I have six out of eighteen Sunflowers made and have been at a standstill for awhile on this quilt. I have been embroidering a little each evening on my chicken scratch sashings but ran out of white embroidery thread. I haven't been in the mood to pin baste anything for hand quilting so decided to applique my Sunflowers to some backgrounds. I don't really pull fabrics at the start of a project and I don't buy a lot of large pieces of fabrics (usually a yard or less) so first had to hunt around for pieces I could use for backgrounds in my reproduction stash. I found enough so far for 10 backgrounds so have those ready. I still have to hunt for 8 more backgrounds and decide what to do for side background pieces since this will be set on point. That's a task for another time.
So the last couple of evenings I've been appliqueing Sunflowers to backgrounds. I know there are lots of magic and other ways to add circles to a background but for this one I decided with all those points I would applique by hand because that seams to leave my circles a little less wonky than doing it by machine.
So far I have three down and three more to go. That's what I'll work on the next couple of evenings.
Sunflowers #7 and #8 are in the works. I cut the pieces out by hand since I'm not good at cutting odd shaped pieces with a rotary cutter. Then I machine piece them.
13 comments:
Each new sunflower you post inspires me anew! Got the book and last week found a good deal on the templates, now for some time to search the stash and begin cutting. After working 8 months solely on donation quilts, the next few months are going to be for some of my own projects!
These are beautiful, Cathy. The flying geese sashing will enhance them even more.
I have the same problem with my stash - rarely have more than half a yard and usually less.
Have fun.
I agree hand applique is the way to go on these. Sunbursts or Tree of life blocks are my next project Not quite ready to start but I have started thinking about them.
You Sunflowers are all beautiful! (I just love sunflowers; I even have some growing 8' tall in my rose garden, of all places!) ---"Love"
Love your sunflowers! I'd planned to use repros, too, but when I started pulling fabrics I automatically grabbed the brights. (Go figure...)
Like you, I'm machine piecing the sunflowers and will hand applique them to the backgrounds. You're absolutely right about all those fiddly little points!
Sew impressed with your progress, I tried this block once at the start of my quilting life and failed miserably because my templates were not exact. I love the combinations of fabrics you have used. Enjoy!
OMG! From now on I'm only going to read your blog blindfolded.
Your sunflowers look awesome and I think you are right to applique them! That pattern looks very challenging--you will have a fantastic quilt when you are finished!
What a gorgeous project! Wow that's a lot of flying geese to make!
I like how you just start a project and let it develop based on available fabrics...
and somehow it's always spectacular!
Have I told you before how much I love these sunflowers? They are fabulous! I saw a tutorial for machine sewing circles which I've never tried but it looks appealing. But I think I would be like you with these pieces and applique them by hand. It seems like you're making good progress with them.
Good idea to hand applique the sunflowers to preserve the points! This quilt is going to be spectacular! I really admire how you just dive right in, no matter how intricate the piecing is. Have you ever found a quilt so difficult that you just gave up on it?
where can I get this pattern! Amazing.
These are fascinating sunflowers, the fabric choices are really nice. I like to hand stitch circles using the reverse applique technique. It's really slick.
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