Applique’ – Page 4 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Tarts Progress

I wasn’t done with the Tarts, as TFQ suggested. I feel like I made some significant progress yesterday. the blocks take a long time for me to make. I have to do the drawing, trace a couple of times, put the pattern on fusible, cut out the fabric, make sure the pieces are all going in the correct direction and then I can press and machine stitch.

Here is the whole section that I worked on, so you can see how it fits into the whole. I thought the area needed a bi of blue. I wanted to use turquoise, but didn’t want to overwelm the piece with it, thus the aqua color. I think it is a little light to be on the edge, but we’ll see how I like it once my brain has a chance to rest from it.

The yellow “china” cup wasn’t planned, but entered my head and got a place at the table, temporarily, a least. I am not sure I like the fabric for this area, though a plainer yellow would have melted into the aqua. As I mentioned, I really like the juxtaposition of different patterns on the fabric and that is what I was going for with this cup. Also, the fabric design relates to the blue china cup. They may even be part of the same group.

I am pretty pleased with the blue china cup as I was able to work in that pinky rose fabric that I wanted to use for the background of the green teapot. I think it is a good transition fabric between the background of the green and the orange of the sugar and creamer.

I realized recently that showing you all of these process shots means that you never get a surprise. I will have to think of a project I never show you just to give my readers a surprise once in a while.

All Quiet on the Quilt Front

Or maybe not.

I have been struggling with the Tarts lately and with traveling so much in the past three weeks it has been hard to get back into the creative mode. TFQ and I had a nice looong chat last night which helped to get me back into the groove. She knows about design. Aside from the fact that we share a lot of the same ideas about design, I really trust her judgment. If I ask for advice, she will give me good advice. I appreciate the way she helps me through the design process when I feel like I am struggling. As I mentioned in my essay, design, etc is partly an intellectual effort for me. TFQ and I can have the right mix of intellectual and creative in our discussions.

I talked with her about my struggles. She suggested that I take the Tarts off the wall for a month and let the project simmer in the back of my mind for awhile. The idea appealed to me, in a way, because I worked on the Infinity (Crazy Eight) blocks and I was really wishing that I had more design wall space. If I take he Tarts off the wall, I’ll have the space. It might be time to get the portable design wall out of the closet again…or stop working on so many projects at once.

I don’t really want to take the Tarts off the wall, because a month can easily turn into a year and by the time I drag it out again, I might want to remake all the blocks AGAIN. Needless to say, despite the merits, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea. When TFQ suggests something, I give it serious thought because she usually has a point.

That was the start of the conversation, however. We looked at the piece using the Tarts Arrangement post, the way I had arranged the different blocks and what was working and what wasn’t working. Now I am all fired up to rearrange the pieces, make some new blocks and move forward a bit more. I am not ruling out putting it away again (with a calendar reminder!), but I am not doing it quite yet.

I do know that the teapot block (bottom middle, mauve with blue bubble background) with the view from the top is going. It was damaged somehow and I can’t fix it. Since I have to remake it anyway, I am taking it out and putting in a new block. TFQ made a good point about that block. It is a different view than all the other pieces and, thus, really stands out. Not sure what yet. TFQ suggested another tart or pastry. I don’t have any ideas for one, but since there are only two in the piece, another would a good design choice.

You also get to see the cake plate block in it’s native environment.

Here are some new Fabric of the Year blocks. I haven’t pressed any fabric lately, so this is the end for the moment. I am not short of fabric to press, I just haven’t done it. I love that red polka dot. It is the same fabric I used for the to go cup.

One More Cake Choice

Here is one last choice that I couldn’t resist. I am kind of liking this one best, but I think that is because it is new. I still like the China Cake Plate in the Tarts Cake Plate Conundrum post.

Tarts Arrangement

I am having some trouble deciding how to organize the blocks on the left hand side. Other arrangements are:

Tarts Full - Frothy Drink Right — Tarts Full – Frothy Drink Right

If you start from the bottom you can see the evolution over the past few months.

