Behind the Seams

Just some random things going on in my sewing room this past week…

First of all, I finished my appliqué for the Bramble Blooms Quiltalong! I was heavily inspired by Audrey’s one quilt that had this oval cameo, so I did the same. Then as I was wondering what to put in the center (the assignment is a floral theme), I thought well, of course, my favourite flower. Now, I have quite a few different categories of favorite flowers so that I can include more ‘favourites’. It goes like this:

Annual flower for cutting- zinnia

Perennial flower that I love but doesn’t seem to grow well for me yet – Foxglove, delphinium

Flower that I must have every year – Hollyhock

Well, I love so many flowers and there would be other categories I could make up to add more favourites, but I decided to try making a hollyhock in the center of my appliqué.

Here’s a close up to show you that I’m not going for perfection here. I love the look of old fashioned needle turn appliqué. It has such a beautiful satisfying finish to it. But I just know that if I should add this piece to my pile of hand sewing projects, it would sit there for a loong time. So instead I did a combination of two machine stitches. A decorative blanket stitch in black, and free hand edgey stitches with my quilting foot on the flower part.

I feel like this method works well for more intricate shapes. First loosely pin your shapes down. I put on my free hand quilting foot (but a darning foot would also work.) Then you put down your feed dogs and just start zipping around the edges of your pieces. I go around each piece about three times just to make sure everything is secure and also it looks more intentional and less messy!

Now I’m just eagerly waiting for the next assignment to add to this quilt!

A stack of Hope Valley fabric….! Yes, you’re seeing right! After my lament about running out of this fabric, a generous reader reached out and offered to send me some because she had quite a bit of it stashed away. Thank you so much Becky! There are so many of you good and lovely people out there in this big world. Let’s all remember that if we should get discouraged at times! It’s just fabric I know, (although not just any fabric!). but the gesture means a lot to me too!

I get quite a few questions about specific fabrics and where I get my fabrics, etc. So often a fabric that someone asks about is out of print and not able to be found anymore. Sometimes this can be upsetting because there just will never be one quite like that, but on the other hand, there’s always new ones to be discovered.

So I’ve been thinking about the workhorses in a fabric stash like mine. They’re those fabrics that are tone on tone or possible two colors at the most, but not quite solids. I do like some solids, but tend to use more tiny prints or wovens. I came up with a list of designers who I think have a lot of these beautiful fabrics. The reason I thought to post this today is that I just came up with two more designers who I think do this type of fabric design very well.

Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts is a long time favorite of mine for rich coloured fabrics that blend so well with many other fabrics.

Two new ones that have come to my attention are:

Lori Holt – I’ve loved fabrics of hers for a long time, but I just realized what a vast amount of these types of fabrics she has. They’re in a slightly lighter, brighter color scheme. I often find myself reaching for the prints designed by her.

Kim Diehl – A blog reader reminded me of her as a similar alternative to Edyta Sitar. I haven’t used just a lot of her fabrics yet, but I’m planning to order more, as I can see that having few of her prints will be very useful. She has more of a country style flavour, so I wouldn’t be likely to make a whole quilt with her fabric, but I love bits of that style mixed in, and she has very rich and lovely colors and designs.

I had a few more I was going to add, but now they’ve slipped my mind… I’ll add them yet if I think of them. Now, I use many many other fabrics, but these are specifically great for the backbone of color in your stash. I won’t tell you where to buy them, as the best place for you depends where you live etc. Just google these designers or find shops near you that stock them, and feel assured that their fabrics will work well in your stash!