Heart in Woven Ribbons

Three "Pay it Forward" packages are in the mail. That was fun!

Now it is time to finish all these heart motif mats/table centers. This is the latest one. It was lots of work, but I always wanted to try this technique. Never again, even though putting on the beads made me happy and the overall result is okay.

Pay it Forward Challenge & a Wreath

I'm nearly finished the "pay it forward" challenge pieces, which I cannot post because I want to surprise the three recipients. June was my target for mailing these, but life happens. We were away for a week, had a wedding and a few other events, the biggest one being that our granddaugter, who has been living with us for the past two years, departed for South Korea to teach English. She did most of this herself, but the preparations included shopping trips (she does not drive), last minute "I forgot..." stuff, and a lot of emotions.

Anyway, I wanted to post something, so this is a paper-pieced Christmas wreath, about 20' square, from a pattern in an old magazine. I made about eight of them for gifts and as samples for a class that I taught. They were in several color combinations, from traditional to this, and even one in pale blues and silver lame. Most had beads or some type of embellishment. Quick and easy.

Last night someone asked me how to quilt a project she was making. She had purchased some Nativity panels and was making "cheater quilts" for Christmas gifts. She said the four recipients loved to decorate their homes at Christmas time and "have everything" so she hoped this would be a good gift. I had to admire her for thinking this far ahead. I'm usually making Christmas gifts the first week of December!

Heart in Confetti

Here is another heart table-center. This one uses a technique I've never tried or seen and it turned out exactly as I'd hoped -- soft, feminine, and not at all like me! These are the steps I took:

Plan the size, then draw a heart stencil to fit inside it. Since this is a cutout, the stencil is in two pieces, the outside and the inner portion. I laid it on my background fabric (which is creamy with pastel flecks in it) and used masking tape on the back of each piece to hold it in place. In my photo, the green paper is the stencil and it looks like it is behind a heart, but it really is on top of the heart.

If you save tiny bits (which I don't, but I might start) great, otherwise cut up several scraps into small pieces about the size of bunny ears that you cut off half square triangles and normally throw away. I made lots. This little black tray is about 7" x 8".

Spray fabric glue on the background fabric inside the stencil. Then remove the stencil and sprinkle the bits on the portion that is glued. They went beyond it, and missed some spots, so I took some tweezers and sat in front of the TV and fiddled with them, not excessively but just to make sure the glue was covered and the edges had a nice raggedy look. Also, a few pieces were up-side-down and didn't look good that way. Picky, but it didn't take long to fix.

Layer over with tulle or any sheer fabric to give the look you want. I used a white, glistening silk organza. The photo showing this stage was too shiny to show well so didn't bother posting it.

Baste (I used plastic headed silk pins, not safety pins), and quilt it. I went around the entire heart, inside and out. Then I did some loose double feathers on the heart, and stippled the rest of it. After binding it with a pale pink that had a bit of mottled color in it, I put on a pink organza bow that seemed to suit it. I may add a few tiny pearl beads, but right now am fairly happy with it as is.

Heart: 9 patch - done!

Finally, after a week's vacation and another week of putting my house in order (as if that will last long - LOL!) I have finished another heart mat for the writer's conference in September. It is about 14" x 14" and a standard pattern, but fun to make. I did the heart shape in CorelDraw X4, printed it and cut it copies in freezer paper. The applique is needle-turn. It takes longer but I like it better than raw-edge, at least on some things. I even hand-quilted around the hearts, but don't look too close. I'm not merely rusty; I've never been good at hand-quilting. Alex Anderson's method works best for me though.

The next heart mat is going to be a confetti-like project. I've never made one using the technique I have in mind, but it will be fun -- and hopefully quicker to get finished and will definitely use up a bunch of bits.

Over the bounding waves - and pounding flowers

Today we are in Victoria, BC to see the Tall Ships. What a sight to see nearly thirty of them sail into the harbor. Tomorrow we get to go on some of them. My choices are Christopher Columbus' Niña, the Bounty, and the USCG Eagle. The Bounty was constructed in Nova Scotia using the original ship's drawings on file in the British Admiralty archives. It was built in 1960 for MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando. The Eagle is my husband's choice, maybe because it is huge, nearly 300 feet long. I told him I would go along since all the sailors were so good looking. The Niña is a replica, of course, but it is really a beaut. This is a picture of her, only 68 feet long.

The most unexpected part of all this is we had Admiral's Club tickets (gave us some extra perks) and sat with a couple who just moved to Vancouver Island from Calgary, AB. She wants to start painting in watercolors. I told her about 'flower pounding' and she asked a million questions. She'd never heard of such a thing and even though she is not a quilter, she wants to try it. I felt like I'd made a friend forever!

How to Pound Flowers

Since Marilyn asked, some of you might want to know too. Flower pounding is kind of messy, but not as bad as first thought… like poor posies being beaten with sledge hammers until all their ‘blood’ comes out…

The flowers are pulled apart so you can put them flat, and arranged on the back side of PFD (prepared for dye) fabric, usually one at a time and face down. Cover completely with masking tape so no ‘juice’ can leak out. Then you turn the fabric over and put it on a piece of board or masonite with a towel under it. (This can be quite noisy) Then start tapping with a hammer, usually a small one with a very smooth head.

Depending on the flower, the results may be a surprise. Purple might come out as red, or even yellow. It was a lot of fun since the flowers look like we made them up, not like the flowers we used. Just pansies retained a bit of their distinctive shape and color. Leaves do nicely too, but are place right side up so the veins show in the fabric.

There is a book called Flower Pounding by Ann Frischkorn. This link goes to Amazon.ca, but it is available in the USA too.

And HGTV has a site with more complete instructions, and this one has some other ideas about using this technique.

Rose in my Heart & Pounded Flowers

Here is the first heart mat. It is from a foundation paper-pieced pattern by Bobbie Osborne. I liked it better before I put too much quilting on it. Maybe I'll make another one. This one is just a tad over 12" square, which made some of those leaf pieces very tiny. A bigger one would be easier. Also, I'd make the background lighter and give it more contrast to the heart.

These other two pictures are the results of a flower-pounding class I attended on Saturday. My quilting buddy that I team-teach with offered it because some of the ladies in our little group had never tried it. I hadn't either, wasn't that interested, but we had fun. It was noisy, and the place smelling like silage when we were finished, but we laughed a lot and found out that some flowers do not pound into the colors we expected. One purple one made yellow. Dandelions became green.

I've yet to embellish these. I started with some outlining using a Pigma pen, but they need more of that and some beads. Embroidery could be nice, but my needlework might ruin them.