Tarts Cake Plate Conundrum

Summary: Different options for one new element in the Tarts Come to Tea.

This is a quick post to see what you think about cake plate options.

Here is one of the renditions of the Tarts Come to Tea from 4/19/2009. As you can see I redid the cup in the middle with a to go cup. I am pretty sure I have moved elements around since I took this picture.

One issue with selecting fabrics is I still have a Pamela Allen hangover and I want more pattern. The Child was in the room doing his artwork and offered up his opinion, strenuously!

I really liked the fabric with the flowers. This was the first fabric I tried and it reminded me of a china pattern.

I thought this was more like a china pattern than the fabric in the first example and less regular.

The blue plate special fabric was appealing. The Child thought it was too regular.

The pink melted a bit into the orange background, though I thought it picked up the other pinks in the piece.

I finally gave in and tried a dark-ish blue. Before I did, The Child would just roll his eyes at me when I showed him the above choices and remind me that none of them were solids. He didn’t really care about any other fabrics or patterns in the quilt.

I finally gave in to certain individuals and created a solid blue cake plate.

I wanted to see a different cake plate, so I made another pattern and cut it out of patterned fabric. I really like this version of the cake plate. It is definitely busier and the cake isn’t highlighted as much.

I am thinking of adding a cherry to this cake.

Work Doesn’t Seem Like Work

Yes, I have been working on the Tarts, but often the work I am doing seems like no progress rather than actually work.

I started out with this drawing for the last block, presumably for the space in the lower left hand corner. I found a drawing as inspiration and once I had that crutch to get me started, I took it off in my own direction. I kept thinking about a tea kettle I once knew in Austria.

Once I had a drawing I liked, I had to pick fabric which turned out to be much harder than I thought. I think I have said before that there just aren’t enough colors for me. I thought a pinky-orange would look good, but couldn’t find he appropriate shade in my fabrics, so I tried others. As Lorraine Torrence says “make visual decisions visually.”

I started with a green as background even though I really thought the pinky-orange would be better.

The green is okay, but the kettle color isn’t quite right.

Moving on and trying other colors. Finally tried a pinky-orange I had. It wasn’t quite right with the reds near it.

Still not right, though I liked the purply-pink background better.

The orange is a little too brown!

I am no longer having fun.

Will this torment ever end?

A bit closer???

Finally, I decided on the purply-pink hand-dye with space alien lime green. It was okay at the bottom of the quilt, though I kept thinking that the thermos-like block might be better at the bottom. I changes a lot, but I am trying it out.

More Progress on the Tarts

Most of what you can see is the Tarts Come to Tea, but some are other projects, which I will talk about later. Progress is being made, despite seeming to make only very tiny amounts of progress every weekend.

I thought of putting a cupcake in the line of cups instead of another cup for a couple of reasons:

I couldn’t find another cup that I liked immediately.
I thought I had made plenty of cups already; all over the piece there are a total of 11 cups.
If the title of the Piece is the Tarts Come to Tea, then there should be some blocks showing items that could be construed as ‘tarts’. I am not up for creating sexy women in machine applique’ right at the moment. 😉

Here is the new frothy drink. The one with the background plaid is gone. I have it in my scrap pile and it may be reborn as a teacher pillow or something. We will see.

Tarts Progress

I finally had a brainwave for the spot in the upper lefthand corner – a sugar and creamer! I worked on it for about a week and am pleased with the results. The lid of the sugar bowl doesn’t quite show up as much as I wanted, so I may add a little line of embroidery under the lip of the lid. We’ll see.

The two pictures (above and below) look the same, but I have moved the frothy drink and am trying to decide where to put it. I am redoing that particular block as we speak, so the plaid will not be part of the final work.

How to Machine Applique’ – TJW

When I started working on the Tarts Come to Tea again I really could not remember how to machine applique’. It was the strangest feeling. I knew the general principles (trace pattern, iron it on fabric, satin stitch around the shapes), but all the details had left my mind. I felt like I had to start over.

