Start With the Foundation and Then I'll Work My Way Into the Details

I finally dove into applique prep like I've been threatening to do for weeks now. The brand new project, inspired by the fabulously creative Jane Ormes, was a dig-deep-and-see-how-seriously-you-want-to-do-this type of project. Jane had responded very kindly to my request, to try and interpret one of her prints into a quilt, which honestly kind of shocked me.

Freezer paper templates ready to go

I figured it would be an 'Absolutely Not! How about a restraining order?', but no, she was very, very nice about it and even thanked me for asking! This particular print, 'Elephantjunglematissetypething!' might seem like an odd choice, but I'm so in love with the leaves and flowers. Wonderfully whimsical. It feels like something that would continually result in feel-good endorphins while working through the stitching. Ha! Not at the start though. I spent almost 3 hours just on drawing the leaves. Erasing and drawing and erasing some more. They will not be exact, but I wanted the vibe to be very, very similar. 

Still wondering if I have what it takes to include the elephant!

Once again I don't intend to go out and buy any fabric but will try and make-do from the stash totes. Luckily I had a piece of white fabric that seemed plenty large enough. Unbelievably, it still worked when I had to throw all of my painstaking measurements out the window and start over. Yep. Just had to piece every iota of the yardage together and try to make it as large as possible. Yikes! Now my stomach is feeling a bit queasy as I never, ever intended for the background to be 68".*sigh  Plus, there's a seam right through the middle-ish of the quilt. After spending that much time on the leaves, I knew there would be no going back and trying to re-draw them in a smaller size. And, I love, love, love the larger size. They just look amazing already!

Getting started with placement for reverse applique

Many of you are probably squirming just from looking at all the rumpled fabric, but this is the wrong blog to be coming to for immaculate quilting projects or stunningly arranged quilt pictures.I slog away at the details and iron when I have to. Take pictures only when it seems necessary to keep up with the blog.

The background above? I was in a hurry and pushed for time. Ended up sewing the two large pieces of yardage together without measuring, cutting and pinning. Just sewed them together and then... just sat and looked at the rippled seam. Gag. Ughh. Agghh! How does that even happen after 20+ years of sewing? So out came the seam ripper and of course a little pity party. {Again, how badly do I want to make this quilt?} So yes, it does and will lay flat. NOW. But go ahead and judge me if it makes you feel better.*wink

All the rows are ready for initial applique stitching

The baskets are all ready to go for the Patchwork Garden quilt too. They are all some shade of navy and though this isn't the best picture, I am enthralled with the color palette thus far. A couple of the baskets are folded down at the top as everything possible will be appliqued into place per row before starting to join a couple rows. Step by step is how it goes and as always, I will be adding more of the applique details as each phase progresses. So very difficult to do hand work on a large background. Which is exactly why the previous quilt is a bit of a problem even before getting started!

Failed flower block #1

Another project that has been seeing a little bit of attention is the AHIQflowers invitational. I had this flower applique quilt in mind that for some reason made me think that all the flowers could be machine pieced. After playing around with several ideas, using scraps from the scrap bin, I ditched all the potential flowers. I don't want to spend a hundred hours making something 'not quite good enough'.

Failed flower block #2

I give up. The only look that will truly make me happy is if they are all appliqued. Do I really need another major applique project right now?  Plus, none of it seemed very improv.-y to me which feels strange knowing that the AHIQ is usually all about improv.  What really interests me right now is recreating old utility style quilts.

Failed flower block #3

So I just chucked all the previous play, ideas and assumptions and went straight to my favorite book 'Unconventional and Unexpected' by Roderick Kiracofe. What say? Anything there to make me start thinking about flowers in an intriguing way?

The new stack of fabric! Kind of a weird blue
for me to be working with....

Oh yeah. The quilt below, which is just a jumbled up mix of shapes and cast-off fabrics jumped right out at me. See the lemoyne star shape in the far right bottom corner? That's gonna be my flower right there, some how, some way. The entire quilt will be a huge improv. puzzle of sorts and that easily, the decision was made!

