Bloomin' Flowers is pieced!

The picture is not the best but Bloomin' Flowers has been pieced. I waited for the wind to go down so I could take the picture outside and I lost too much of the sun. This quilt is by The Stitch Connection and the blocks are intense embroidery and applique. Some of the blocks have up to 40 color changes. I had to put a small table beside my sewing cabinet just to hold the 40-50 spools of thread I used in the quilt. The pieced second border really is a great addition to the quilt. After quilting this top, this quilt will be exquisite.

I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow.

Sneak Peak of "Bloomin' Flowers"

For the past week I have been working on a quilt by The Stitch Connection called Bloomin' Flowers. The quilt has 12 main blocks of flower arrangements with several other small connector blocks.

The direction are quite extensive, so I printed them out and now have 35 pages in a notebook. It is so easy to look at the directions by just turning a page for checking and rechecking directions. Each of the designs have a stitchout diagram that has the thread colors and then a small picture of the stitchout. One of the designs has 40 color changes.

The directions contain lots of diagrams for putting the blocks together. There are also suggestions for quilting which is unique with many patterns. As a bonus there is also a label for the quilt.

Quilted Lady

This quilted lady is "Hope". When we were in Paducah, Sharon purchased a quilted lady from a person who was shopping at out booth. The quilted lady maker came back a couple of days later and I asked her about her quilted ladies and how she made them. They are really two embroidery CD's designed by Bonnie Colonna. When I had time after returning home, I did an internet search for the embroidery designs. I found a website that showed one of them and a quilt shop when they were purchased. I sent emails to the website and also to Bonnie Colonna. After not getting quick replies--I later found them in my spam folder--I found the phone number of the quilt shop in Pueblo, Colorado and just called them. They did have the designs and so in a few days I also had the designs.

The quilted lady CD's have a face design and then one or two small quilting designs for the fabric piece. Each face has a special name. I tried using cotton fabric for the faces and also dolskin. Cotton is much easier to sew and stuff but dolskin gives you more flexibility for shaping the head.

I have had such fun with the designs. My Wednesday Sewing Group at Bob's Bernina is participating in a quilted lady challenge. Each one received a quilted lady face and are to bring it back at the August meeting artfully attired. Won't it be fun to see with others will do with their quilted lady!