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.

Oliver's Quilt

 Hi, everyone! It's been almost a year since I've posted here and I miss you! I've got some catching up to do. It won't be chronological, but I hope to include all my finished projects since last August. Eek!

Let's get back in the swing of things with Oliver's quilt! My niece in California is expecting her first baby in a few weeks. She is doing the nursery in blues and gray with whales and octopi. How cute will that be?

 

I knew Preppy the Whale by Elizabeth Hartman would be the perfect pattern.  It was fun to choose a bunch of blues, but I had to throw in that one fun orange whale!

I recently purchased a ruler foot for my Bernina. I just happened to have a (never used) Leaves Galore ruler in my stash that was a perfect wave. It was thick enough for the ruler foot to run alongside with no trouble. For my first attempt at ruler work, I think it went pretty well!

 

 

The print on the back is pretty cute, but was just a little too narrow. A bit more orange to the rescue! When it came time to add the binding, I couldn't find the gray strips that I had cut out. (Don't you hate when that happens?) I dug into my bin of leftover bindings and went with scrappy navy blues. I think it probably worked better than my first choice gray.

 

I couldn't resist using the larger cut offs from the stitch and flip triangles. I'm keeping that little mug mat for myself as a souvenir!

 With a little bit of terry cloth and some leftover fabrics, I made a cute set of burp cloths from a tutorial by made everyday. 

Oliver's Quilt

47" x 50"

Started May 28, 2017

Completed June 10, 2017