Shine Together Quilt SAL

Last week, as I sewed the block pieces together, I challenged myself to perfect all the seam connections. If the seams were off by a 2/8, I ripped it off and sewed it again. All the seams are pressed open and then held down with a wooden piece of wood. Nope, it's not a clapper-pressing tool but a part of a cut-off wooden rail. It works!

All the fabrics for Shine Together are from my stash and NOT from a bundle. Starching all the fabric beforehand helped with the accuracy of piecing, and the fabric stretched less when pressed.

This block took about ninety minutes to sew as there were many little pieces, and as you can see, I didn't rend the seams that weren't perfectly aligning. Tough decision? Nope.

                                                                Back of the block

One of the Barn Star Sample block with seams pressed opened. It is no a rule, it's a preference

                                                            Shine Together Block

Because I didn't purchase the fabric bundle suggested by the designer, I had to correlate my fabrics with the collection. Then, I would be clear when I followed the cutting instructions.

DIY- Design Boards

With only six "12 square DIY design boards, it became evident I would need more as I precut many blocks for a productive chain. I  decided to make additional design boards of the size of "15 and "12 squares. I used foam boards, flannel fabric, spray baste, iron, and a glue-stick for this project. I omitted the binding for the edges for now.

 

I trimmed the flannel fabric with a generous one-inch from the foam edge. The corners were cut off to facilitate the folding and gluing of the flannel on the back of the foam. Then, I sprayed the foam board on one side to adhere to the flannel and flattened the fabric with the iron.

I folded the edges at the back of the board and glued them. Then, I pressed the edges with my hands before ironing them to seal the glue further. The design board is so functional. Eventually, I may sew the binding on those boards.

Let's Go Quilt!

Abide in Him- Enjoying my Own Design

Finally, seeing Abide in Him displayed on the living room wall gives us joy and creative achievement, which we can share with others. Inspired by one verse of the Book of John 15, I drew this original inspiration roughly with a pencil and a small pad and later drew it better on vellum paper.

 

The wall quilt is 40" x 40". Over three hundred leaves were cut out from fabric scraps, and I then glued them on the background fabric. For the edges, I faced them, "Facing is a great option for a clean, modern look and is becoming more common for wall hangings"~Tiny Orchard Quilts.

 

 

                                                                       Leaves

                                                                   GRASS

                                                                            HAIR

The free-motion simple designs still created motion and texture to the design. It was tedious to quilt over the loose leaves. I quilted most of the wall hanging on the Cutie frame and the rest with the Janomee 7700. 

 

MISTAKE

  From the beginning, I was not too fond of the face; the nose was too big, the chin to pronounce, and the lips were nonexistent. Well, that's what happens when you are not a drawing artist- you do your best.
Even after I sewed, colored, and quilted the face, the face still bothered me, but I ignored the BIG UGLINESS. Maybe, after all, it was only my perfectible attitude or pride; whatever it was, I couldn't  let it go.

                                 BEFORE

After quilting the entire wall hanging, I showed it to my husband, whose first response was, "The face looks like a skeleton!"  My response to his critique was, "That's it! I have to ripe it out and draw a new one." And I did. My goodness, it was worth it!

It took an entire hour to rip off the face. The quilting was so small, I had to rip off the thread with twizer.    

                                    AFTER

Lesson learn: If it bother you, really badly. Don't hesitate to redo your work or mistake. It worth it!

 

I'm thinking of drawing shadow with a coloring pencil at the edge of the face to make it more distinct from the sky-background. Yep, I'm a bit scare of screwing this up.
 

Let's go...design another quilt!

 

 

Resource

 

Tiny Orchard Quilts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vifmwrEUDeQ