Friday, June 3, 2016

Something cheerful

Good golly, it's June.  How did *that* happen? (The older I get, the more I say that.  If I stop saying it, will I stop getting old?)  No big surprise--we are having another rainy day.  Not sure about this weather pattern, but here's the perfect cure for a gray day:

The only dry spots were actually on the massive tree!

How cheerful is that?  I made this from Connie's free Chinese Forget Me Not tutorial at her blog Freemotion by the River.  It happens that she posted this tutorial a few days after I purchased some orange and yellow batiks.  I loved the colors of my batiks, and Connie added the turquoise flowers and I was sold.  It's so pretty!  If that's not inspiration, I don't know what is.

Connie's tutorial is for an Accuquilt cutter, which I don't have, but it was easy enough to cut the pieces myself.  The tutorial is really clear and it was pretty easy.  I made the bias stems with my bias tape maker.  The flowers are raw edged and are made from a poinsettia template I found on the Internet. Did you know that you can just use a soft pencil and trace the pattern right from your screen?  It worked great!

I hope everyone noticed that this is actually quilted! To do that, I actually built the applique on top of the layered pieced top:


There is no fusible in this top.  I just stitched it all down right through the layers, which quilted it as I went.  The background has a simple meander that I actually did last, after all the applique was in place. This was not without problems:


Overall it worked out okay, though!  I am really pleased with the finished product.  It's so cheerful, and I love these two colors together (even though they seem to be strobing in the pictures).  The one thing that I might do is add buttons to the flower centers so that they stand out a little better.


Hope everyone has a wonderful--and dry--weekend.  We are going to the ballpark!  I hope the rain is finished by then!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and crazymomquilts, and  Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this! Very striking and so very fun! Off to check out that tutorial. Thanks!

Jen said...

What a beautiful quilt! So summery. :)

Kate @ Smiles From Kate said...

Oh it's so happy and smiley. I love batiks and although yellow and orange are not my favourite colours for quilting I love them in batiks, strange. Thank you for making me smile.
Kate

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

The bright background and turquoise flowers are perfect together, Mari! They look like just the antidote for a rainy day.

Unknown said...

I love your little quilt and the fabrics you chose. It's a happy one!

Sew Much For Free Time said...

Very Cheery! I love that pieced background. The colors are stunning and the turquoise is perfect. I might add a few crystal beads to the centers to give it a bit of shimmer. Seems to go with the feel of it. Just a thought. Enjoy your weekend!

Tami
sewmuchforfreetime@blogspot.com

KaHolly said...

Oh, it IS cheery! Well done. I love using batik fabrics for raw edge Applique. I'm so inspired! I want to pull out all my batiks right this minute and get to work, but I have too much started right now. Maybe if I just pulled them out and set them where I can see them........

France Nadeau ❅ inspiration imagination creation said...

It's really cheerful! And beautiful! (I recognise Connie's style, with all those batiks in the background. lol) I think that your flowers would look fabulous with buttons. I wish you a sunny day!

BKringel said...

This is a great mini for summer! I love the idea of adding buttons to the flowers - that will be a nice touch. Good job on this Mari - it is really sweet.

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Wow Mari!!! This is just so beautiful! I really like the way you sewed down your flowers and like you, I love bias for stems! Thanks for the shout-out!