The bird quilt

There are so many wonderful bird patterns on Pinterest, but this one from Quilt Today was the winner for me.

The Bird Block a free pattern from Quilt Today on Bloglovin' September 26, 2020, and found on Pinterest.

The pattern was clear and easy to work on, and so cute!

Playing with the layout.  

My quilt finished at approximately 52" X 64".

Free motion quilting in light yellow with a leaf pattern done on my domestic machine.

I had lots of fun collecting fabrics for this charming throw. Most of the fabrics for the birds were from the remnant bins or grab bags at various quilt shops.  The backing fabric was my favorite find! This cute fabric from Moda was perfect and tied everything together.

Finished and on display in my family room.

Well I misplaced my embroidery needle so I'm off with my magnet to find it. Hopefully not in my foot!

Have a great day everyone!

MaryEllen

Water Lily

Kayaking is a favorite activity at the lake and this piece is inspired by the wonderful plant life in the backwater areas of beautiful Minnesota.

This piece has taken me a while to finish.  I had lots of starts and stops as the piece just seemed to need time to develop.  I would work on something, finish that idea and then I would  need to step back and wait for inspiration on how to go on.

Step one was hand coloring this wonderful vintage napkin.  I have had a set of these vintage water lily napkins. When I found them they seemed to be a work in progress. Some had the cutwork areas still intact while others had various amounts of the cutwork finished. I used both a finished and unfinished napkin in the final piece. You can see the difference in the above photo (an unfinished napkin)  and the detailed photo below which shows some of the cutwork in place.

 I'm not sure where I picked these napkins up but I've always loved them. The napkins were a cream color and I spent some time playing with changing the color.  I wanted a more sepia/aged look while retaining an organic nature.

Most of the color work was done with Tsukineko Inks.  Different types of accent marks were also used.

I also took some time cutting off the stems and small leaves.

The next step was to stitch the napkin to a backing fabric and then thread paint like crazy. 

 Back

When I finished thread painting the flower I free motion quilted the sides and turned under the edges to make a finished knife edge.

 

I reinforced the edges to give them a crisp fold.  My hope was that the addition of this extra interfacing would help keep the corners extra firm.

I used inks and markers to add shading, and pop to various areas.

And then the embroidery and beadwork began.

The piece is beaded with several types and sizes of beads.

Algae was made with confetti patches.

Stems were made using twists of fabric.

I also added a string of "knotting" along the edges.  

Because I wanted the piece to hang in the on-point perspective I wanted to add the piece to a base.

I experimented with several options before settling on a linen toweling fabric.

I made a quilt sandwich with linen toweling, batting and cotton backing. I free motioned quilted this in a design I hoped would reference wood grain.  To the corners I added dark napkin pieces, these were from a second napkin. After I colored the napkin I needed to cut it into quarters to fit under the top piece.

The binding was done on a curve.  Batting is  80/20. Finished size: 26.25" X  26.25", 80/20 batting.

According to the Department of Natural Resources for Minnesota The White Water Lily (Nymphaea odorata) which grows in mucky low water areas is important to the natural balance as it is an excellent habitat for fish and the seeds are eaten by waterfowl.  Management questions should be addressed to the DNR.

I really love how it all turned out.  I hope you enjoyed hearing about my journey to finish Water Lily.

Have a great day!

MaryEllen 

Scrap Quilt

 

Another quick scrap quilt.  This one was constructed with scrap blocks I've been working on between other projects.

As I've mentioned in other posts I always keep a bag for scraps under my sewing table.  As I'm working on other projects I toss all my scraps in the bag.

When the bag starts to overflow I sort through it, and most of it will head to scrap bits for blocks.

I'll work on these blocks when I'm in a creative slump or only have a short time to work on something.

The blocks get ironed and tossed in a new box.  Again when I'm free I'll work on making them bigger or working on a layout to make them into a quilt.

For this quilt I used a gray fabric as a grounding border to link all my wild and colorful blocks together.

I think the finished quilt is really playful and I hope some young child enjoys it.

Finished size: 52" X 45", flannel backing, 80/20 batting.

Thanks for dropping in.

Have a great day,

MaryEllen