Elise Boivin-Ford recently wrote: “I finished my very first applique. It took me forever because I always have many projects on the go but I’m rather pleased with it. Thank you for your precious help!”
Well done, Elise!
She moved on to English paper piecing to make this pouch and wrote: “I found the pattern in the book “Patchwork & Appliqué Pas à Pas” by Murushak Volkova (the book is in French but I think the author is Russian, so it may be a translation). Once again, your videos have been very helpful. Thank you.”
I like Elise’s approach, trying new techniques on smaller projects. It gives you a chance to see if you like the technique before investing too much time and money to make something big. Elise, thank you for sharing!
I just had to share this with you. I know you will get a kick out of it!!
So to backup…tonight is our quilt club meeting and we are having a hands-on demo, how-to EPP project. We will be somehow making ❤️ Hearts!! What paper shape it is, beats me. EPP is new to me, but I picked up a little kit and made a “Dilly” bag. It’s super cute. Hexagons. I think I may be hooked. Another skill, right?
Anyway, everyone that attends the meeting will get a little packet (to make a ❤️??) and if we want to participate in a gift exchange we can, but it has to have a ❤️ on it. I want to join in but it had to be quick and easy. (Because I just got home from Florida). I also wanted it to be useful but not another mug-rug.
Enter the chicken pincushion from your last post. I love pincushions, can’t have too many of them (unlike mug-rugs😝)!! So I decided to give it a shot and put a ❤️ on her/his chest. Turned out so darn cute.
I may have to make one for myself. For sure if my friend Chris Peterson doesn’t get it tonight in the drawing. She loves chickens, has her sewing room decorated with chickens. She made a rooster quilt. And I think she has a metal nesting box outside that she displays plants/flower pots on her patio. She’s a MN farm girl just like most of us and proud of it. Lives in town, so this is next best thing.
But wait! There’s more!
Yay!! Chris got the chicken and she loved it. It will go with her menagerie of chickens 🐓. 😝
Another funny (jokes-on-me thing) that happened while I was assembling the chicken was I sewed up the wrong side 😑 (across from the beak, same side as beak 🤷♀️??). They are small, so hard to see what side is what (can I think of any more excuses🤔), mine were 3” squares. Nice size.
In any case, when I unfurled the chicken, the tail ended up under her chin (beak) and instead of a tail it looked chicken legs!!😝😂
There you go, a new twist on the pattern. Add 2 strips of wool with a knot at each end for funny legs/feet!! Could be cute or weird!! Maybe I’ll try one for real for myself. (Or my sister in Atlanta, she’s a chicken person. She wants the real chickens to feed/water clean up after!! Not me. I’m done with that; pincushions are better!!)
So that’s my chicken report.
I will make a couple more for friends Jackie & Vicky for our retreat “up Nort” as they say.
Happy stitches to you,
Joan
Many thanks to you, Joan, for sharing the story of your chicken! And may you, too, have many happy stitches!
I bought the pattern shortly after it came out and then set it aside. When we were having some remodeling done in 2013 and I was relegated to the upstairs, I decided to unearth the pattern and fabric I’d picked out earlier and started to sew. I made the signature block first (next time I’ll make it last), and worked on the baskets every single day while the crew was downstairs sawing, pounding and painting. It kept me sane. I’d been doing needle turn appliqué for a long time, but this is the first project that I made using laminated templates and vinyl overlays. I loved it!
I worked on Fresh Picked Posies long after the remodeling was done, in-between other projects and it was my pick up and go retreat project, which was great because I didn’t have to pack a sewing machine. I finally finished the top, had it quilted and showed the quilt last spring in the Quilter’s Anonymous quilt show in Seattle. That show got me connected with the Garden of Quilts people in Lehi UT, who invited me to teach. I taught… and Fresh Picked Posies, along with 3 of my other quilts, was hung in the Garden of Quilts show at Ashton Botanical Gardens.
Sue Lynch wrote to say “Love your designs so I will share my wonderful whimsical garden with you!” Thank you, Sue, for sharing your lovely quilt. The brown backgrounds always remind me of chocolate and who doesn’t love chocolate!
I am recovering some very old chairs that belonged to my grandmother, then my aunt and uncle. After they floated down the Guadalupe River in a flood, my aunt and uncle, then in their late 80’s gave them to me. I am finally recovering the chairs. I was amazed to find that the padding in the chairs were an old quilt that had been cut up. Hand pieced and hand quilted I might add. I would guess my grandmother did this. She was a quilter. I remember her frame that hung from the ceiling. She loved bright colors, red especially. I would have been pretty proud to have made this quilt with none of the points cut off!
The red fabric looks worn, like it was washed and used a lot. The quilt could also have been stained before being cut up and used in the chair seat. I think this shows that Marty’s grandmother was a frugal and practical woman :-).
Piece O Cake Blog 