Hello,

I'm a belgian quilter since 16 years, who loves appliqué and the designs of Kim McLean. So about a month ago i was absolutely thrilled to discover i could buy her designs at glorious.com.After receiving them (one of the best days so far this year) i procrastinated what to do and decided to start on lollipops because i figured it would be relatively portable, ideal for vacation and soon to happen trip to Birmingham Festival of quilts. I also decided that allthough i love working with Kaffe's fabrics, i would make it from my existing stash, with fabrics i bought years ago and now can hardly figure out what to do with them since taste and experience have evolved. I see that as my challenge. I'm still sewing my first block(very slowly), because i don't have the time to prepare the second one before leaving for Birmingham. The background fabric was supposed to be a backing (extra wide) but i changed its destiny.
Happy sewing,
Françoise

I have begun the Roseville Album quilt after seeing the pattern on Kathie's blog. Ordered the 10 yards of background fab and pattern from Glorious Color with speedy delivery. I love that the pattern is full sized. Washed the whole shebang and held my breath while cutting all the blocks and borders of the background. I need to prep the circles before the first block can be called complete.

I had started the Lollypop Trees in June, using the blocks from EQ, downsizing them to 14". I used background fab that I had on hand, so can only make 12 blocks.

I love the Kaffe fabs and am learning how to work with them, but have a ways to go. I am enjoying seeing the blocks that have been posted so far and see that we have a lot of the same fabs to work from.

Back to sewing circles.

Mary

Oooh's and Aaahs!

I've been studying the beautiful blocks & quilts on this blog for many hours/days and been absolutely blown away by the incredible work--and stunned to realize how fast you all are!

Feeling guilty about being a lurker, I've asked to participate. I've been slow to decide, realizing this is a major commitment, and I have a tendency to jump from one unfinished project to another. But this one (I tell myself) will enable me to be more social in the evenings with my husband, appliquing nearer him instead of sewing away in the back bedroom. And this project will be just for me. I haven't yet decided which quilt I will make--currently vacilating between the Roseville and the new one coming out in September. I plan to use a brighter color palette, but that will also depend on what I find for my background.
I do have one question to ask. I would love to have some pointers as to fabric selection. Which fabrics do you find work the best (styles or patterns or whatever) or which do not work well for the individual pieces or even for the background. Are there any tricks or other pointers you've learned thus far that would be helpful in the fabric selection area? Any specific fabrics you use and think are "necessities"? Any other supplies you recommend as being must haves? I haven't appliqued in years, and it seems like there are so many new products and fabrics on the market.

Hopefully I'll have my fabric picked out and be making progress in September--until then I will be watching with deep appreciation and many ooh's and aahs. Thanks for including me!
Donna

today I HOPE to make the bias stems and then baste down my block and start appliquéing.
I chose to do the basket as a whole as I just thought this fabric was perfect for a basket!
this is the bottom right hand corner block.

I am really looking forward to everyone starting this quilt and sharing their blocks with us!

Has anybody seen blocks on blogs if so let us know the blog addy, maybe they need an invitation to join us here as well

Kathie

Oopsy!

Dear Janet - how could I ever doubt you - no I didn't really!!!

I started from scratch again and look at this! First I made sure I used the right Floriani product, traced onto it - turned and glued the edges with a Sewline glue stick - then blind stitched. Laundered in hand-wash, soaked for say 20 mins and hung on the line to dry. Made a little snip on the background behind the leaf, used my little dolly forceps to gently ease out the fusible webbing!

Oh, you are a Clever Little Duck, Janet - thank you - one of the nicest little girls on earth! Maybe one day I will do a more explicit tutorial for Dumbos like me!

Hugs - Lurline♥

Slowly, but Surely!

That's the way it has been - very, very enjoyable, too! I really do love playing with the pretty, bright repros - as you will notice, I do not use a lot of fabrics of the Civil War era, a little too dull for me.
I made some stems using the Clover bias maker - then reverted back to the Hera marker. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, lol! I really like using a striped fabric for stems and this is a real pretty brown by Australian designer, Michelle Marvig - soft colour and lovely in a nice texture, too. It is from the Suzani range.

Look closely at the centre - you will see a little cross made with stitches - this is how I line up the block when I trim back. I do use a blue pen at times and try to remove it as soon as possible. I have had only one disaster and that was in the days when the brown pens were around - thanks goodness it was able to be rectified!

I am not really proud of my stitches and shouldn't be showing closeups, but at least I am getting something done with my poor little chicken wings - at least I am managing to achieve nice little points still!

I have been using the freezer paper method to do my applique - sometimes the weight of the iron takes it's toll on my arm - I would love to achieve Janet's results using her method, but somehow I can't get the fibre out from the back of the shape - just had a thought- maybe I should soak it for a little while longer in soapy water - I'll try that! If anyone can help, please do.

My goodness, I haven't done a lot of talking as of late - I am having a really comfortable day today, so it is nice to chat!

Happy weekend - hugs - Lurline♥

Partial Block 1

Okay, friends, and fellow crazed ones, here is what I've accomplished thus far. The two pink leaves are just pinned.........they were the first two fabrics I picked, and I read what Pam said about "trusting my choices", but, if y'all feel they are too "soft,   please let me know.  My thinking was that the outer dots, and birds would pull them into the design. Please don't hesitate to be completely honest  in your opinions, because I truly need you to be! Hope your stitching is going well. Michele