I think we can all agree, we are ready to get 2020 behind us.

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Today’s inspiration comes from Ellen Giggenbach. I found Ellen’s artwork on Pinterest, then followed it through to her Etsy shop.

This blog post is presented with Ellen’s permission.

The lines are so clean and the peacock is so quirky. It is just perfect. I took some liberties when I translated her design into wool.

It isn’t an exact copy, and I’m sure the size is distorted a tiny bit, but it was fun to make something that was 100% derivative of paper/graphic artwork. My finished piece is 16″ x 16″.

Once I finished the peacock, I thought he looked lonely. Wouldn’t you know it, Ellen has other fantastic design inspiration. Please take a minute to shop over at her “Joyful, vibrant store” on Etsy.

And with that a peacock family was born. This second piece is also 16″ x 16″.

My two wool pieces were prepped by cutting shapes and glue-basting them in place. Some pieces are printed cotton fabrics, which are prepared using the Appliquik Method.

Like my previous post on my 5″ x 7″ wool art pieces, I wrapped these large peacocks around foam core board and secured the fabric in place with stitches.

These two peacocks live on the wall on a hallway in my house.

Who knows where the next inspiration will strike and where it will lead. Keep your eyes open folks, artwork is all around you.

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Start with a couple sketches and wind up with a pile of gnome applique designs. I know, it sounds like I left out a few steps, but really, this is how I work. Draw, draw, draw. Edit. Trace. Isolate shapes. Trace/Cut. Applique.

Here’s a peek at the gnome collection. Not all of them made it out into the wool/felt stage of their lives.

If you can believe it, there are even more gnomes in the sketchbook. But for now, let me tell you about the four that made it into fabric.

I made a small gnome couple first.

Each gnome or, in this case, couple is set on a muslin backing. This help hold all the small felt applique pieces in place. Once I isolated small shapes, I was able to glue-baste the elements in place.

My original thought was that I’d make these into ornaments, to represent everyone in my family. (I’ve abandoned that already.) But, at the time, I’m thinking, “If I make a pile of these, would it be reasonable to have a shaggy beard as the edge or should he have a big red shirt as the lower edge?”

If you wonder these things, too… Hands down- Red shirt. WAY EASIER.

These little guys entertain me like nobody’s business.

I didn’t do any super cool stitches while finishing these guys. I suppose their eyes are French knots, but I’m reasonably sure that isn’t fancy.

Isn’t it always the case that a photo allows you to really look back at your work… only to realize I forgot to put shoes on that cute couple. Well, there ya go, long pants are very trendy for gnomes this season.

These were a blast to make. They finish rather quickly and have their own little personalities.

The post Gnome Mania Hits ReannaLily Designs appeared first on ReannaLily Designs by Jen Eskridge.

Recently, I shared this new-to-me hand applique and embroidery obsession. I talked about using recycled wool/garments to create improv quilt blocks for a quilt that I have no real idea when I’ll finish. Read more here.

It occurred to me I could use the same method of creating an improvisation block, to create small wall art.

The Process

First, I start with a wool background. The fabrics I used here were from a thrift shop wool blazer. It did not have darts, so there were larger pieces with which to work. I cut pieces 8″ x 10″. Then I arrange my designs with:

• base (basket, vase, square, trapezoid)
• stems (made from homemade bias strips)
• flower tops (anything goes here)
• leaves and maybe berries

This one looks like a Pea Shooter from the game Plants Vs Zombies. Happy accident!

And this last one of the three looks like a plant I’d be in charge of watering… drooping and falling over to the right. Le Sigh.

Mounting the Art

I opted to mount the wool artwork onto 5″ x 7″ pieces of quarter inch foam core board. You can buy this board, 20″ x 30″ in the school supply section of Walmart for cheap. Of course, if you are like me, you hit that aisle only when one of the kids say they have a project DUE TOMORROW. So here’s an amazon link, just in case: Small Foam Core Boards

• Trim the boards with an exacto knife to 5″ x 7″.
• Apply glue stick to the front of the board and center the artwork.
• Apply glue stick to the perimeter of the board’s back.
• Wrap the wool around the board using painters tape to hold it in place.

I used a thread that would be easily concealed in the wool’s color and nap to then stitch around the whole design, holding the edges in place. There are large stitches on the back, but much smaller little stitches on the front holding everything together. I stitched THROUGH the actual foam core.

