spring

Jasmine Quilt All Finished!

June 10, 2022 By Wendy Cohen 15 Comments

I started this create spring quilt that was inspired by jasmine back in late April / early May. You can see the first post on this quilt here. I have been working on this quilt little by little on the weekends and really tried to take my time. Well, it is now finished. Yes, it is finished. I tried to take my time on every step of this quilt and as always, tried something new.

As a reminder, this is the fabric that I started with from Simplify by Camille Roskelley.

The pattern is from Fresh Vintage Sewing by Fig Tree Quilts.

Quilt Pattern

One of the great parts about this quilt is that the blocks are very large and the quilt comes together fairly quickly for such a large quilt. The one thing I might do differently next time is pick a slightly darker color for the inside of the star blocks. I selected a light green dot on white background fabric which doesn’t show well unless you are in person. This is the quilt top below before any borders were added or before Baja the yellow lab curled up in this chair!

This quilt has two borders; first a smaller framing border followed by a larger and wider border. Check out an earlier post for my method of measuring and making your borders perfect. You can see this post here.

Here is the finished quilt top. This is when the next step begins of adding your batting and backing. This was such a large quilt that I had to find just the right place to layer the batting and backing. Here’s the link to the tutorial on how I create my quilt sandwiches…

Finished Quilt Top … Before Quilting

Here is the quilt in the midst of quilting. I quilt my quilts on my Bernina machine which sometimes can take some muscle given the throat size of the machine and the need to navigate a large quilt through. I quilted the entire quilt over a series of two days so that I didn’t wear out my shoulders.

Quilting the Top

I typically use a stippling pattern to quilt most of my quilts simply because it is what I am most comfortable with. Over the last two years, I have branched out and tried some different patterns. This time, I decided to quilt some designs that just seemed right for this quilt.

Quilting Close Up

Here is the completed quilt with the binding added on. You will see that I used several quilt methods throughout the quilt including using some special quilting in the blocks themselves as shown above, stippling on the border and a wavy pattern on on the corners near the appliqué. The tutorial for my appliqué method is on a post a few weeks ago and you can see it here.

Jasmine Quilt All Finished

I used a scallop/stripe fabric for the binding in a green fabric which turned out really well. I tend to love stripes for binding as they add just the right element to the edge of a quilt. It’s like a good picture frame.

Close Up Applique Detail with Blanket Stitch

And, here is the finished quilt hanging in the fresh air.

Jasmine Quilt All Finished

This was a fun quilt to make. I even added my own elements of appliqué to the quilt which were not included in the original pattern. I was inspired by the blooming jasmine in my yard initially and my inspiration turned into this. Take not of the inspiration in your everyday world….you will be surprised what you notice.

Jasmine Quilt All Finished

If you are interested in purchasing this quilt, you can now buy it on etsy. Check out my etsy store here.

Filed Under: applique, create, flowers, garden, inspiration, quilt, sewing Tagged With: create, jasmine, quilt, sew, spring

15 Comments

Easter…Hopping into town…

March 25, 2023 By Wendy Cohen 2 Comments

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I really have no idea why, but it is. Maybe is because some magical bunny is supposed to come in the middle of the night and leave a basket of fun stuff. Or, maybe it is because my mom was always so creative on Easter with the small little trinkets that can fit into an Easter basket. It seems better than Christmas because it all had to be contained within that little basket which made the small finds even better.

The older I get, the less “stuff” I keep around to decorate for each holiday. The reality is that I have just kept and continued to collect the things that I love rather than just a bag of “easter stuff”. It makes each holiday worth looking forward to and makes the unpacking of all the little treasures even more fun. So, rather than decorate my entire house, I pick several key areas and create small vignettes. It makes it fun and challenging.

One of my favorite Easter things is this tree that my mom got for me over five years ago. It is great with it’s painted eggs and other items I have added over time. I kind of think every holiday should have a tree….don’t you?

Here is a closeup of the painted wood eggs.

I used the chandelier over the table to drape a cute egg garland.

And, a few of my favorite Easter accessories. A crunchy old rabbit and some stuffed carrots that I placed in some decorative glass bowls on either end of the spring table runner. I even crunched up a green table napkin in the bottom for a little extra color.