Being a good librarian I looked at some books, but could only find references to needle-turn and raw-edged applique’. I fumbled around for awhile and came up with the following process.

First, I draw the pattern out life size on a white sheet of sketch paper. (I know this doesn’t look like white paper, but see the Weekend Work post for an explanation). I usually draw in pencil to start.

Machine Applique' Pattern — Machine Applique’ Pattern

Next I draw out the patterns on individual smaller sheets of paper. If there are parts that need to be in different colors or need to be separated for some reason, then I make separate patterns for them. For example, I made a separate pattern each for the cake, plate and whipped cream, above.

Tracing Machine Applique' Pattern — Tracing Machine Applique’ Pattern

I put the Steam-a-Seam 2, or other fusible of your choice, over the pattern and trace the pattern onto Steam-a-Seam 2.

After that is done, I trim the fabric to the approximate size, then press the SAS2 (or other appropriate fusible) on to the wrong side of that piece of fabric.

Finally, I put all the pieces together, press the fusible on to the background and satin stitch around the edges.

See the Fusible Applique’ tutorial for more information. See the Machine Applique’ using Directional Motifs for more information on making sure your designs go the right way.

Weekend Work

I worked on the Tarts on Sunday. I dragged myself to the machine and was resigned to a miserable afternoon. I am pleased to report that I had a good experience with Machine Applique’ and could barely tear myself away to attend to life. So, I think I will be able to move on with this project. I am only committing to one more block ;-), but it is a start.

As I mentioned previously, I was working on the cake block below. You can see the blank block in a previous post. It sat on the wall glaring at me and taunting me while I worked on the pattern. I fiddled and moved things around quite a bit before I got an arrangement that I liked. The pattern took me a long time to get right.

You may think that this is a strange way to make a pattern or that I went to an architectural copy place and had them make one of those blue architectural drawing copies. Actually, it is just pencil on white sketch paper. It was hard to photograph and, thus, very hard to see no the screen so I inverted it so you could see it better.

I plan to do a post on my machine applique’ process sometime later.

I did find the machine applique’ process to be quite fiddly. I have been in a piecing frame of mind for so long that it took me awhile to get into the groove. Once I got the pieces cut and was satin stitching, I found it to be a pleasant process. I liked the puzzle aspect of figuring out which piece went on first and what line should be stitched over, etc. I was also able to try Steam-A-Seam Lite and Steam-A-Seam Lite 2 for the first time. I liked the results! I am pretty pleased with how the block turned out.

As I stitched, I got an idea for the block for the upper left hand corner. As soon as I had a free moment I worked on that design as well. Stay tuned!

Re-introducing The Tarts

Please meet The Tarts Come to Tea.

I started this project sometime in the past. TFQ and I made some tops using a technique that we called Improvisational piecing. Mostly we did this type of piecing at her house. When I came home after one trip, I decided to take an idea for a hot drink quilt and work on it on my own using the technique. After doing quite a bit of work, I put it away.

I was spurred on to take this piece up again after writing the UFO report for 2008. I want he UFO list to be shorter on 12/31/2009. Either some of these projects have to be completed or they have to be abandoned. It isn’t about just getting things done, though, it is about deciding whether I want to devote mental energy to projects that no longer make my heart sing.

I have put it on my design wall as the first step in getting it off the “to do” list. I decided that I wanted to look at it for awhile before I decided how to proceed. There are elements that I really like about it, but others that I want to redo. My plan is to work on a few other projects (like cutting FOTY patches!) while I look at The Tarts and figure out what needs to be done. I already have a small list of parts that will change.

1. The plaid has to go.
2. The cup in the middle with the striped print will morph into a cup with a sleeve on it, like a Starbuck’s or Peet’s cup.
3. I need to add some more of the red/white dot print that is currently in only two of the cappuccino cups.
4. The random piecing under the grey tea pot with the purple background has to go.

TFQ and I worked on a list of elements to change and add, but I can’t find the piece of paper anywhere, so I have started to recreate it.

