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Thursday, March 4, 2021

Celtic Shamrocks

 I made a table runner and I'm blogging about it within 24 hours!

  After a successful Celtic applique workshop with Scarlett Rose in January with Ninigret Quilters, I went all in on Celtic! There's a big, beautiful Valentine wall hanging that is on hiatus. I wanted to practice quilting on something less important, so I started this shamrock piece.
 
I drafted this design in EQ8 by tracing some stock Celtic drawings I found online. The block finishes at 7.5", which was pretty small for those inside loops, even with 1/4" bias. Playing with plaid was fun!
 
 
After some very basic quilting (straight lines and tight echo around the applique), I thought I might be done. Well, that wouldn't meet my goal of practicing, so I stitched on.

Before and After
 
I dove head first into free-form feathers! I used to tell myself that I stink at feathers. I wasn't getting any better with that attitude and no practice! I used Lisa H Calle's ProEcho 11 ruler to form the veins. I watched a bunch of videos on how to form the feathers. Then I drew a bunch on a dry erase board until I felt like I had the shapes and motions down. Then I started stitching. I'm thrilled with the results!
 
 
I stitches the side triangles first, then filled in around the applique. I quilted the snot out of it!


 
Check it out! I don't stink at feathers after all!

 
 I love a flange binding! This runner was not particularly square or flat when I started quilting. It got a little better, but still isn't perfect. Done is better than perfect! I know I can make a perfect binding when I need to.
 

This piece will be a nice decoration for March and a great lecture/teaching piece. Suzanne at the sew-op has already requested that I start teaching Celtic applique in the shop! I'll be sure to let you know when I emerge from my bubble.


 "Celtic Shamrocks"
by Tina Craig 
14" X 43"
started 2/24/2021
completed 3/4/2021
Hand appliqued, machine pieced.
Quilted on Bernina 153 with walking foot, ruler work and free motion.

1 comment:

  1. It's lovely Tina, nicely done. Also love that you captured the prism rainbow effect on a couple of the photos. Looks like your project was kissed by the leprechauns! Beautiful

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