Next, remove the painters tape from the back.

All I have left to do is either punch a small hold in the back with an craft knife, or, more likely, make a large span of thread or cording from the right and left sides to hang like a gallery frame. (Like this image below, but with thread instead of wire.)

I cannot wait to see these hanging in the house somewhere!

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That’s it! I’ve fallen down the wool applique rabbit hole. I’ve spent a good bit of my sewing time talking about ways to avoid hand sewing and here I am… HAND SEWING.

I’m still operating on a thrifty budget. Most of the wool I use comes from thrift shops, with the exception of a robin’s egg blue and a cream color. I shop the women’s blazers and long skirts sections to find fuzzy, 100% wool. Then I go home and break down the garment into flat pieces. I’ll wash the pieces on HOT, koolaid dye any sections for more variety and tumble dry.

Improv

Being absolutely inspired by Kim McClean and Sue Spargo, I’ve decided to take an improvisational and whimsical approach to my wool and cotton applique.

I’ve started to prep shapes with no real vision. Yes, you read that right. Start by identifying shapes that are in traditional applique blocks, traditional Baltimore Album and Basket blocks, leaves, stems, circles of all sizes, etc. Then I start prepping an 8″ pizza box full of shapes.

The piece above was all glue based in place when I decided it looked too messy. I ended up taking the elements off and repurposing them in other designs and blocks. (Although, now that I’m seeing it on the computer, I don’t mind it as much. Shame.)

Other times, I’ll start with artwork and actually make the shapes to fit the block. This one, above, is from a Scandanavian/Folksy design I created. I appliqued the design onto mens shirt fabric.

If you’d like to try to make that design, I have the sketch scanned for you. Feel free to right-click -> save as and print off these shapes below.

Quilt Blocks

While working with my more random classic shapes, this is how I go about making an improvisational wool applique block:

First, I start with a neutral or low volume fat quarter or fat eighth if I have one. Then I arrange my designs with:

• base (basket, vase, square, trapezoid)
• stems (made from homemade bias strips)
• flower tops (anything goes here)
• leaves and maybe berries

Once everything is arranged, I use Dawn Heese‘s method of glue basing my shapes to the background. Maybe it isn’t her method, but she is who taught me the trick.

Hand Stitching

Then I roll over to my trusty Sue Spargo Creative Stitching book and see what ideas I have the skills to execute. See how I worded that? Not what amazing stitch am I going to create, but rather: “Hum, I’m just starting out in wool/hand sewing; let’s see if I can make my running stitch look even.”

Improv Quilt Layout

I’m fortunate to have a design wall in my house where I have r-foam insulation wrapped with batting to hold my designs. In keeping with the improv nature of creating the quilt blocks, I’ve decided to just pop blocks and squares up on the design wall as they are finished.

I 100% do not know what this quilt will look like when it is done. Nor do I know when it will be done. But man, it is so liberating to create with no real plan at all.

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I accidentally created a Watermelon Quilt. Yep. Sometimes things work out perfectly and a splash of green looks great with a splash of pink, but other times: Oops. Watermelon Quilt. On the upside, I love watermelon. Wait until you see the quilting design, too. You’ll laugh.

Here’s How It Happened

I wanted to try making the LARGE scale Scrappy Trip Around The World using a rectangle design instead of creating perfect square blocks. It was surprisingly harder.

If you missed it, here’s a quick picture of the large square quilt:

For my Accidental Watermelon Quilt I used 5″ cut strips, instead of the recommended 7″ cut strips. I chose that size because I had used 5″ squares for something previously and had leftover strips already cut. All I needed to do was fill in the gaps with a couple more fabric colors.

Here’s my fabric pull.

Laying out as a fabric pull, this didn’t immediately scream “WATERMELONS,” but here we are.

The test for this quilt was to create four large-scale quadrants that were rectangles rather than a squares. I learned by making rectangles, that you do not have the luxury of simply shifting your pieced strips to put a different focus fabric on the diagonal. Oops. So, I guess we are going with white. Or I could have opted to stitch the row of squares back into a tube and rip the seam between two different colors.

This is one quadrant:

Its starting to look a bit more like the festive summer-time snack.

The rectangle design also required I to add in a horizontal and vertical row to join the quadrants properly and keep the design. I think you can see the horizontal and diagonal center row/column in the picture below.

And yes, guard dog is in full-effect.

