Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Those Trees on My Banner






For those of you who may have wondered what piece of work those trees on this blog's banner came from...I thought I'd give you a little history. It's from a small wall quilt I made called "A Bit of Heaven." The quilt is 22 inches square. Actually I have written about this quilt before...on February 28th, however that was BEFORE I knew how to add photos to my posts, so I thought today I would show you this quilt in more detail.

Those of you who know me never expect this kind of work from me. The leaves on these trees are machine appliqued. I sort of have the reputation of being the dinosaur of quiltmaking, as I love doing all my work by hand. And this applique, well, I'd hardly call it applique - it's more like "simply held in place." I really didn't know what I was doing to be honest. I like to surprise myself once in a great while, so I thought I'd give my sewing machine another try, as I, one of the few hand applique people left around here, just hate to admit I can't do this machine embellishment type stuff. I see other people do this and I am crazy about their work, but when I do it..well, no fire is lit, for sure. This is the result. You'll notice that all the other work is done by hand. That's because I fell back into my old habits....what's that about old dogs and new tricks?

My son-in-law loved the quilt, so it's now in the VanHook Family Collection!! I actually liked the quilt enough to use it for the banner on this blog.....for several reasons...Rick liked it a lot and so did my daughter. She's always kidding me for being "old-fashioned" and for a bit, she probably thought I was changing my spots. Nah!!! I do kind of like the funky colors and I love the embroidery!!! To my way of thinking, some really nice embroidery makes up for a lot of shortcomings and I really LOVE DOING IT. Then, too, I did NEED a quilt on the banner and my kids say this one is "special."

Well, yes, it is special, because it will be one of the FEW I make on the sewing machine. Those trees. Yeah, they're ok. Colorful. But, that old-fashioned embroidery.......now, that's what I'm talking about!!! Hope you enjoy the photos! Pat

7 comments:

rlbates said...

Beautiful!

StitchinByTheLake said...

I'm with you Pat - love the hand embroidery. But I especially like the fabric you used for the leaves. It really gives the quilt some zing! I'm not good at picking colors like that - I'm envious of quilters who seem to do it so easily. blessings, marlene

Anonymous said...

Good morning, Pat! What a beautiful work of art! You ought to be very proud of yourself!

Gayle said...

Good Morning, Pat~I'm so glad you shared this. I enjoyed seeing the technique you used for your leaves and hope to give it a try someday. There is a lot of life in this piece. :-)Gayle

Sharon Tomlinson said...

Had to come see what your doing. I think the combo of maching and hand work is delightful in this quilt. I like the mix.

Jackie said...

Further to my previous comment..your machine v hand statements made me realise that although I love handstitching, I use the machine to get a quick effect becasue I am producing things to sell. I think my blog has definitely improved my sales figures, so maybe thats one of the reasons I blog.

Carol Ann Wilbourn said...

Dear Pat,
I can say nothing that hasn't been said before,but your work is wonderful. What a wonderful treat for the eyes. I just stair in wonderment. Your work will be treasured for a truly long time.

A Bit of Heaven

A Bit of Heaven
An original designed wall quilt with my vision of heaven on earth.