Wednesday 20 February 2013

Progress


So I mentioned last week that I have a ridiculous amount of quilts on the go. All with a bit of a deadline that is approaching soon.

It was time to get on with it. Seriously. So serious sewing happened over the weekend and I have some progress! Finished one quilt (Charming Stars) and am mostly done with another. Hurrah!
It helps that I changed my plan for the Family Tree Quilt. But let’s look at the progress first!

Family Tree in progress

All of the leaves have been appliqued! Whew! Boy, was that a lot of work. I had planned to use monofilament thread for the leaves but the one I had was smoky coloured and just looked like dirty thread. So I raw edge appliqued with white thread. Figure it picks up on the white embroidery of the names anyways!

Family Leaves

So it’s not as fabulous as if I hand stitched and attempted needle turn applique, but! My sanity and joints are intact and that’s what counts.

Also added a sweet little birdie for a touch of whimsy. Plus there was a gap in my leaves that needed filling. What else would do but a little chirpie bird?!

Little bird

Feeling rather pleased with how this one is coming together! Though I will admit working out which family members required leaves and which didn’t was rather a headache. Do ex spouses make the cut? What if they have children? Is it going to offend the new spouses if the exes are added? What about the children? Somebody think of the children! Seriously. Nightmare. In the end, all exes are added (tempting as it was to make them “fallen leaves” – thanks Gina for that laugh!) and if anyone’s offended, I’ll just pick up my family tree and go home and hang it on my own wall to admire.

So I mentioned my change of plans for this. It’s not going to be a quilt. In fact the idea of attempting to quilt all over that beautiful love letter script filled me with dread. So! I’m not quilting it. I’m going to make it into a canvas (thanks to Gemma from Pretty Bobbins for the inspiration). I may just do this with more wallhanging quilts if it’s successful!

So next quilt! Its progress is not so much of the sewing type, rather that more of the blocks have arrived! Forgive me I haven’t emailed you telling you your block is here (have been a bit swamped!) But check the picture and you’ll see if it’s here yet!

Fontastic in progress

Aren’t they all looking great together? I’m thinking of maybe making this all one big quilt with upper and lower case mixed rather than two separate quilts for upper and lowercase.

Seriously awesome pattern testers for this one – the blocks arrived have been just fantastic! The patterns for these letters (Just My Type) is available in my Craftsy shop now too – you know, in case you’re keen to make your own Fontastic quilt!!

Happy to have some progress but a lot more is needed.Thank goodness the sewjo has returned with full force. Back to the sewing machine I go. Hi ho hi ho.

WipWed

22 comments:

  1. Bold choice to include the exes! :) Too funny about making "fallen leaves"-ha! The little bird is so cute--the whole project looks great, and I'm sure your grandma will love it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your family tree is stunning - love that little birdie! Gosh the word quilts are going to look amazing...makes me want to do one for myself!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know you did quite well with three projects considering your sewjo was AWOL. Love a bit of whimsy. Your gran will too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh that bird is great addition! I like the name Fontastic - makes me smile every time you use it :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the idea of mounting the family tree, especially as the backing has so much meaning to you. It looks amazing

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your family tree - the bird just adds a splash of colour and finishes it off beautifully and I love the idea of a canvas! And the words are going to look great too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The text blocks are amazing and looks so great together!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Looking awesome! And the family tree as a canvas is a great way to show it off!

    ReplyDelete
  9. the family tree is wonderful. I think you should rough it up a bit before mounting it, that way the edges of the leaves will fray a little and that is far more natural looking than needleturned leaves... I will have to make one of these at some point, I'm just not sure who for!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love your family tree ~ what a lovely thing to do for your Grandmother. Making it into a canvas is a fantastic way to display it!
    Loving all the word blocks too ~ they all look great together!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sewjo! What a wonderful word! I love the canvas idea. Might steal that ;-)
    The tree is just enormously pretty!
    Well and what to say of the word quilt..... more than wonderful!
    Esther F.
    ipatchandquilt.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love your family tree quilt! It looks great.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The "fallen leaves" made me laugh!

    ReplyDelete
  15. The tree looks awesome!! The bird makes it look even better and looks like it was meant to be there. I love all the shades of green too, it looks like a "real" tree. Can't wait to see it mounted to the canvas. I like the upper and lowercase words combined! You have had a very productive week!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Congrats on the progress, the family tree looks wonderful, your little bird is the perfect touch. Sounds like a plan too for the canvas, less pressure is always good!

    Like the idea of one big words quilt too, hope you get my parcel soon.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Your tree is fab. I love that little touch of red with the bird. And those words are wonderful:)

    ReplyDelete
  18. The canvas idea for your family tree is inspired. Perfect solution! I think the bird is gorgeous as what tree would be complete without a bird?! I think the fallen leaves idea was brilliant too. The fontastic words look amazing, so many different colours.

    ReplyDelete
  19. The tree quilt is fabulous and I'm sure it will be well received.

    ReplyDelete
  20. So beautiful in so many ways!

    ReplyDelete
  21. That bird is seriously the cutest touch!

    The word quilt is looking fab. Love the mixture of capitals and lowercase too - gives it a bit of variety. Are you excited?

    I am one seam away from getting mine finished - but it's still sat there forever. Bad, bad pattern tester! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. I read each and every word! I'll do my best to reply to them either via email or here on the blog, when time permits!