Finishing the Watermelon Quilt

Although I free-motion quilt on a HandiQuilter Avante longarm, I’ve recently dabbled in the computer-guided longarm options. This was the second quilt I stitched on my new-to-me ProStitcher.

I kid you not, this computerized pattern looks like watermelon seeds! I figured I should just go for it. Embrace the watermelon!

Changing The Sizes

I’ve made this Scrappy Trip Around The World in a few sizes. Check out how changing the size of the strips (and squares) creates completely different looks, while maintaining the same easy construction.

• 2002 Squares Quilt using 2-1/4″ strips

• Blue & Brown Floral Quilt using 3-1/2″ strips

• Off-Set Beige Quilt using 2-1/2″ strips

• Barbie Pink Quilt using 3-1/2″ strips

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Apologies for having my blog dormant for so long. I had a bit of trouble with WordPress not wanting to save any drafts. Who knows what I clicked or what has been updated to allow me to post today. Just know, this was originally planned for August. Yes. AUGUST and here we are at the end of October.

More on Franny Flamingo:

The Greater San Antonio Quilt Guild hosted a speaker who shared curved log cabin techniques. Man, this definitely fell in the “I didn’t even know I needed that. BUT I DO!” category. So I made a large blue and white log cabin.

I think this curved log cabin presentation was in March or April 2019. Around that time, I purchased a used, second longarm with a computer. This blue and white block was the first thing I pieced to quilt on the computerized frame.

The computerized design looked cool, but the fabrics were so busy that you really cannot see too much going on with the quilting. I decided to remedy that with applique.

Wool Applique

Every applique starts with a drawing, in my mind. Metaphorically and literally. I thought it’d be funny to have the rich winter-y wool juxtaposed with a nice beach-Florida Franny Flamingo.

Thanks to a different GSAQG lecture by Dawn Heese, I’m full-on the wool applique movement. She recommends using freezer paper and glue stick to prep your wool applique work. Say no more!

My wool is mostly all sourced from thrift shops. I buy women’s 100% wool blazers and skirts to take apart, felt in the washer/dryer, and press.

Ok. Franny Flamingo is all prepped. She just needs a few stitches to hold everything in place. I had a great plan to hand-stitch all the wool, but it turns out, I was more successful by using the machine through the quilting layers. I’ll save hand-stitching for a different time.

Finishing Franny

Franny ultimately needed something to ground her into the space. I’m not sure I achieved that effect, but I was able to add some grass and sunshine to the design, before binding. Those elements are quilter’s cotton, not wool.

Prairie points, facing inward, and faced semi-circles also facing inward, trim out two corners of the wall-hanging design.

You may notice rhinestones adorning her glasses. She also ended up with sunglare/reflection on her shades, too.

Franny is looking at you!

Franny Flamingo is bound in black and white cotton and ended up taking flight to the Greater San Antonio Quilt Guild Show Auction in September.

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Wanna make an adorable pincushion with me? I have never been a big pincushion gal until I started using a pincushion. Holy smokes. And why not have an sweet little chicken pincushion?

Side question: Is it a chicken if it doesn’t lay eggs? Mine definitely do not lay eggs, so maybe these are rooster pincushions? We can overthink this on another day.

Supplies:

• Two fabric rectangles 4″ x 4-1/2″ (body)
• One fabric square 1-1/2″ x 1-1/2″ (beak)
• One small swatch of felt for comb
• One small swatch of felt cut into a heart for wings

• Ground Nut Shells (filling)
• Two small beads or buttons for eyes
• Hand sewing needle and thread
• Embroidery floss & needle (for wings, optional)
• Elmer’s glue (optional)
• Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide (optional)

Prep Beak and Comb:

Start by first folding the 1-1/2″ square on the diagonal, matching wrong sides.

Fold it in half again.

• Pin this folded triangle to the right-side of a fabric rectangle.
• Pin the beak along the 4″ side, approximately 1/2″ from the right-hand corner.
• Make sure the beak is pointing into the fabric square, opposite of how it will look finished.

• From the felt scrap, basically cut a letter M approximately 2″ wide and 1″ tall. *You might consider swapping the felt for ric-rack if you have that on hand.
• Pin the M-shaped comb along the 4-1/2″ side of fabric, 1/4″ from the right-hand corner.
• Make sure the beak is pointing into the fabric square, opposite of how it will look finished.

