Yes it’s Spring in Central New York.

It’s hard to believe that it was in the 60′s last Thursday! This is actually just Mother Nature’s way of letting us know who’s really in charge.

This kind of Spring day just means more time to quilt! Things like yard work will have to be put off for another day – Oh darn!

After putting the rows together for my autumn quilt, I got a good feel for the look of the final quilt by arranging everything up on my design wall.

The first three rows and the medallion have been completed.  I couldn’t resist laying the top on my bed and was very pleased with the way that the warm browns go with my walnut headboard.

Now to complete the top – two rows to go. Then I plan on adding a Seminole row to top and bottom before finishing with the inner and outer borders.

Quilting From Home!

The Celtic medallion is done -

Now to applique the center corners.   

I really like the way this pine cone fabric frames the Celtic applique.  I think it ties the green-dotted background with the colors in the rest of the quilt.  As a final tie-in, I plan to use the green-dotted fabric for the setting triangles on each row.     The final 9-patch row will also have the green-dotted and pine cone fabrics.

I think that the invisible stitch provides the best result with hand applique.  The technique is really simple and produces a smooth-edged finished piece.   I am using a dark green thread that matches most of the coloration on the fabric.  With the invisible stitch, the thread does not even show on the lighter sections of the applique.

The invisible stitch is done by bringing  the needle up through the background fabric while catching one or two threads of the applique (a quilt instructor, Sharon Stroud, called this “taking a whisper of the fabric”).

Insert the needle back into the background, just in back of the thread in the applique piece and bring up again through the background fabric catching the applique “whisper”.  Pressing the nail along the edge of the applique piece, as the needle is brought up again into the applique also helps to provide a smooth edge to the applique.  Stitches should be no more than 1/16 to 1/8 inch apart.

Pull thread securely, but not so much that the background fabric puckers. 

• When it is time to re-thread the needle, end by bringing the thread to the wrong side of the background fabric, taking 2 to 3 small stitches.  Then travel the needle about an inch from these stitches.

Quilting at Home.

There's always time to quilt!