Category: Embroidery

I’ve been sleeping under the Checkered Dresden quilt for more than a month now. Yes, it is a wonderful quilt. The only thing missing was a label. We are told to label everything, so in the future people will know who made the quilt.I have mentioned before that I don’t feel the need to name every quilt. I’m ok with my name and the year it was made.  I love hand embroidery and probably don’t do enough of it. So for many of my quilt labels, I pull out the embroidery. This is a handkerchief and designs from Sublime Stitching, their patterns are fun, although I think I’m going to branch out and use others as well. Sure I ‘could’ design my own, but so many good designers out there, why not use their products?Why the squirrel? No reason other than I have the pattern, I like the squirrel. It has nothing to do with the quilt top.If I have a squirrel, might as well add an acorn.Squirrel finished.Here is the label. Either the quilt will stay in the family and they will know who I am, or it won’t. Then the only thing the person will know is my name, the year this was made and that I must have liked squirrels.

I recently read a blog post of someone who found a very interesting 1970’s quilt in a vintage store. Later he found the name of the maker and even a citation in a book about that specific quilt. He got in touch with her, she is still quilting and often wondered what happened to that quilt. Clearly, she sent many quilts out into the world. So it was nice that they reconnected.Label attached.  Most of my embroidery ends up on the back of quilts where it really doesn’t get seen. I should consider doing some more visible embroidery, but right now, I’m just happy embroidering and sending it out into the world on my quilts.

I have hit a wall, I am so over this year long project. There are a few reasons for this, there was a break for Christmas, so being out of the habit makes it hard to come back and make two blocks a week.This block is by Latifah Safir, a wonderful quilter I know personally. It represents an airplane. So I went ahead and changed the colors, I think the airplane still comes through. This is the last block I enjoyed making. It was the last one before the break.This one may have been a bonus before the New Year, or not, it was alright.Everything is wrong with this block. The instructions were to cut half square triangles and sew them together. No, I wasn’t going there, but then  there weren’t the dimensions for the final square or flying geese blocks. So it looks wonky and the burn out is setting in.

I skipped two blocks, embroidery, and fussy applique. Just no.So I made my own off center log cabin block. I’m too close to the end to drop it all, although I will need a break before I put the quilt together. This block was a combination of simple piecing, applique, and some embroidery. Let’s just say I really simplified the applique and skipped the embroidery.  Only eight more blocks to go, either I will do them or others of my own choosing.

And now on to something that isn’t painful at all. Embroidery. You’d think with my complaints about the embroidery blocks, that I don’t like this craft. I actually love it, just not on a 6″ quilt block.  Many of my quilt labels are embroidered. It’s that final handmade touch.This is the label for my son’s quilt, an elk of course. The pattern is a transfer pattern from Sublime Stitching. I love the whimsey of these designs and I bought a few packages at Quiltcon last year. The needle keeper is one I got in a gift exchange, nice to use my gifts.This was called a deer head, not an elk, but elk are just bigger deer. There are no stitch instructions, so I have fun pulling out embroidery books and trying different stitches.I made the decision to put the year and my name but not to name the quilt. In the discussion about art and quilts – I fall on the side that quilts are beautiful craft. These days I find no beauty in contemporary art, so feel no need to call myself an artist. I will happily sign my work, but it doesn’t need a name. The image of the elk is name enough.I usually use blanket stitch, I got creative and it didn’t work out so well. Not so bad that I’d tear out the stitching, I’m sure my son and his family will never notice, the elk head is so impressive.A close-up of the embroidery. I love it! I’m so glad I am able to incorporate it into my work.

A quilt needs a label, something to tell you who made this and when. Even if the quilt is staying with me.  I enjoy some hand embroidery, so out come the reference books.I found the Embroiderer’s Handbook at Borders when they were selling everything off before going out of business. One of the best buys I’ve made. I know how to embroider, I follow some good embroidery blogs, but this has become my stitch bible.Gathering the materials.  I have started using Frixon pens. The naysays are worried about the image coming back, I’m not. Even if it does, oh well, sometimes convenience and ease is more important that irrational fears.The Frixon pen disappears when heat is applied. Like an iron. See it works! Unintentionally! I thought I’d iron it out before I went on with my embroidery – big mistake! Luckily I hadn’t thrown away my lettering, so I simply had to recopy.In the second book I found this lovely butterfly. What is better in the garden? Or the Not garden.leftover snippets.Now it is really done!