After four years. . .

I am ready to add yet another completed Roseville Album to our blog.  Although the quilt has been finished for many months now, I am just now finding a way to photograph it.  This quilt marks my journey through breast cancer surgery and recovery; its four "pink" corner blocks were my way of remembering that time in my life.  Having Kim's beautiful pattern to applique has been soothing and rewarding.  It is, to date, the most ambitious project I have attempted, but now it won't be the last.

Trees Top

 

In deference to Lee, who asks for more activity on Glorious Applique, I'm posting my just finished adaptation of Kim's Trees of the Four Seasons.  I love pieced quilts with applique borders, so I adapted this pattern with that in mind.  I sort of thought it would go faster.  WRONG.  169 pieced 4" blocks took forever, but I liked the scrappiness possibilities of the design and the diagonals created by the subtle color contrasts which sort of refer back to Kim's original center design of the leaves.  My idea to downsize the quilt to 75% so it would fit on my design wall didn't quite work, so pardon the back lighting on the side borders.  It finishes at 67.5" square.

Appliqueing the borders was the most fun, and I did those first.

Now is anyone else working on Trees?  I'm thrilled to see more Roseville Album blocks and tops, and surely someone out there is working on Kim's medallion.  So I join Lee in hoping more of you will post soon!

Roseville Album and my block #2 completed...

 I like how on the back of this block the stitches remind me of neon because of the black background...

I began this block on January 21, 2011.  There have been a LOT of changes in my life from those first stitches to these last stitches...  I marvel at the stories a quilt keeps.  ; )

And, since I now have everything unpacked, I started my third Roseville Album block preparation today.

Piecefully, Pam

"TREE"-mendous Fun!

Here is my first border of Kim's Trees of the Four Seasons.  With this quilt, I'm starting with dessert first--the borders.  Since I still haven't found a wall large enough to photograph my completed Roseville Album top (working on that), I decided I'd better downsize Trees so it would fit on an available wall.  Of course that means working with some extra-tiny circles and leaves, but this border takes care of most of those.  Working on the Kaffe Hydrangea Spots background is pure pleasure; I just love it.  

Aine's Farm

I call this "Aine's Farm", made for my great-niece Aine Tenoch --she has both Celtic and Aztec ancestors.  It's 36 inches square. I'm getting pretty good at selecting parts of Kim's designs and using them in small quilts-- more manageable for me.  I know I'm never going to make a queen- or king-size appliqué quilt but I get enormous pleasure working on these smaller projects.  These handsome animals are from Pandemonium.  Fabrics by Kaffe of course.  It is hand-appliquéd and hand-quilted.  I can't wait to start another one.

It's done!

It's taken me far too long to finish this block, but it's done, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I used a combination of Kaffe Fassett, batiks and the bowl is a fabric I got from EQuilter.com. There are some things I would have done differently, so I will with the next block. Kim, thank you for such a wonderful pattern!

Kim's Mariner's Compass Medallion quilt

Kim was invited to display two quilts for the New South Wales quilt and craft show in Sydney which started yesterday and runs through until Sunday. Her two quilts were part of the Masters exhibition which was to celebrate the thirty year anniversary of the guild's show.
This Mariners Compass quilt was done with reproduction fabrics. You can see Robyn's version of this quilt on the blog here. This will be released as a pattern but not for awhile.

I'm sorry about the quality of the photos, I only had my phone but I'll be returning tomorrow to take lots with a decent camera. I couldn't get far enough away to get a straight on shot of the quilt and the lighting was washing the right side out a bit. The hand quilting was lovely.

The second quilt was the Pandemonium which was lighter in real life than what I had imagined. It was truly glorious and such a treat to see.

photos shown are with Kim McLean's permission.

More blocks.....

Thank you for your previous comments........and more blocks to go!

..MONA

Finished my Lollypop Trees top...

 I love it!  I had quite a mix of old and new Kaffe prints as I just kept buying and buying them.  It does measure square, I put it on the grass and photographed it off the deck so this is from 15' up.  I started mine in February and finished it last night.  

When I did the sashing I made pairs of blocks, then sewed pairs of pairs together without cutting between them.  I continued down the line and that was helpful in the sewing to sew multiple strips at a time.  I did pin the sashing strips to the quilts because I wanted it to line up exactly.  Offset corners would show up with the black.

These are my Kaffe fabrics I have left - most are 1/8 of a yard or so.  I am going to cut them into 4.5" width strips and make the backing out of them.  The design I am going to use is based on this one:

Volume in Scraps from Scrap Republic by Emily Cier.  Her quilt in the book is only about 60", I think, so I am making 15 columns of 4" strips which should come out to 100".  I might add another strip in there so the machine quilter will have enough of a backing.  

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.  I don't know when I'm going to make another Kim McLean quilt - I need to do this backing, then I have Lilly Pilly to make.  

Summer @ Summer's Snippets.

Confusing

I belong to a hand piecing/applique list and they're discussing doing a BOM of various Baltimore Album quilts. One person posted this link:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3QwSQ6YfWu7D7XRb6t7q4gWM-U_M7y9ObglC7H69jt70Ppz4TEfEBuxlWnYNXgMFvtWpA_uXC1hW_MbOPult-tkJoDg-1RnbdF5woJe0L5Iv6lzUrcKSDEGtR8chIXxb12o_UAEs3rm8/s1600/mary+mannakee+main.jpg

She said it's Kim's version of the Mary Mannakee quilt from the DAR museum. I can't find any reference to it anywhere. I was told that Kim posted it in her blog but isn't this the only blog Kim posts on? Does she have another one?

