KastleKitty

Highmtn, Your work is beautiful! I think you did an excellent job! I love yo-yos. Thanks for posting the pics! They are wonderful! Most of my work is small, 9X12 or there about. I have not been quilting very long and have never done a bedquilt yet. I do small pieces because they are easy for me to handle, that is why most of my work is applique, hand embroidery, and embellishment, but I love the sewing machine and mix hand with machine all the time. I work these small patches into bags, pillows, anything I can think of. Right now I am working on the fern, but instead of making it into a bag, I am going to put it on a needlebook. There have been so many beautiful examples online.

A few years back when I got interested in quilting, I searched around on the Net and came across something that urged developing a pattern of working everyday. What they said was to make a notebook in a sense, pages of 9X12, and work on one everyday. I cannot keep up with that. But, I did start one after the other, whenever I could. To use them I made bags, pillows, whatever small item I could imagine them to be. These pictures I posted in this thread are some of them. The point of the article was to show you how you can increase your creative talent, even if you think you don't have it in you. Many people give up without trying because they see something and think they don't have the skills to be "so creative". I look at stuff all the time and am intimidated by it. I guess the exercise is a way of getting over that intimidation and starting to make the creative juices flow!

Whatever I have done in quilting I have learned on my own, meaning reading things online, such as this board, watching videos, tutorials, articles, books, looking at pictures, etc.. I have learned a whole heck of a lot on this board alone! It is amazing to me! There are no classes in the local area that I have ever heard about. It seems it would be fun to gather with some other people who have the same interests and work on things together. Sort of the old fashioned quilting bee idea.

I also do not have a machine that does FMQ. Mine is set up to do straight lines, with an attachment bar to keep you going straight and even. I can move the feed dogs down though, but since my machine is 35 years old, I am having problems finding information about it. I see that women are just moving the fabric under the needle, but when I tried it, I got a very jerky angular looking line that I eventually tore back out. I am wondering if FMQ is possible on my machine and I just don't understand how to do it.

gramquilter2

Highmtm, I love your paintchip challenge project, our quilt group did that challenge too. Love the yo-yo's and the embellishment work you did. Your self-teaching is right on!

lodad

WOW!!WOW!!WOW!! beautiful work and beading. That takes a lot of good eye sight.

Thanks LOWELL ;) :)

KastleKitty

Here is the pattern for the fern. It can be used in the positive or the negative.

KastleKitty

These are the background fabrics that go behind the fern. I am not sure that they will come across proportionally, so it may be better to use the fern pattern itself and cut your own backing fabrics.

KastleKitty

I copied the fern onto freezer paper so I could iron it onto fabric. This is an already used pattern which has been ironed onto fabric which already has fusible web ironed to it. That makes 3 layers, pattern on freezer paper, fabric, fusible web on backing.

KastleKitty

The outer edge of the fabric has been cut away.

KastleKitty

I used a curved exacto blade to cut the inner leaves away. Do this very carefully so you can use the inner leaves as a second block. A very small pair of scissors will work too. First use the exacto knife to start the cut so you can keep the inner leaf neat and tidy to use on your second block.

This can be a little time consuming and hard on the hand, but I like the results. I am waiting to see if Accuquilt comes out with a die of detailed leaf sets that can be done this way for applique. It would save a lot of time!

KastleKitty

Choose a piece of fabric for your second block, place the fern onto it and replace the tiny leaflets, after removing the backing from the LEAFLETS ONLY. This is important. Keep the backing on the large fern so it does not adhere to the background fabric when you iron the whole piece. When you carefully peel away the entire 3 layers of the large fern, you will have a second block or negative of your work which you can hand embroider. Work carefully cutting! Why throw away this second block by being careless when it makes a beautiful delicate looking applique. I would do handwork on it. I am not sure a machine can maneuver around the small leaves.

KastleKitty

This is the result of carefully cutting, removing the backing from only the tiny leaves, replacing them, then ironing them to the second backing fabric.