This past weekend I finally bit the bullet and sewed up the first set of borders for my version of Bramble Blooms I.
I decided to go with my original idea and make all four border panels from the same stylized yukata fabric, adding half-circle applique accents in areas of plain background along the inside edges. You might be aware that floral yukata fabrics often reverse direction of the design every so often, which facilitates the creation of kimonos with both front and back being right-side-up without the necessity of cutting and creating shoulder seams. This reversal happened in the top border you see above.
I'm quite happy with the way this border turned out, but am still not totally happy with my center panel. It seems like it needs "something" but I don't know what. Perhaps a bird or a butterfly? Appliqued or embroidered, or quilted? I'm open to any and all suggestions!
Aside from this project, I spent the majority of January cleaning up the "scrap corner" of the sewing room. All the random piles are now neatly housed in smallish bins of several size squares, narrow strips, "wide" strips generally over 2-1/2 inches, long lengths of binding, and a big bin called "chunks." That's pieces larger than 6-1/2 inches but less than a fat quarter. The amazing thing is that I've actually consulted several of those neatly stacked bins when searching for a particular size square, where the piles were totally ignored when they just sat jumbled in the corner.
Remember this quilt top? I've been ever-so-slowly hand quilting it off and on in the evenings.
It should have been done long ago but a piece of rogue batting got used for this one, and it's a bugger to needle. I'm hoping to finish hand quilting the last three panels in the next couple weeks, and then machine quilt all the sashings/borders and be done with it.
The historic panel quilt is partially quilted now, awaiting the day when the table around the Janome is cleared so that project can proceed. The panel itself is now hand quilted, but the borders are being machine quilted. Soon I hope.
Well, this is enough for one post. We're expecting a snowstorm mid-week after several days of mid-50s this past week. A very strange winter for sure.
Til next time, happy quilting!
11 comments:
Loving your borders on Bramble--really so pretty!! That Yukata fabric is just beautiful--and the red 1/2 circles go so well--nice work and choices...
hugs, Julierose
Your Bramble Bloom is gorgeous! I love the added red half-circles. I didn't know yukata was printed in both direction. That's interesting and logic. What if you add another tulip? I'm thinking a fallen one that would have its stem on one side, disappear behind the vase and reappear on the other side with its bloom. Just thinking out loud. You have lovely projects to work on. Enjoy! ;^)
Your center for Bramble Blooms turned out terrific. The border treatment is so lovely. I wouldn't change a thing. You're making good progress with your hand quilting. It's so frustrating when the batting doesn't turn out as expected because your choices are to unpick or just keep on going. I usually choose to just finish it up and love the quilt anyway.
This may be a repeat comment, sorry, not sure if my first comment went through. I love your Bramble Blooms center and your border. The yukata fabric is lovely. It no fun quilting when it is that difficult. I need to do some scrap clean up too!
Loving the use of your Yukota fabric! If you want the whimsical look, just put a little bird or butterfly on the tip of one of the flowers. It will make it a little more sweet. Not that it needs anything necessarily, but sometimes our quilt wants what it wants.:)
Beautiful! I think your colors look wonderful together and I like the addition of the half-circles around the border. Your corner blocks look great, especially with the addition of the yellow/gold centers.
I think your center panel is fine as is but adding something would work, too.
Isn't it great when you go to the effort of cleaning/sorting and it becomes useful? I sorted and haven't looked at those boxes since. I should probably pull them out for fabric for 9-patches.
It's frustrating to hand quilt through unfriendly batting. So sorry it's happened to you.
I love your quilt with the historic panel, and especially the arrangement of the stars around the edges.
What a wonderful layout! I love the large print border with 1/2 circles interspersed around the tulip block. The corner album blocks really anchor the piece nicely I like the simplicity of the center the way it is. But it's always fun to play around to try and figure out what's lacking--if anything:) You're making lots of progress on your other projects, too! Great post!
Your Bramble Blooms is lovely. I think that the lower corners of the center block appear empty because of the upward slant of the vase. You could try a flower lying horizontally along the base. Did you fussy-cut the yutaka? The little circles add visual balance....And your other projects and discoveries -- such fun!
Hi, I had a wonderful time reading your catch up on projects and learned something too. I love kimonos and had no idea about how their fabrics were specially formatted as it were. Your border there matches your main blooms perfectly. It is all looking wonderful. Maybe a butterfly or two could be added if you wanted.
Yes, the batting has to be easy to stitch through. I've learned about that the hard way! Great progress on your all your projects.
It's good to visit your blog again after not spending much time on blogs for a while! Your projects are lovely. The circus quilt is so cute and I love the panel. In fact I have the same panel and my granddaughter saw it at the quilt shop in a Yamhill barn that was going out of business around the time that we moved here. I made it into a pillow and wish I had another panel like it. I wonder what you will do with the home dec fabric that is so pretty. I love those colors and will loo forward to seeing what you do with it.
Your yukata fabric works so well with the half circles and the corner blocks. Great choice to use that beautiful fabric here.
Since you aren’t happy with the center, have you looked at Audrey’s current post where she’ made an improv vase with flowers. Her vase had handles, etc and she had some exotic flowers. The floral motif in your yukata is exotic; that may be what made me think of it. Whatever you do will be wonderful as all your other quilts.
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