Construction:

Lay the remaining fabric rectangle on top of the prepped rectangle, matching right sides. Pin.

Use a 1/4″ to sew around three sides, leaving the bottom shorter edge completely open.

The Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide has 1/4″ marks along the entire bed of your sewing machine throat. It allows for consistent seam allowances, no matter the project. For the pincushion, simply line the cut edge up with the first 1/4″ mark from the needle line. (To see more uses for the fantastic seam guide, check out these videos.)

Now, you’re all set with 1/4″ seams on all three sides.

Turn the little pincushion right-side out to check the placement of the beak and comb. if you don’t like where they fall along their respective seams, simply open that seam and shift the pieces. Easy.

Looks good.

• Turn little the little chook inside out.
• Match the two seams along the lower edge.
• Pin.

Sew about 3/4″ inch towards the center starting at each corner. Make sure to backstitch at the start and stop.

• Turn the pincushion right-side out through the opening.
• Use a blunt turning tool to push out all four corners.

Finishing:

• Make a funnel from scrap paper. I opted to pin my funnel shape for ease of use.

• Use the funnel to add Ground Nut Shells into the opening of the pincushion.

• Tuck in the seam allowances and pin the opening closed.
• Use the hand sewing needle and thread to close the opening.

Time For Eyes and Wings (optional)

For these steps you’ll need:

• Hand sewing needle and thread
• Embroidery floss and needle
• Two Beads
• Elmer’s Glue
• Felt Heart

• Cut the heart in half vertically.
• Place one half on each side of the pincushion using glue and a pin to hold it in place. I opt for the glue to keep the wing on the curved surface of my fat chicken.

• While that is taking a quick second to dry, apply the eyes 1/2″ from the upper corner using the hand sewing tools.
• Prepare the embroidery floss.

• Remove the pin from each wing.
• Tie a knot at the end of three-strands of embroidery floss and hide that knot under the wing.
• Start stitching any decorative stitch you prefer. I opted for a running stitch.

• Bury the finishing knot under the wing.

If you are looking for decorative stitch ideas, I highly recommend Sue Spargo’s Creative Stitching book. It is an incredible resource.

Ok, she or he is finished and ready to party!

Although I took many pictures, this pincushion stitches up so quickly you may end up making more than one. (wink wink) The bag of shells for filling can easily fill a few birds. Look out, they are addicting.

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Have you stitched On Ringo Lake by Bonnie Hunter? I decided back in October that I would try Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt. Of course, I then decided to overthink the whole thing, unnecessarily.

Here’s what happened:

I thought it’d be fun to sew a mystery quilt, but I hadn’t made any previous Quiltville Mysteries. Time to dive in and give the planned patchwork scrap style a try.

I opted to make a version of On Ringo Lake. Channeling Bonnie, I used only fabrics from my stash.

My patches are considerably bigger than the original Bonnie Hunter design.

All my pieces are stored in an un-used small pizza box. I worked in unit-sections, just like the mystery structure. Each week Bonnie releases a unit or block-type to stitch. “Make a zillion of this.” OR “Make 24 of these.” type unit-based directions.

My Quilt:

So, in my On Ringo Lake test-it-out quilt, I made a total of 12 blocks.

Once I had these rad blocks made, I wanted to come up with a unique sashing. The sashing I used features the 9-patch block on a smaller scale and points on the sashing to create stars. Wait ’til you see the effect, though.

This quilt is definitely On Ringo Lake Quilt inspired, and it turned out to be an excellent test piece for working in a quilty-patchwork style out of my own comfort zone.

NOTE: Since this isn’t my original block design, I cannot share any sizes or fabric requirements with you.

As for the 2018 mystery, stitched along in real time: It was fun. Highly recommend! The annual mystery starts around October and finishes around January. 2018 was Good Fortune.

The post On Ringo Lake Inspired Quilt appeared first on ReannaLily Designs by Jen Eskridge.

I have a fun easy pattern for you! It is a GIANT Trip Around The World. Not a jaunt across town; think of it as a BIG trip. Think of more like Jackie Chan’s Around The World in 80 Days, or maybe a leisurely boat ride with Magellan.

The blocks are big; the quilt is big and the best part- You can stitch it quickly while using up your less-than-one-yard fabric pieces. The quilt finishes at approximately 88″ x 88″.

Please note that the fabrics in the digital blog tutorial are different than the two actual quilts pictured above. The pattern is the same.

