these blocks for my tree skirt. Now I need to make two more of these in reverse. This is wool applique so it goes pretty fast. It is just a matter of sitting down to stitch. ( I forgot the bird legs, oops. I'll show a picture later with legs)

Check out this web site for a free applique pattern. It is a very pretty quilt. http://www.rjrfabrics.com/patterns/download_pattern.cfm?psID=374

Check out this Halloween Baltimore style quilt. I just love the border idea. It is genius. http://www.honeybeefabrics.com/store/products/details/?product=BalHalBOM

Here is another very cute house quilt. Anne Sutton has the cutest patterns. I have several of her patterns. My brain is swirling with ideas for the cottage quilt. http://www.shabbyfabrics.com/store/products/details/?product=autumn+house+bom

With Passion, Carrie P.

Lots to Share

It is frosty and cold here this morning in North Carolina. No frost on any pumpkins around here. But frost on the my Oak Leaf hydrangea and the yard. The wind blew a lot of leaves on the ground during last few days. I picked the last of the grape tomatoes so they wouldn't get ruined. These came from plants that I did not even put in the ground which is always cool. One plant grew out of the crack in our patio. The plants I did spend money on did horribly this summer. Not sure why.

I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. I sent my mom a book on applique which I will show you all later, and she sent a bag that she made just for me. Isn't it pretty? My mom, her two sisters, and my grandma are all quilters. I guess quilting is in our blood.

A fellow friend and guild member has been reading my blog and she sent me this picture of her house quilt to share with you all. She, Mrs. Goodneedle, made and taught a BOM class using this pattern in 1993. It is a fun quilt. Check out her blog. Check out Darlene's blog for some fantastic applique on the Oct.28 entry. She has several applique UFOs and you can vote and let her know which quilt she should work on.

Okay now for some of my applique and some of the work of my students. If you read some of my profile you would have read that I teach applique classes. I teach at a local quilt shop a couple times a year. I usually have 2-5 students which is a good number to work with. Too many and I can't help them all. This past year I taught this quilt from http://www.appleblossomquilts.com/ It is called Buttons and Blooms. My version is the pink one done in the 30's fabrics and you might recognize the machine quilting. It is done by the same person who did my little flower quilt I showed earlier. The other two are from my students. The other three students haven't finished yet. It was a fun class and it is always fun to see what fabrics they choose.

Okay that is enough for today. I am having withdrawals. I need to go do some applique.

With Passion, Carrie P.

I just have to share these two patterns that I just ordered. I really want to get started on the Hearts and Hands pattern. (circles) I am going to be strong and try to get some other UFOs done first.

You might recall that I mentioned that the applique quilt that I showed yesterday was a free block on the internet. If you go to http://www.bdieges.com/ you will find some beautiful applique blocks each month. Sometimes it is not right at the beginning of the month that they are posted. I have not done any of her blocks but I have been collecting them because I really like her work.

I thought I would share a picture of the room where I sew. This is the view I have from my sewing machine. I am actually standing in the middle of the room and my sewing area is behind me. The picture would have been too dark if I would have stood where I sew. This room is over the whole length of our garage. It is great watching the trees change.

Here are two more of my fall decorations I forgot to show you. The little pumpkin wall hanging was made by a friend.

I am off to my quilting bee that meets every Wednesday and a charm exchange at a local quilt shop. Talk to you later.

With Passion, Carrie P.