The 4th boat quilt

Back in October, I showed 3 quilts of sailboats, all from blocks sent by the Bee Inspired group or friends of the group who sent me blocks for children's charity quilts.  People were so generous that I had enough for 4 quilts.  When I posted, the fourth was not yet completed.  Here it is!

When I put the quilts together, I was one boat short.  It was during a time when I was very limited in sewing time and was trying to finish my Island Batik Octopus's Garden quilt.  So instead of piecing another boat, I traced a coloring book page for embroidery--just in time to take to a work conference!  A friend even caught a picture of me stitching during the keynote address. 

photo by K Melnik

We just got back from a 2-day trip to Charleston with my brother-in-law and mother-in-law.  We stayed a place on the water that had a marina, so this morning we took the quilt out to get some pictures with the boats.

The sashing is Kona Black and the quilting is the wave stitch on my sewing machine, meant to simulate the water.  Since my local Project Linus chapter shut down earlier this year, I will be taking these to a local children's hospital--one of the places our chapter donated to regularly.  I need to get in contact with someone there and find out how to drop off the quilts--I've got a bit of a pile building up!

And here's a rare whole-family shot!  It was a beautiful morning.  I'm glad I was able to take boat picture with the boats!  Thanks so much to all the folks who sent me sailboat blocks in the early part of 2019!

Dandelion

I like to have a hand stitching project on hand (pun intended!) when I travel.  I really enjoy embroidery and it makes a great traveling project.  This dandelion was my project for a few trips and I am thrilled to finally have it done!

Several years ago, my mother-in-law was traveling to Europe and asked me what I wanted her to bring me.  I told her I wanted quilting magazines.  Probably not the answer she expected but she delivered.  She brought me this German quilting magazine, Patchwork Professional, February 2014 issue. 

Now, I took German in high school but have lost most of it.  But I didn't need to be able to read it to enjoy the pictures!  This project really caught my eye:

They painted the stem and leaves and dandelion was machine embroidery.  I knew I didn't want to do either of those things, but the picture was fantastic inspiration.  I created my own dandelion using this one as a guide.

I love the shadow in this picture.

I stitched it using DMC Pearl Cotton #8 in White, Sunshine, Lime, Brown, and Dark Brown.  I haven't found a good place locally for hand embroidery supplies.  I bought the Pearl Cotton at the Earth Guild in Asheville.  The background fabric is Kona Niagara and the binding is Kona Leprechaun.  The backing is a fabric that my sister-in-law gave me a few years ago; the selvage is missing so I don't know what it is.  It has these floral spheres that I just love.

I've had the embroidery done for a while but wasn't sure how to quilt it.  I don't really do free motion so swirls around the floating seeds were not an option. I finally decided on straight lines.  I was worried that the quilting would catch on the embroidery stitches but it didn't! 

This quilt was on my list of projects needed for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail and was #10 on my list of Q2 finish along goals.