Stained Glass Lilies Update

Hi all, thanks for the well wishes for my thumb. I'm very happy to report that it is healing really well. I've even been able to do a little bit of sewing in the last couple of days. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, that means I've also been able to start doing some dishes too. Boo!

I don't have a finish this week to share, but Laura over at Quokka Quilts is hosting this week's TGIFF! so head on over there if you have something to share. I'll be hosting next week. :)

I have an update on my Stained Glass Lilies project. I took it with us on vacation this summer and although I didn't get it finished, I made some good progress on it that I thought I'd share here.

I got the most of the rest of the stems and leaves done. Yay!

Here's how the whole wrinkly thing is looking right now...

Heather Lair also gave me some great advice on appliqué technique, which has already improved my technique and speed. What a sweetheart! Thanks again, Heather!

I've got the toughest parts left, of course -- the flowers and stamens. Gulp! My two older kids are starting hockey next week so I'm thinking I'll have plenty of arena time to work on this over the coming months. :)

Now that I finally have a hand stitching project to share, I'm linking up with Katie of There & Back's Handmade Parade. If you have a chance, go check it out -- hand stitching goodness!

Happy Friday all!

Stained Glass Lilies

As I had mentioned last month, I was prepping my Stained Glass Lilies to take with me on vacation. This quilt is actually made from a stained glass pattern from Ed Sibbett, Jr.'s Art Nouveau Stained Glass Colouring Book. I love his designs and wanted to try one of them as a quilt. To make it work for a quilt though, I had the pattern blown up from 8.5" by 11" to roughly 24" by 34". I then made a pattern of it by tracing it onto freezer paper. I was kind of making it up as I go and since I'm still not sure the way I did it is is going to work well, I won't go into a lot of details of the process yet.

Prior to vacation, I was trying to turn this...

into stained glass leading for this background, which I had put together last summer...

Before I left on this year's vacation, I got most of the big leading strips glued back with Roxanne's Glue Baste-It (neither my fabric glue stick or even Lapel Stick were doing what I needed it to do) so it looked like this.

Then I sprayed it with 404 (repositionable spray glue) so that the leading would stay put, but I could still move it around if needed and also so I'd still be able to turn under the edges of the smaller flower sections, which I wasn't able to glue back.

Side by side...will this work? After all the work I'd put into it so far, I was anxious. It's not pretty at the moment, that's for sure!

Here it is, put together with the spray glue. So far so good...

A couple of detail photos below...it's still just attached by spray glue. And so the appliqué began...

I worked on it a fair amount throughout my vacation, although not as much as I thought I would. It was a great hand work project to have with me. All of the black to the blue twilight background sections are now done, as are a number of the stems and leaves. Below are a couple of detail shots. The Roxanne's Glue Baste-It is definitely showing up as little dots everywhere right now. It should wash out...fingers crossed that it does!

Now to finish the rest of the appliqué and soak/wash it to get the basting glue out. I've never done needle turn appliqué before, but I think that's what I'll have to learn to do to finish the flowers and the stamens. Wish me luck because I think I'm going to need it! 

I'll work on this quilt in dribs and drabs from now on, as I'm watching TV or my kids' soccer/hockey/skating lessons and practices. This is definitely not a quick finish, but I think I'll be very happy with it when it's done. I probably won't post about this one again until the top is complete.

This project has definitely solidified my admiration for all those meticulous appliqué-ers out there!

P.S. Did I mention that there might be a giveaway coming up? :)

...

Even though it's not my usual Works in Progress post (because I haven't touched any of my other projects for the last three weeks!), I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for W.I.P. Wednesday. Check out what others have been up to this week.

Works in Progress #9

My, oh, my, Wednesday again! It is hot and steamy here, which is definitely dampening my desire to spend a ton of time in my quilt studio.

New Projects: Willpower broke this week. I needed a hostess gift so thesse mug rugs were the result. At least they were small, right?

Completed Projects: Mug Rugs  :)

Current Projects:

Bottled Rainbows (2) - Still going strong! We have 20 of the 32 mosaics done. Yippee! I'm still finding it a challenge to zigzag stitch all the pieces down - of those 20, I've still got 8 to zigzag stitch. The key is to use big scraps and straight edges, neither of which my kids seem to interested in. ;)

Project Y - Last week I showed you what I was contemplating for the backing. 

Below is the result - I felt that piecing the squares into the background was going to be way more complicated than it was worth so I machine appliquéd the squares on the pieced background. The edges should fray up nicely once it is washed. Still unnamed. Maybe the name will come to me in a vision as I sweat away in my sauna of a studio... ;) 

I'm dusting off Stained Glass Lilies because I want to take it with us on vacation later this month. I started this project last summer, with the idea of having a hand work project to take with me on vacation. I thought I'd finish the whole thing while away. Funny how projects take much longer than you anticipate. I got as far as as this last year.

Over the Fall and winter, I've been slowly trying to turn this

into the lead for the quilt - in one piece. Doesn't this look fun? Yeah, this is an exercise in patience and frustration. I want to finish prepping the lead before we leave so that I just need to do the stitching while I'm away. I think it's going to be really nice when it's done though. If it ever gets done... ;)

On Hold:

Micah's Growth Chart
Landscape quilt

10X Leaves

Fibonacci's Not Random
Red and Tan Amish Wedding Ring
Stained Glass Lillies
Christmas tree skirt

Tangled Garden

Red and Tan Bargello in the Round 2
Spiral/Spring seta colour

UFOs that may one day get finished, but really who knows?
Converging Stars

Chop Suey

Wedding quilt
Linus quilt
Nine patch colourwash

WIP Wednesday #9 Recap:
New projects: 1
Completed projects: 1
Currently in progress: 4
On Hold: 9
UFOs: 5

Bucket List: 39

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for W.I.P. Wednesday so let's go see what others have been up to this week.