First of the Lollipops.....

These are the start of my lollipop blocks. Love the pattern by Kim! Am using fabrics from Kaffe and Jane Sassaman. The backgrounds will be of various fabrics, like I usually do in my quilts.

The photo of the blocks are a bit washed out, but that's due to the photographer.....me!

Originally, I was going to only applique four blocks (they were to be picture framed), but because I'm enjoying the outcome of the blocks, I've decided to sew more blocks. Guess the quilt is taking on a life of it's own!

...MONA

I'm Quilting Flower Pots

Here's my top; I started stitching last October and finished the top in early August. It needs a new name, I think. "Credit to Kim"? "Kim and Kaffe Production"? "Glorious Applique"? I treasured every minute I spent stitching, and reading Glorious Applique every day has been part of the fun. I'm hand-quilting, so don't look for a finished top any time soon. Fellow blogger Marion and I visited Quilt Expo in Pennsylvania last Friday and we both splurged at the booth from Alabama (Quiltmaker's Workshop) which had an extremely tempting array of Kaffe fabrics. Stars and Sprigs is next for me. Thanks for all the support this blog provides.

Three more blocks...

More progress.  I feel like I've gotten in a zone with these.  

They're coming along much more quickly.  

Summer at Summer's Snippets 

Two More Lollypop Blocks

Blues:

Reds:

Somethings going on with my flash - these look better in person.

Also! I finally made it over to Island Quilter on Vashon Island, Washington.  What a lovely shop and SO many Kaffe fabrics.  I bought bunches:

-Summer @ Summer's Snippets

http://summerlouise.blogspot.com/

It took more than a year, but

I have finished my first Roseville Album panel.

Thank you to Kim and Liza for the kindness and support that you each have given during this past year.  And, Janet...HUGS to you Sensei!!!  Your dedication and amazing talent has allowed this blog to GROW and flourish!!!

I am tickled to bits with the works and shared experiences fostered within this community of stitchers.  : )  Even the spin off blogs are quite miraculous, aren't they?!?!?  Though I do not comment and post with regularity, know I watch and read and try to keep up to date.  I am in AWE with this blog space and that of our sister blogs as well!!!  I never would have imagined such interest, enthusiasm, encouragement and acceptance.

Thank you one and all for sharing here.  <3

Piecefully, Pam

More Lollypop Trees Blocks...

I've been working on these for a few months now.  Slowly but surely I am making progress.  This is my first large applique project.

My most recent block is this blue and purple one.  My mother-in-law passed two weeks ago and she loved these colors, so I thought of her as I made this one.

You can see my other blocks at http://summerlouise.blogspot.com/search/label/lollypop%20trees

Summer @ Summer's Snippets

Two More Blocks for Flower Pots

I liked the Star block in the center of the quilt so much I decided to make it twice, and skip the floral one. Now I'm working on the scrappy pieced borders. Does anyone have any advice about these? I am wondering if I should stick to softer prints like the 2nd and 3rd squares from the bottom on this trial piece. Would it be better to avoid stronger contrasting prints like the 2 in the middle and the one on the bottom? I like all of my fabrics so much, I paid little attention to placement, but perhaps I should. Help!

New Tip and almost done!

Thought I would show you what I've gotten done so far. I have 2 borders done and one corner block.

I had a mishap on all of my corner blocks. I took them with their cut out pieces for each block with me on my week vacation, which I sewed only on two nights. I spilled coffee in my sewing basket and didn't know it until I got home. The coffee soaked thru all blocks and some of my thread. I soaked and washed all of it but on 2 of the background pieces I could see a slight color difference. Since I'm going to do competition with this quilt I decided to start over, had one block almost done and partially another. I have since cut out the pieces that were sewed and I had just enough background to cut the 4 blocks out again, soooo glad I bought extra as it was on SALE.

As i usually do, I made some changes. I didn't put the birds in the corner blocks as I didn't want any birds upside down so I used the 2" circles and a smaller size circle to create this flower. Also changed the borders, using many flowers from the center adding little birds and added a cat and there will be 2 cats on top and bottom borders. I may add more circles but will decide this when I get it all set together.

TIP FOR THE DAY - I have left the selvage on my out side borders (remember to allow seam allowance for the pattern placement). I do this when possible because it helps to stop strecthing while sewing and quilting. I will cut it off after I'm done quilting and before I add my binding.

Circles for Flower Pots

Aren't these cute? I'm looking ahead to the outer border of Flower Pots and decided to start appliqueing the double circles. I think they'll be a lot of fun--they were fun to cut out. Marion encouraged me to skip the front-basting step and try glue dots--I'm a convert!
Now I have 2 blocks plus these circles to take on a one-week vacation (thanks for the San Diego quilt shop tips) which is ridiculous. But we hate to be unprepared, don't we?

2nd Flower Pots Panel

I finished my 2nd Flower Pots panel this weekend. The first panel took about 3 weeks, but this one took a little longer because I also managed to hand-quilt a baby quilt for my new nephew. Naturally I enjoyed every minute of applique.















Here they are together. I've cut out the Star block so I'll have handwork to take on vacation on Saturday. Does anyone know a good quilt shop in San Diego? I can always use a couple more pieces of fabric, right?