DIVIDED BLOOMS QUILT 🌸

The Divided Blooms Quilt is one of my favorite quilts.  The pattern is by Carolyn Murfitt of Freebird Quilting in Australia.  Carolyn is a longarm quilter so she designed this pattern with lots of negative space in it so that there is lots of room to do free motion quilting.  

I hand appliquéd all of the petals and then pieced the quilt together.  

While I did all of the appliqué I binge watched all nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother on Amazon.  Then I put it on the longarm to quilt. All in all it took me almost three months to make this. 

When I started to quilt I found that I couldn't free motion quilt any more.  All of my muscle memory was gone.  I had just had brain surgery where they removed a tumor from my head and something must have messed with my brain.  Everything looked liked the first time I had ever tried to quilt.  I sat down and cried.  Especially since I had saved this quilt to do until now when I would be a more accomplished quilter because I wanted it to be perfect for my niece. 

Finally, I just decided that I had learned it once and I could learn it again, so I went out and bought yards of cheap fabric and practiced. 

I finally put the quilt back on and went ahead.

I used Quilter's Dream Wool Batting so that when I quilted in the ditch around the petals they would pop out.

I used Isacord 40 weight thread.  #02922 Muslin on the top and Glide #38201 Steel Blue in the bobbin.  I used a Schmetz Topstitch 90/14 needle.  

I cut the borders larger than the pattern required.  I cut them at 3.5 inches which left a 3" border after stitching.  This gave me room to FMQ my signature leaves around the border.  I did the top and bottom border and then took the quilt off the frame and turned it ninety degrees so that I could do the side borders.

I got this quilt done the day before we left for up north.  My sister and her husband were celebrating their 50'th Wedding Anniversary and this quilt was for their daughter.  

Remember to pick up a needle and thread and stitch some love into your world❣️

My Master Quilt Holder at work.

The Winter Village Quilt

The Winter Village Quilt is a pattern by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts. This quilt features  a little village with bluebirds in the foreground sitting on branches with berries. The original pattern also includes snowflakes but I did not use them.  I wanted it to be an all season quilt.

I am making a quilt for everyone in my family.  I try to match the quilt with the individual.  My first niece, who is also my first godbaby, is a hugely successful realtor so when I saw this quilt with all of its different houses I thought I'd make it for her home office and then make her another quilt for her living room space.  

I really took my time with this quilt.  I used Best Press on every inch of the fabric, matched the corners to perfection and squared everything off.  Then it came time to do the appliqué.  The kit came with laser appliqués that you iron on and then machine appliqué down.  Instead I ordered the additional"snippets" which are laser cut but with an additional 1/4 inch so that I could hand appliqué them.  When you hand appliqué you turn the fabric under and there is no loose threads or shredding when washing the quilt.  Hand appliquéing takes a very long time to do but I wanted everything perfect.  

Life, however, took a decided turn when I was ready to start appliquéing the birds and branches.  I was admitted to the ER where they found a tumor in my head and told me I would have to have it surgically removed.  I had some time before the surgery but nowhere near enough time to hand appliqué the birds and branches.  I was nervous about the surgery because my care in the ER had been absolutely horrible.  I have had, so far, four calls from different hospital heads to apologize for everything that happened but my experience there made me extremely nervous about my upcoming surgery and I was not feeling good about the outcome.  I wanted this quilt done before I went into the hospital in case something happened.  This meant that I had to use the fusible appliqués that came with the pattern and then machine quilt those on to save time.  The problem with that is that my 47 year old ELNA sewing machine no longer has a zig zag that works well, which I found out while doing this.  It runs beautifully for straight stitching but not so well anymore for zig zagging.  The result was far from perfect but I could only hope it wouldn't be too noticeable once everything was done. 

I did not think I would get the quilt done in time.  I wanted it quilted.  I was not going to worry about the binding because that could always be added.  But I had set myself a formidable task ... I was determined to quilt the background in orange peels.  Tiny little orange peels.  Orange peels that would need to be tucked behind the houses and in between the branches.  You have to be a longarm quilter to understand the complexity of that task. I used my 1.5 inch BERNINA circle ruler and did each orange peel by hand. This took forever but I finished.  I was even able to machine stitch the binding to the front of the quilt, just not hand stitch it to the back.

The tiny 1.5 inch BERNINA circle ruler.

In the photos beneath you can see the difference in the pieced top and the quilted top.  The quilting adds texture and definition.

While making this quilt I took part in the #IGQuiltFest2021 where you post pictures for 31 days on Instagram for different sewing prompts. Also, of note I got my COVID shot.  I received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that had one dose instead of two.  As I waited at the Veteran's Administration to get the shot I told my husband that if anyone would have told me last year that I would be standing in line at the VA after having had brain surgery to receive a vaccination for a worldwide pandemic I would have called them crazy.  How quickly the world can tip on its side when we least expect it.

I used Quilter's Dream Orient batting for this quilt.  It's made from silk, bamboo and cotton.  The result is a hand that is soft and drapeable.  I used Glide thread in Mercury for the bobbin with a TOWA tension of 200.  And Glide thread in Sky and Linen for the top with a normal tension of 4.0. 

While quilting I was able to let go of my nervousness and fear and instead focus on my blessings ... my family, friends and faith.  

Everything turned out well with my surgery.  I even came home early. My recovery lasts 3 months.  As I sat in a comfy chair I hand stitched the binding a little each day until finally on my tenth day home I finished the quilt. I'm feeling very blessed to be home and to be healthy!  God is Good!

 

Remember to pick up a needle and thread and stitch some love into your world❣️

My husband and my master quilt holder!