Oh, my. How is it possible to enjoy this so much??! This quilt got its start on my friend Michealanne's shelves - that beautiful big floral is from Moda's "Meraki" by Basic Gray fabric line. I just fell in love with it, and the green swirls, and the orange triangles. Throw in the gold dot, the black text, the fabulous stripes and grid, and a beautiful sandstone solid. Toss it all together, simmer gently and ta da, Meraki Sunflower becomes reality.
Cutting and sewing went together quickly with half square triangles and flying geese - nice big blocks. Snowball the centre, arrange into a nine patch. All in the sunshine on the deck at the cottage, enjoying the lake view and the serenades of birdsong.
After my QMatic class in Utah, I played with a fun digital design for the corners. I did discover that while my machine can and will import another machine's format, and stitch it out beautifully, it may not have the best path ... the first corner design had dozens of stops and starts. So many ends to bury. I do bury the ends, although I know that they are not coming unstitched. Just feels right.
So I put my new class learnings to work, and used the digitizing software program to import the design into, and just turned it around as the format my machine needs. The next corner - NO starts and stops. Totally worth the 30 seconds to run that file through the digitizing software! The pebbles were placed and joined and grouped as I learned in my class, and stitched out nicely. They make a fun frame around the middle.
The middle - is in the same family as the corner, but without the rays in the corner. Sized and placed, sewn in two halves because the design is bigger than the throat of my longarm. The rest is ruler work, still a favourite.
When I brought this upstairs this morning to show my husband, he really liked the front, but loved the back!
This beauty does have binding - that wonderful multi stripe - got applied after its photo shoot.
Look for this sample at MyStache.ca online and at pop up vending. Kits will be available!
The details ...
- Hobbs 80/20 batting on the bottom, with a layer of Quilters Dream 100% wool on top.
- Hab 'n Dash Glide thread top and bobbin - 'Khaki'
- Grey Grunge backing
- Donna Kleink's "Capri Autumn" digital design set
- Pattern adapted from Sharon Holland's pattern "Sunflower" from Art Gallery Fabrics website - I did adjust the HST and FG pieces.
- Bernina Q24 stitch count: 141,610