Seams French

New Blocks and Layout Ideas Despite other commitments and projects, my scrap II is still in the works and pretty much on schedule. (The goal being 366 scrap blocks this year.) Without too much cutting required, I managed to make 3 more sets of "winged" creature blocks from this particular collection of pre-cuts scraps. This swarm of on-point dragonflies just emerged quite accidentally as I was trying to find another way to build a butterfly. I call these "Kimono Butterflies". There are many images for similar blocks on-line, so I adapted the pattern as best I could to use up my pre-cut shapes. With the few bits and pieces of left over appliqued 1" quarter circles, a small swarm of "buggy things" emerged. Because there are so many pre-cut strips left over from the same project as the appliqued quarter circles, I just started sewing them together in sets of 3, knowing (well hoping), that the maths should work out. It has. Hurray! M

Butterflies, Shamrocks, Hummingbirds and Gardenias Having undergone many rethinks, redraws and reworkings over the last 3 or 4 years, the shamrocks, hummingbirds, butterflies and gardenias have finally found a way to play together on this quilt. Back in 2013 I started experimenting with some ideas on the machine , but then the project got shelved for a few years.  Because the quilt is for both of us, I asked my husband to participate in the design layout. For the last few months it has passed back and forth from my table to his computer and finally, we have come up with something that we can both be happy with. The quilt is a silk whole cloth, 100" x 100" (20" drop on three sides), with the central design layout of 60" x 80" covering the mattress of a queen size bed and will be machine quilted. (More on the layout in a future post). The inspiration for the design started with a ceramic butterfly that we have had since we were married. (A photo of it is in

The second boutis "Cathedral Window" that I started back in February is well under way. (To get the right lighting for photographing white on white is almost impossible, (very frustrating) so I have included two variations of the same photo, hoping that the pattern will be visible on at least one of them.) Just as in machine quilting, when stitching boutis, the first step is to stabilize and secure the major design lines, working from the center out. So, starting at the center rose, all of the large arches and channels radiating from it were stitched first. Black and white photo of the entire design. Colour image of the same photo. Next, I continued with the first inner row of half arches, working the short, middle bar towards the rosette, and then on to the smaller arch. From there, each following segment in the circumference will be stitched sequentially. Some of the most impressive antique boutis quilts that I saw in France were stitched only wit