Thursday, June 2, 2011

Hand Applique & Quilting Is Alive & Thriving!

I run into more people (non-quilters) who tell me that hand quilting is a lost art, once I've told them that I am a quilter.  I gently educate them by saying that it is indeed thriving.  Quilting is all over & yet there is a great population who do not have any idea that it is still quite popular.  In any case, I am proud to have finished my hand applique quilt that took me five years to complete.  It began with a Cockscomb & Currants pattern from my EQ5 software.  The original plan looked like this picture below.

I started the hand applique process in 2005, during my once per quarter trips back to US, from Mexico City, Mexico, to visit family.  By Dec. 2007,  I felt encouraged to have a center that was stitched together.    I had only printed the EQ5 single block pattern at this point so, now what to do next?  The originally planned pattern was not a challenge for me.


I decided to sew half square triangles around the center block.  Then I decided the border had to be a vine that went all the way around.  Not so simple to just magically draw because I would have to measure, draw a preliminary draft then, adjustments then, the templates.  Long story short, I finally brought it together.  Another couple of years later, I finally hand quilted it & showed it at my local guild.  I haven't been able to part with it. I worked so hard on it that I don't want to release it from my sight.  I thought that I would share it here on my blog instead, at least for now.  Below are photos of the finished quilt.  As you can see, it turned out differently from the original EQ5 quilt that I planned initially.

I appliqued quite a few butterflies & what seemed like many, many, many berries.  I also outlined the butterflies with black embroidery thread & embroidered  small sections of some of the butterflies.  This made them stand out so much better.  I'm so glad I did this.




Sigh........Guess what?  I have another one started.   I have to remind myself about enjoying the process with this type of project. 


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