Monday, October 20, 2008

Happiness Is A Butterfly

I finished piecing together my Butterfly Garden wall hanging. So beautiful and graceful, my butterflies are sure to bring a little sunshine indoors this winter. Take flight my little butterflies. It's time to ride the wind!


Now, for the quilting. In the magazine it was done in an allover design, by machine. Even over the butterflies and flowers. My machine quilting has not advanced past the straight line. One day I will be brave, but on something much smaller.

This is the part that gives me the most trouble. Deciding what to do. One idea that came to mind was to stipple (by hand) around the butterflies and flowers. Any suggestions? Even suggestions for machine quilting. You never know, maybe by the time I get around to quilting it, I will have advanced past straight line quilting!


I managed to fill a large tote bag with lots of goodies at the Creativ Festival, in Toronto this past weekend. One exciting purchase was Sashiko supplies. As you can see, the packages are written in Japanese, so I will have to do a little research before giving it a try. Maybe I can incorporate them into little quilts. Sashiko means "little stabs," so I am told.


I completed this month's Noah's Ark Stitchery BOM. I'm thinking this one is my favourite. The Tortoises and Birds block.
I made my second Dear Jane block. Click here to have a look.

Until next week.....happy quilting!


Karen

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your butterfly garden. If you are not feeling confident enough to stipple or do some type of fill in, you could do a simple cross hatch. I just finished my tortoise block too, just last night. I love it!

Funoldhag said...

What a beautiful quilt - and a great name. Good job! I know how you feel about machine quilting when you first start out. I was so hesitant when it actually came to quilting something I had put a lot of time in. I did a lot of straight line quilting with my walking foot. Keep on practicing and playing with it - eventually it just seems that you gain control - well, most of the time, anyway. And, if you look closely at some of the quilts in the magazines, you will see that they are by no means perfect but look wonderful anyway!! And, your Dear Jane blocks are really neat.
Carol

Betsy said...

Karen your beautifly quilt is lovely. Like you I always have a hard time deciding how to quilt something. I am sure that yours will look wonderful.

Sand and Sunshine said...

I also was thinking perhaps you could try diagonal lines, the spacing of the butterflies would suit quilting that way nicely. I did a perinatal quilt that way and it quickly and came out just beautiful.

Your BOM is cute!

Lattemama said...

Thank you for the kind comment you left on my quilt.

Your butterfly quilt is gorgeous. I have no suggestion on how to quilt it though - sorry. I'm like you, straight (sometimes a little wave) line machine quilting is my game at the moment.

Anonymous said...

I love the quilt with the butterflies. I love butterflies in all forms and colors. I think it will be nice in whatever quilting you will do. I'm not very good at machine quilting other forms than a straight line, but I've tried and it doesen't take that much practice to get it to look allright.

Tanya said...

I always get hung up on what to do with quilting too. I keep falling back on Stitch-in-the-ditch.

Hope you like your sashiko projects. I have seen the same kits in Japan so you know they are authentic! I think you'll be okay if you just remember to hide the knots. The stitches don't have to be as small as quilting stitches.

I need to get to my Noah's Ark Stitchery this month still...

BizarreQuilter said...

Oh! your Noah's Ark stitchery block is divine! You even have the logs around it! I just started the blocks this week. I guess I'd better post some pictures.

I would cross-hatch as well (for the butterflies). You can go right across the applique if you like, or background fill.

You can use dissolvex (water soluble thread) to baste it first.

Loz in Oz

Gabi said...

Oh, how wonderful colours! Your butterfly garden is so beautiful! I like it very much!

Lisa said...

Ah! I love the butterfly quilt! It's so happy!