Unconventional and Unexpected quilt

I have friends who definitely don't understand my desire to recreate weird, scrap bin style, utility quilts. They might even worry about me a little. It's perfectly okay. Us quilters know good and well that the time to make a quilt is the time when it lights all of our fuses on fire. Not tomorrow or the next day. Does anyone understand the entirety of how inspiration works? There's a lot of books out there, but nothing definitive.

Closer look at the future flower inspiration

What I do know is this, whatever we make today, undeniably informs what we make tomorrow. In the process of [happily} following our muse, we can make something very personally compelling and then that can and will usually help generate enthusiasm for whatever the next project might be. See how this works? We don't have to understand all the whys and wherefores. We just have to make sure that the logical side of our brain doesn't succeed in drowning out our muse and stifling new growth. 

This quilt won't be an exact duplicate either. Close perhaps. Is an exact replica even possible? And more importantly, what are the benefits to stressing ourselves out attempting to? Mostly I just intend to eyeball things {skip the math} and try to make a single row before moving on the next. At most I hope to create a quilt that gives off the same kind of spunky 'I am good enough', 'I am not ashamed of being humble', or 'I am worthy' vibe. Wish me luck!

The Reverse Applique Detour

I guess I always tend to do things the most difficult way possible.  It was only after I sewed the basket panels together in my Vertical Basket Quilt that a light bulb went off in my head and started blinking madly at me.

Vertical Basket Quilt thinking.....

Hey, how about doing some of that reverse applique stuff and really trying to make this quilt special?  And the idea would NOT leave me along.  Deep V applique stitching is not exactly my best friend you know, so I was a bit nervous to just leap into the idea without thorough consideration.  Plus, wouldn't this have been waaaay easier before the panels were sewn to the strips?  Just saying....

Reverse Applique: Baste through both layers of fabric.

Yep.  Seriously weighing the pros and cons here, all the while busily basting the little bits of fabric to the back of some of the panels....

Reverse Applique: Back view of bottom layer of fabric
 with red basting stitch holding both layers together.

Hard to see the basting stitch, but okay!  Plenty of fabric to trim away after the stitching is completed!

Reverse Applique: Cut out top layer of fabric, leaving enough
fabric to turn under and stitch down (1/4" or even less).

I was cutting very, very slowly here because of the clipping oops I made on my last scrap attack quilt.  Looks pretty good, but I did try to trim it down just a little bit more so it was more like a 3/16" seam instead of a 1/4".

Reverse Applique: Clip seam allowance at the V-sections.
Shallow clip at side V's and deeper clip at top and bottom V's.

I think a shallow cut is more than sufficient at the sides and the bottom? Probably best to cut almost to where I want the fabric to fold over.  Only 4 clips in all since the sides are straight and don't need any clipping at all.

Reverse Applique: Turn seam under and stitch to
 fabric in back with simple applique stitch.

I really like needleturn applique so I just finger pressed the fabric over and stitched it down as I went (with a matching color of thread), trying to be really good and neat at the deep V's.  I think I probably need some more practice there, but the detail on the brown fabric is obviously going to be a great distraction from the actual stitching.  Oh yeah, I'm loving that part.  lol!

Reverse Applique: Remove red basting stitch.

Time to get that ugly red basting stitch off and out of the way!

Reverse Applique: Trim fabric in back to
within 1/4" of the new applique stitch.

And then its time to turn it over and trim off the excess fabric up to about 1/4" next to the new applique stitch.  Even that sort of looks pretty from the back.*wink

So you see?  This is why I never know at the beginning where my quilts are going to be taking me!  I'm usually only too willing to take a detour with just the slightest bits of provocation.  Glad it worked out this time or I would have been crying all over the new big cut-out right in the middle of my 'almost finished' quilt!  

It's a good day to link up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching and check out what's happening over there.  Remind myself how sane and normal people approach the quilting dilemmas of life!