A close up of the egg garland.

I added some wicker/weaved charger plates and some colored napkins to the kitchen bar in bright spring colors. It brought a whole new life to the kitchen without much work.

Here’s a bigger view of the table.

I also spend a little time decorating the inside of my china hutch with some colored eggs placed in the vases and a little easter garland. It really added a nice touch without much effort.

What are your Easter traditions? What are your favorite decorations?

Hop Hop

Filed Under: create, entertaining, garden, inspiration, photo Tagged With: bunny, Calendar, Christianity, Easter, Easter Bunny, Easter egg, Holiday, Religion and Spirituality, spring, table, Traditions, vignette

2 Comments

Spring Quilt

February 20, 2023 By Wendy Cohen 9 Comments

I started this little quilt a few weeks ago from some fabrics that were already in my stash. The main squares in the middle of the quilt were from a stack of fabrics from Camille Roskelley. I love the combination of the red and the light turquoise which happens to be her signature color combination. Then, I added some other fabrics along the way for the borders. This quilt was not pencilled out or designed before I started sewing. Rather, I just let the fabric selection and final design come to me as I stitched. So, we pick up the quilt here:

Measuring for the Second 6" Border

I love adding borders to quilts. I have tried all different styles and sizes and each quilt wants a different type of border. You just have to pull different colors out and see how they work. And, then play with sizes. I ended up doing three borders on this quilt. A 2″ border in white to frame the squares in the middle. A 4″ turquoise border and then a 6″ border in the large pink floral. The other thing that I paid attention to is the colors that were in the quilt that I wanted to highlight. In this case, it was the pale turquoise and pink. Also, you will notice the scale of the print on the two border fabrics is quite different; the turquoise with a smaller scale print and the pink with a larger scale print. I didn’t particularly plan it, but I do know that you want to change up scales of print throughout your designs. Too many large scale prints next to each other is often offensive to the eye and too many small scale prints makes it too busy. Rely on your eye and play with combinations.

Pinning is the Key

My tips for making sure your borders fit correctly:

Measure your border size using the middle of your quilt and not the ends. If your quilt is “wonky” and not perfectly square at the corners, this will help to straighten it up. Measure from the middle, but the border and then attach to the end of the quilt.
Now, if the size is not exact, you will need to stretch or bunch up the border and then pin. You want to spread out the excess or the lack of fabric across the entire edge. Trust me - we all create “wonky” quilts at one point or another. The border is the trick to fixing this. Be patient and don’t get too pissed off.
Pinning is the key to making sure that your borders are affixed correctly and match up end to end.
DO NOT measure your border at the end and then free sew. Your quilt will be worse off…trust me. Been there…done that.

Close Up of Front Panel

When your front panel is all done, make sure you iron really good so that it is ready to be sandwiched with the batting you have selected and the back. I like to create the backs to my quilts so that they have a little bit of personality. When I first started quilting, I hated doing anything on the back because I just wanted to get the quilt finished. Now, I like to take my time so that the front and the back are just as nice. The product of a good pressing job is that the back of your panel looks like the photo below. Well, kind of…there are still a few seems that need to be repressed. By the way, I hate ironing my clothes….but, I do iron my quilts.

Back of the Front Panel - The Iron is Your Friend

Then, it is off to creating the quilt sandwich: front, batting and the back. I always use 3M 303 spray adhesive to create the quilt sandwich. It is the quickest and easiest way to do this…I have tried all different ways and this is my preferred method. Then, I quilt. I use my own Bernina to quilt all of my quilts. I drop the feed dogs and go for it. The next few pics show some closeups of the quilting. I just used the standard stipple (meandering) pattern.

Quilting Close Up

sfdsdf

Quilting Close Up

And, here is the finished product.

She's All Done

Perfect Spring Quilt

Here’s a quick snapshot of the back of the quilt and my label….I wasn’t very good at labeling my quilts in the beginning. Now, I label all of them. You never know where they will end up (or where I will end up).

Back is Matching

This quilt is up for sale at my etsy store. Check it out here>>>> Spring Quilt on Etsy

My next quilt is already rolling around in my head. It has something to do with green pastures and cute sheep. Stay Tuned! Have a lovely day and do more of WHAT YOU LIKE!