Supplies:

• 28″ of SIX different coordinating fabrics.
  • NOTE: You’ll need exactly 28″ cut straight, if you need to true-up or square your fabric, you may opt to work with 30″-32″ x Width of Fabric (WOF) pieces.
• 12″ solid fabric for inner border
• 1-1/4 yard fabric for outer border
• 2/3 yard fabric for binding
• Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide (optional)

Tips for Selecting Fabrics

If you find that you do not quite have the required 28″ of one single print, consider pairing it with a fabric of a similar hue or value. This will trick the eye once the quilt is finished.

Cutting:

• Cut each of the six different 28″ fabrics into four 7″ x WOF strips.
• Cut eight 1-1/2″ x WOF strips from 12″ inner border fabric.
• Cut nine strips 4-1/2″ x WOF from 1-1/4y outer border fabric.
• Cut nine strips at 2-1/2″ x WOF for binding.

Construction:

• Arrange the 7″ strips into four piles with six unique fabrics each. Keep the strips in the same order in each pile.

• Use the Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide to get perfect 1/4″ seams.

• Join the strips, using a straight stitch and 1/4″ seam allowance, in each pile. Press seam allowances in one direction.

• Here’s where the magic happens. Join the far left strip to the far right strip to create a tube. CAUTION: When joining these, note that the fabric grain may have shifted. The strip ends may not necessarily line up. It is more important to make sure there is no wavy or ripple in the fabric than it is to have the strip ends line up.

• Press.
• From here, I work with one strip-set/tube at a time as to not get the pieces mixed up.
  • Also from here- these are the same type of construction directions as a regular Scrappy Trip Around the World or a Bargello Style Quilt.
• Make a Tube: Carefully place the inside-out-strip-tube on your cutting surface. Make sure all seams are parallel. They should not be stacked exactly on top of each other.
• Slice The Tube: Using rotary cutting tools, cut across the tube to create six 7″ strips. Cut conservatively as you’ll need a full 42″ to get all six strips from each tube.

• Rip One Seam Per Tube: Rip out one seam per tube. Open the tube to reveal a line of six squares. Make sure to rip different seams on each tube, working around the circle.

In this sample, I opted to have the lightest square form a diagonal line. By moving the strips around, you can feature any shade/fabric in the diagonal.

• Sew each column of six squares together, pinning at the block intersections.
• Each quadrant should measure 39-1/2″ x 39-1/2″.

• Repeat these steps to create four quadrants.

Build the Quilt

You have a few options when building this quilt. There are only three seams left in the main body of the quilt.

No matter the layout, the construction is the same.

• Join the top two quadrants and the bottom two quadrants.
• Then join the halves by sewing the long horizontal seam.
• Make sure to match up all block intersections.

Option 1: Diagonal Lines

Option 2: Symmetrical Diamond

Option 3: Asymmetrical Diamond

Option 4: Symmetrical X

Option 5: Asymmetrical X

Borders

No matter your layout choice, the border application is the same.

• First, join pairs of 1-1/2″ wide strips at the short ends.
• Use a 1/4″ seam allowance to join the narrow strips to the patchwork center.
• Add the top and bottom borders first, press. Then the right and left sides.
• Press.

• Join pairs of 4-1/2″ wide strips at the short ends.
• Use a 1/4″ seam allowance to join the narrow strips to the inner border.
• Add the top and bottom borders first, press. Then the right and left sides.
• Press.

A quick tip for quilting: Unless you’ve used solid fabrics, this quilt is quite busy with a collection of prints. Custom quilted designs didn’t seem to show up on my samples. I’d opt for a quick meander design over the project.

• Use the remaining nine binding strips to apply the binding using your favorite method.

A Helper

Of course, when I was trying to snap this picture, I had some help. There are quite a few images of her walking across, walking off, then sneaking back on after I had climbed on the couch to get the “from above” shot. It’s just a big quilt, so it was tricky to photo. Trickier with the camera diva.

Changing The Sizes

I’ve made this Scrappy Trip Around The World in a few sizes.

• 2002 Squares Quilt using 2-1/4″ strips

• Blue & Brown Floral Quilt using 3-1/2″ strips

• Off-Set Beige Quilt using 2-1/2″ strips

• Barbie Pink Quilt using 3-1/2″ strips

I hope you enjoy and share this tutorial. I’m sure your GIANT trip around the world will look fantastic!

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