Feathered Tulips in Vases

I bought the fabric for this quilt in August of 2012 and started stitching in September.

Sunday I completed the top of Feathered Tulip in Vases.  

She measures 90 x 90 and is a lot prettier than the picture shows.

The original pattern only had three borders but it seemed more balanced to me with four so I added one more. I suppose it depends on how you use the quilt.   On a bed the top row would be covered by pillows and you wouldn’t see it.  
I enjoy doing reproduction quilts.  This pattern is from Collector With a Needle.  Dawn has several wonderful patterns she has drafted from antique quilts.
Hope you are all finding some time to stitch.
Nancy

Easy Street

This weeks blocks were really easy.  Not at all like past Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts.

I  was also able to find the time to complete one of the side borders on my Feathered Tulip in Vases quilt.  You can read more about this quilt here.
I hope your Christmas is blessed and you find a little time to stitch.
Nancy

Feathered Tulip in Vases Progress

 Sunday afternoon I decide to square up all the blocks and put the center of my Feathered Tulip in Vases quilt together.   Well, let me tell you---Squaring up applique’ blocks makes me break out in a sweat.  I think it is one of the scariest things I do.  I mean all that work and one wrong cut and it’s all to be done over.  If you have extra fabric.  I must have spent several hours measuring and marking before I began cutting.

I decided to trim my blocks to 25.5 inches instead of 24.5 since I had the extra fabric and it would space the applique’ a little further apart.

Next, I would need to cut my setting triangles apart because I appliqued' them all together to prevent stretching of the bias edges.

Because the blocks are now 25.5 inches square I  added a half inch all the way around the setting triangles when I trimmed them so they would fit on to the blocks.  I am sure all you experienced quilters that are good with math know this but it took me a while to figure it out.

"Here’s Tulip!"  Not the best picture.   I just don’t have space enough to get a straight  shot of the quilt.
I am well pleased with the result so far.  This is a pattern from Collector With A Needle and it’s really pretty simple applique’.

My big decision now is do I want three borders like the original or four and what color to make the border flowers?
Happy stitching,
Nancy

Feathered Tulip in Vases

After finally selecting my fabrics for the Feathered Tulip quilt I started prepping the blocks to stitch.

Once again I used the freezer paper and starch method because I planned to stitch this one by machine.

The pieces are quite large and since I already have two applique’ quilts I am stitching by hand I thought I might get this one finished before I pass if it was done by machine.

Well, after stitching a few pieces on the machine I quickly decided machine applique’ was not the look I wanted for this quilt.  So back to hand stitching.

I enjoy using the starch and glue method for prepping my applique because it makes the blocks so easy to take with you and stitch when you have a few minutes of free time.  It does take longer to prep the blocks but once that’s finished the stitching goes quickly and all the pieces stay right where you put them.  Some consider this cheating (not me)  and I don’t use this method for all my applique’ work just the quilts with large pieces.

 Feathered Tulip has five blocks set on point with setting triangles and three borders.

Since the edges of these setting triangles will be on the bias I decided to leave them all together until the stitching was completed.  I finished all the stitching last night but will not cut them apart until I assemble the quilt center.
The original quilt has just three borders but I plan on making 4 borders for my quilt and they still need to be prepped.
This is a lovely pattern from Dawn at Collector with a Needle.  She and her daughter do a wonderful job recreating patterns from antique’ quilts.
Happy stitching,
Nancy