Of Rose Buds and Rotary Phones

Broderie Perse Rosebuds Appliqued

After all that worrying, I finally appliqued my broderie perse rose buds to the center of my Whig Rose block this week, and they weren't as bad as I thought they would be.  Broderie Perse means that I cut the rose buds out of a scrap of my Vervain Monado print drapery fabric (it's 100% cotton, very lightweight, and I did prewash it). 

Monado print from Vervain, Havana colorway

 

I used Jeanne Sullivan's Patch Back product to give the rose buds a little dimension and preturned the fabric edges with glue stick, then used Roxanne's Glue Baste It to secure them in place for stitching. 

As you can see, the rose buds that initially appeared to be identical in the drapery fabric are more obviously NOT identical now that I've stitched them onto the dark brown fabric.  I think that's okay.  What may or may not be okay is that now the center of my Whig Rose block bears an uncanny resemblance to a rotary telephone dial: 

Would it help if I tried to squish additional rose buds between each of these to reduce the rotary dial effect, or should I leave it alone?  It would be a pretty tight fit if I tried to add more rose buds.  Alternatively, I could do some kind of embroidered embellishment between the rose buds.  Who knows -- maybe the rotary phone dial look will grow on me.

Tulip Thingys Up Next

Next up for this block will be the tulip thingys, or whatever they are supposed to be.  Today I think they look like Daffy Duck footprints.  I've already reverse appliqued the centers, and now the challenge will be in needle turning the tight outer curves smoothly as I stitch these onto the block.  Wish me luck!  I'll try to take the sharp curves slowly, just turning enough for one stitch at a time, and hope for the best.


Tulip, or Daffy Duck Foot Print?

Before I get back to more hand stitching, though, I have to dust off Sergei the Serger and thread him up for a cover stitch.  This will require a consult with his instruction manual, since I haven't done it in awhile.  The BBC Shop only sells Dr. Who tee shirts in adult sizes, and I bought Anders an adult size small that needs to be shortened for him lest anyone mistakes it for a nightgown!

I'm linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts today and Anything Goes Monday at Stitch By Stitch.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

More Pineapple Log Cabin Blocks

Six Blocks Finished, Thirty More to Go!

I've been mostly working on my pineapple log cabin blocks over the past week.  I keep telling myself that I'll set it aside when I get bored with it and work on one of my other projects, but I've been having fun experimenting with different fabric combinations and haven't gotten bored yet. 

With the strips finishing at only 3/4" wide in these blocks, it's amazing how everything just goes with everything else.  I have a wild assortment of fabrics that, according to popular wisdom, don't belong together in the same quilt: a few solid brights, some large scaled Kaffe Fassett floral prints that remind me of Mrs. Roper's mumu outfits from Three's Company, some batiks, hand dyed marbles, some reproduction 1930s small scale florals, some Japanese prints, some metallics, and whatever else caught my eye.  For some reason, I am especially liking the way newsprint fabrics, handwriting fabrics, and other printed text fabrics are looking in these blocks, too -- like old newspaper clippings and letters in a scrapbook.

I finally lugged the laundry drying rack upstairs to the studio and hung all of my blue fabric strips on one side and all of my green fabric strips on the other side, mostly freeing up the surface of the desk behind my sewing machine so that I can use my serger or my Featherweights there if I want to. 

Now that I've hung up all the fabric, it doesn't look like I have as much to work with as I thought I did.  I also have not found a good place for it in my room where it's easy for me to see all of the fabric at once, but out of the way of rampaging puppy dogs who occasionally stampede through my room!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.