When I first took the pieces out of the box, I thought I would just abandon the whole project, but I see possibilities now. I will work on it a bit and see if I can generate some enthusiasm. Looking at this project has made me realize how I have evolved as a quiltmaker: different types of fabrics, different colors, more piecing. Some of what I talked about in the Word of the Day: Time post applies here.

New Inspiration Source

I found a link somewhere for a blog of blogs. After adding this blog to the list, I scrolled through the offerings and found a blog for Piece O’Cake. One of the great parts is that they have a show and tell page where they post customer photos. What a great source of inspiration! I am including a few for you for your viewing pleasure.

clipped from www.pieceocake.com

Show & Tell!!!

I like it that people have chosen different colorways and color combinations.

Parakeets’ Expression

This is a quilt that TFQ and I saw at the APNQ show. It has been on mind because of the expressiveness of the little parakeets. I think that this quilt tells a story because of the implied movement of the birds. I can appreciate realistic quilts, but don’t always see the point in reproducing a photo in quilt format. This one, however, tells a story.

Fair Photos

This was the last weekend of the county fair, so we took our free tickets and went and indulged in quilts, rides, funnel cakes, lemonade and frozen, chocolate covered bananas.

The cheerful quilts are coming. I saw a definite change in the palette of some of the some of the quilts. There were a few really bright quilts, a number of pastels and fewer in the brown range.

Oak Hall, which normally houses the Home Arts (including the quilts) was closed and they were using a huge tent. Not an ideal situation, but Julie Curry, the Home Arts building director did a great job hanging the quilts. I would have liked to have had more room to take photos and a little more light, but at least the quilts were not 30 feet up on the wall.

I hope to see some of the quilts at PIQF so I can get better photos.

San Mateo County Fair 2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artquiltmaker/sets/72157606792927862/

A selection of things from the set

This quilt was my favorite quilt. I liked the black on white print that the maker used for the background. I liked that s/he used a lot of different prints as well. I also LOVED the blue circle. That detail is genius. I think it makes the pink stand out even more, but takes off the sweetness edge.

S/he did this in hand applique

Nice border as well.

Fabrics and Flowers

I forgot to mention yesterday that I bought some more dot fabrics at Stone Mountain and Daughter. At least the bottom two fabrics on the right right are from the Katie Jump Rope collection from Denyse Schmidt. KJR isn’t, IMO, as successful as DS’s previous collection, Flea Market Fancy. A couple of the other dots I have in different colorways. As you know I am always on the prowl for dot fabrics with white backgrounds.

Last time I visited St. JCN, I looked through some of her books and found the templates for this flower in Follow the Dots to Dazzling Quilts (another dumb name) by Joan Segna and Jayme Crow. I traced them and brought them home. Lately, they have been calling to me. After I found a whole mailing pouch full of handmade paper, I knew what was in store. While Darling Boy was drawing I cut and pasted. I am still thinking about this layering business. I guess it relates to quiltmaking. I am also still not knowing what to draw, but I guess cutting and pasting is OK, too. I am thinking about cutting out dozens of these flowers and pasting them all over the walls of my hallway until I can get it painted. It is such a depressing shade of life-sucking beige.

JayeL on My Prize Winning QuiltsSaturday, April 25, 2026
Thank you, as usual, for reading. I was kind of surprised at how many prizes I have won.
Eleanor A. Jackson on My Prize Winning QuiltsSaturday, April 25, 2026
WOW, thank you for sharing all these prize winning quilts. I was delighted to scroll down and take a peak…
JayeL on It Starts and Ends with WomenFriday, April 24, 2026
All excellent points and you echo my thoughts as well. I think in general when people belittle others or ostracize…
Sherri D on It Starts and Ends with WomenFriday, April 24, 2026
Sometimes I think that those words come from insecure men. They are the types that belittle others, put others down,…
JayeL on It Starts and Ends with WomenFriday, April 24, 2026
Excellent points. It is so interesting to hear what others notice in the words. I didn't notice the words you…