Tuesday, September 6, 2016

A box tucked away

on a bottom shelf yielded a surprise for me.  I had totally forgotten about this quilt.  I remember I talked to Susan about maybe cutting it up into smaller sizes so it would be more manageable on the Mega Quilter and now I'm rather glad I didn't.
I have no idea where the pattern came from, but the whole thing is raw edge appliqué.  Butterflies and flowers on a background made up of 4 different fabrics.
 Even the backing was in the box.  A little short for the long arm, so I found a favourite fabric of mine and added 10" to what would become the top  of the backing.  I really didn't want that orange strip you can see.
                                      
I chose a pantograph from Anne Bright called Flutterbyes and made it big.  I don't recommend a newbie doing this quilt on a long arm.  Boy it was frustrating.   Well for me it was.  I have a few fold-overs but I'm not going to worry myself about it.  It was a learning session and I learned!

 You have to keep your fingers out of the way of the needle while trying to hold down a little tiny piece of fabric.  Paying attention was the order of the day.
I opted to use  "Heather" #939 King Tut Superior Thread for this one.  I had French Pastry OMNI-V all chosen and then changed my mind.  I did use the OMNI on the back though.
 It turned out well, even with the dragging over the very thick centre of the flower.  I have no idea how much fabric was there, but it was a lot and trying to hold it flat with a needle coming at me, was not my cup of tea.
And then it was time to bind.  I originally thought of just doing black but it really is hard on the eyes stitching it down.  My eyes anyway.
I trimmed away the backing and realized I had enough fabric to make a scrappy binding.  I stitched it all together and spent about an hour at the machine sewing it down.  Now I have something to take to stitch and chat on Friday.









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