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Wednesday 22 June 2011

Works in Progress Wednesday

Yay for me!  I finished Mandy's Tree!!  That feels like such a major accomplishment, though my sewing room looks quite bland with it gone.  You can read about it HERE.  The very moment I finished putting on the hanging sleeve, I was brought another bag of fabric for a very special memory quilt.  You can read about it HERE.  Right now, I'm dedicating my time to completing Jesica's quilt. Jesica had a bag of her late & much loved grandmother's fabric stash sent my way a long time ago.  She wanted lots of triangles with white.  Here's what has been done so far.


After hours of sorting and pressing, I spent hours of cutting and stitching and cutting some more until I had a variety of half-square triangles to make a quilt top.  They were all pressed open and then sewn in a graduated color pattern across the quilt.

aren't those vintage fabrics sweet!??

After this point, Jesica began missing her other grandmother too.  The top has a wide white border, and Jesica suggested hand embroidered flowers.  !!!  I am SO in the mood to do embroidery!  Even better, Jesica wants flowers native to this area, because those are the ones that she picked with her grandmother when she was a little girl.  As for me, I have had it in the back of my mind for some time to study native prairie plants, and so this is a very welcomed project!  I started my research immediately.  I want to study the flowers, then sketch them out, and then simplify them for embroidery.  I could find existing embroidery patterns for each on the internet I'm sure, but this would be much for interesting for me to come up with them myself.  I've never been much of a pattern person anyhow.  Here is a peek at my sketchbook so far.  The photos were pretty faded, so I upped the contrast to help you see it better.






My plan is to draw them each with an air soluble pen just prior to stitching them.  I'll pick thread colors that are appropriate to the actual flowers, but also a good shade so it looks right with all the fabrics in the quilt.  I have hoops and embroidery needles.  All is good!  The plan for the outer binding is to use the remaining scraps form the vintage fabrics.  Won't that be pretty!?  Great plan Jesica! Here's some practice pieces I did.

Aster and Purple Vetch

In the mean time, I am putting the backing & hanging sleeve onto Kate's wall hanging.  It's a commission I got through my etsy store to remake my Poles Along the Highway.  Here's the border.  It's for Kate's new home, far far away from the prairies.  Isn't that sweet?


I can't wait to mail this off to her.  I hope our national postal system gets back on its feet soon!  It's been a long, looong time since anything was dropped into my mailbox!

See you all tomorrow,
~Monika

head on over to Lee's at Freshly Pieced for more WIPs, or Esther's eclectic WIP wednesday for more projects from other quilting bloggers.  : )

20 comments:

Lisa said...

I can hardly wait to see the stitching on the quilt. It will be a beauty!

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

Love your sketchbook Monika. You are very talented in so many areas.

noga quilts said...

I love your memory quilts, so heart warming!
The HST quilt from vintage fabrics is beautiful, can't wait to see the finished quilts with the embroidery (your flowers sketching is amazing!)

Sheila said...

This quilt will be extra beautiful with the embroidered flowers , love what you have done so far . The sneak peak of Kate's wall hanging looks wonderful , hope we get to see the entire piece soon.

Carla said...

Such lovely sketches. Those fabrics are so pretty, the one's for your HST quilt.

Three Cat Limit said...

Wow! You do great work. I'm in absolute awe and envy of Poles Along the Highway. Gorgeous!

-Jerimi

Kelly Irene said...

The sketches are really beautiful. The embroidery is such a good way to remember someone so special!

Rebel said...

Having recently worked with a bunch of HST I know how long you took on those!!! Worth it though, looks like it's going to be an adorable quilt.

I'm really impressed with your embroidery too. In theory I'd like to be able to do embroidery, but in reality I don't think I can sit still long enough to really practice and get good at it. I'm in awe of yours.

Anonymous said...

Interesting observation on your pic of HSTs. I see a quarter inch seam at the long edge and the point. Do you sew strips together and then cut the triangles?? If so how do you calculate the width of strip to give you the size of HST you want?
Joyce

Margaret said...

Monika, you always lighten my day with what you're doing. Lovely memory quilt of vintage fabric, combined with the tradition of embroidery. Interesting border treatment for "Poles". And I love your new profile photo!

Amy said...

I think the flowers will be real nice with the HST's and the Poles Along the Highway is gorgeous! I wonder what they are doing with the mail since not delivering it...

Kimberlee said...

Loving those vintage fabric triangles. What a great way to remember a grandmother. Both of my grandmas were about as far from being crafty as you can get, LOL!
~Kimberlee
www.TheSpunkyDiva.com

Christie describeHappy said...

Holy moly.. my jaw just hit the floor. Your HST quilt is amazing, and the embrodery you tested out looks stunning. It's going to be a beauitful touch! I just so enjoyed everything you have going on right now. You always inspire me!

Marsha Cooper said...

wow! you really are moving right along on the triangle quilt and it looks great.

elle said...

Luv that pole. The prairie smoke is a staple in my flowerbeds. The Lady Slipper's are skipping about the ditches as I type. Have a great day!

CHRIS said...

Hi Monika, What a gorgeous quilt made all the more special by its beginnings. Happy Stitching . Chris.

Esther Aliu said...

What a touching and heartfelt idea. I'm really taken by this. Using fabrics into a quilt AND the embroidery, this is beautiful.

Leanne said...

Beautiful work! I lover your flowers!

Kate S. said...

Wow, this quilt is going to be stunning!! I am a huge wildflower fan (recently made 2 wildflower stained glass windows)... Your embroidery looks like it will be amazing!

Bunny said...

Wow you are amazing I love your artwork great work.

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