Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Wild Roses Wallhanging & You!

Hmmmmm.....is "wallhanging" one word or two? SpellCheck seems confused about that issue.
I like it as one word.
If you left a comment here in October, your name was in a drawing for this wallhanging. But if you prefer, you may have won this "wall hanging":
The winner, one of Patchwork Pie's readers who lives in a tropical setting, may appreciate this is a Canadian pattern called Wild Roses (batik). It is Quilt Pattern #3996-1, designed by Castilleja Cotton, 6411 Coach Hill Rd. SW, Calgary, Alta. Canada, T3H 1B4.
Web page: http://www.castillejacotton.com/

The runner-up is getting the pattern, because she admired it so much.
For you fans of copyright law, it is OK to give away the entire pattern.
It would not be OK for me to make a copy for myself to keep!

I love patterns like this with simple pieces (and fusible, too!). They give you a good place to start off for creative expression. There is so much I could have done with these Wild Roses, but chose to spend less time on this one.

What I did do was make some 3-D centers with gold embroidery floss, and also outlined where the petals touch so they would show up better. For that I used a darker value of the thread color, in the bobbin & on top.
Which shows up like this on the back:

Yes, it is true I don't care that much about the back. I will always care more about the front.
You can see the leaf shapes, but the thread actually just melts into that backing fabric, and would have been quite nice if I had not gone over the inside petals!
The pink is showing because it's a different color and has multiple rows to make a heavier line.

If the background fabric (on the front) had been more of a solid, I think it would have looked great quilted with the shape of the leaves.
Repeating a pattern shape (pieced or appliqued) is always a good starting-off point for deciding a quilting pattern.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I'd like to know what you're thinking about and working on, quilt-wise. It's easy to leave a comment ...
at the bottom of this post, just click on the word "comments" and a window will pop up for you to write in.
Then type the funny puzzle-like word in the box...it proves you are Human (as opposed to a Spammin' Robot) so that's a good thing, as Martha would say.
If you don't want to use the comment section, please feel free to e-mail me at sunsky @comcast.net
Yes, I left a space in my address so the "spammin' robots" wouldn't send me messages about drugs for body parts I do not have!



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am working on a "Mile-A-Minute" quilt out of my scrap basket. Except that at my pace, it's more like a "Mile-An-Hour" quilt!

I started it at a recent guild retreat, because I was recently back from a trip and wanted something "mindless" to work on. It was fun. Got lots of compliments on my scrap basket, and in an impetuous moment of generosity, I invited everyone there to take what they wanted. Hey, scraps are infinite, right?

Woo! It was fun, but my scrap basket is decimated -- I'm down to my own dregs. No regrets, but there's another retreat coming up, and the scrap basket just doesn't seem to have the same charisma that it did before. But I am a resourceful woman: Before departing, I plan to cut strips of fabric willy nilly and in no particular order from my stash. I mean, what am I saving all that yardage and all those fat quarters for, if not to use in a quilt!

I just spend the last hour and a half separating the sheep from the goats, or rather, the strips from the chunks in the basket, because I'm now at the point where I need strips as my "block seeds" have grown.

It was interesting to go through all the scraps methodically. Memories of quilts past, and learning some things about myself. J. is right: There really is a great dearth of green in my palatte!

E.

Sunnie said...

Thanks, E.! Nothing I like better than scrap basket talk! I will try to bring you some green as a scrap donation.
(if I am lucky, I may even get a photo of the Mysterious Ms. E's scrap basket...though not, of coures, Ms. E herself.)

Pat said...

Say hi to everyone on the Retreat! I hope y'all have some great fun & good food this weekend and even get some work in. Anxious to see blogging right from the retreat.

Let's see what's left of E's scraps. Maybe others will feel sorry for you E and give you more scraps! LOL

Pat

Anonymous said...

Ms. E, you are welcome to some of my scraps! I am using your scraps in a special project for a good friend, and I know she'll appreciate your taste in fabric.

I hope you gals are enjoying retreat, and that Sunnie can get a post out to us soon.

S

Pat said...

Ahhh, this is late these days for me to be online. I thought I'd check in with Patchwork Pie before I turn off the computer.

Think Sunnie might be having too much fun with the group to get the time to blog!

Been sewing a Christmas shopping bag that I designed in EQ6 and will be putting online on my blog as a tutorial. Gotta make sure all the designed sections fit together the way they are supposed to!

S, what are you working on?

Anonymous said...

Pat,

As usual I'm working on lots of things at once. Quilting a 1-2-3 Celtic Chain, adding borders to a diamond-block top, sandwiching a wallhanging, piecing a second wallhanging. That's just the top of the pile LOL.

S