Monday, September 29, 2008

Apple Season


"The goldenrod is yellow
The corn is turning brown
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down."
- Children's song

Still a work in progress, I thought I would show you my little apple core quilt. Back in March 2007, I cut out 285, 2 inch apple cores. It took me several days to arrange them into rows, as I did not have equal amounts of apple cores in each of the fabrics. This making it a bit of a challenge.

I didn't begin hand piecing until July and over the next month I pieced together nineteen rows. About mid-September I began piecing the rows together. That's when the troubles began. Being so small and all the curves, just holding it was a problem. I had a hard time at the intersections and would sometimes get a stitch or two showing on the top of the quilt. The harder I tried the worse it got. So, needless to say, I spent less and less time working on it.

Once back at it, I decided it was time to finish it. It did get better. I stopped looking at each intersection as I past over them and only had a peek at the end of the rows. All rows were pieced together by the end of May 2008. It wasn't hard to come up with a name for this quilt. Bad Apple sounded about right. Until about a week ago, my apple cores were tucked away. They now hang on my little design wall. So, the question now is.....how should I finish off this quilt?

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the quilt and the name seems to fit it perfectly! Finishing it off...hmmm...definitely no borders and I think either echo quilting in each "apple core" or a nice overall machine quilting.

distelfliege said...

Thanks for visiting me :)
Wow, so much handpiecing work in this quilt!
I would finish it with a border in solid dark red fabric, matching the red print.

Betsy said...

they are lovely

Sharyn Mallow Woerz said...

That is so beautiful. I wonder if Linda Franz has the apple core one of her 3 Inklingo collections?
Your photography is outstanding on your blog, great job all around. Sharyn/KalamaQuilts

Anonymous said...

Your quilt is gorgeous - there is something very special about traditional hand-piecing - hand quilt it as well. I have a dream to hand-piece a quilt too one day - you inspire me to start it.  

Funoldhag said...

I salute you, Karen, for an absolutely gorgeous quilt and for sticking with it to a beautiful finish. Your fabrics are wonderful. I don't think it needs anything more than to be bound and simply quilted. Outstanding!!

BizarreQuilter said...

What a feat of endurance! I am proud of you!

I wouldn't add any border, but I would quilt it (apple centres and seeds???) and add a bias binding on in a reddish colour.

It's not a Bad Apple though.

What about "The Fruit Of My Labour"? To me, this demonstrates a worthwhile result from your persistence and determination.

Susan J Barker said...

I tried this one patch pattern many years ago and got frustrated by it, maybe I should consider it once again, since now I am more experienced! Your work on it has inspired me, maybe enough for a cushion cover...
Thanks too, for stopping by Miss Snips Notebook, I love it when people leave comments!

Sand and Sunshine said...

I love being able to pick the name of my quilts. Bad Apple seems just right for this bit of victory. You have done a lovely job.

Sand and Sunshine said...

OH! You have Eleanor Burn's "Egg Money Quilts"! I have that one at the top of my wish list now. When I went to buy it last time, Joann's had sold out of them.

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed! I'm thinking of making "log cabin centers" out of a "nine patch" of apple cores, and tried to piece 2" apple cores on machine. It didn't work. So, now I'll try by hand, and seeing yours make me believe it can actually be done :-)