Pandemonium Finished

"Pandemonium" designed by Kim McLean
Stitched by Summer Truswell
Hand needleturn applique, machine pieced, freehand machine quilted
94" x 94"
Cotton fabrics, wool and cotton battings

Viewer's Choice - Quilter's Anonymous show in March 2016 (Monroe, Washington)
1st Place Large Solo Category - Quilter's Anonymous Show in March 2016 (Monroe, Washington)

Viewer's Choice - 2016 Quilt & Fiber Art Festival in October 2016 (La Conner, Washington)

"My Side, Your Side" by Summer Truswell

Reverse of Pandemonium

Detail of quilting.

Detail of applique and quilting.

More about Pandemonium - How I Organize Applique

A few people have asked me how I work my applique.  I travel with my needlework and thus prefer to use as few pins as possible, especially as I am often at swimming pools or parks with grass lawns.

For this example I am showing a few shots of Pandemonium, designed by Kim McLean.

Her patterns are printed on large sheets of paper.  They are somewhat sheer.  My first step is I number the creatures, or flower pots, trees, etc as needed.  I use a fine-line sharpie to avoid smudging.

I use a piece of freezer paper and trace the shape.  I label it with the same number as on the pattern.  I then decide what color I want it and label the piece with the color.

I've traced a few shapes here, maybe 10-15.  I've found it is good to not repeat the same motions over and over again.  Then they are rough cut out with paper scissors and organized into piles by color.

I pull scraps out of my scrap bin and press them flat with an iron.  I might starch at this point or use Best Press.  

Picking and choosing what bits of the fabric I want showing is my favorite part.  I iron the freezer paper patterns onto the fabric and then let cool.

Using fabric scissor or a rotary cutter, I cut out the applique pieces.  

Since the original pattern is somewhat sheer, I am able to lay down the background piece, place the applique piece, check with the pattern, and then pin down.  I like flower pins because they are long enough that I don't lose them on the ground and they are easy to pull out.  They have a fine shank too.

I usually pin several pieces at once.  

Next I use a 3 mm stitch on my machine and sew through the drawn lines on the freezer paper.  It can take a while.  I then remove the freezer paper, and my pieces are now basted onto the fabric with no pins.  I use a seam ripper and break about every 10 stitches on a piece and do my needleturn applique.  After that it is just a matter of practice for turning corners, knowing when to clip, etc.   I like to repress with an iron and might use Soak's Flatter spray or more starch.  

This was before my sewing room remodel.  I didn't have a good spot to lay out blocks so I would pin them to the walls so I could make sure I was being consistent in my color use from block to block.

My old Brother sewing machine was a great one.  

I actually made the back of the quilt before I started on the front.  Here is Clark demonstrating his love of quilts.  

Many of the blocks were both pieced and appliqued.  A lot of fun!  I like Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Ovals and Perfect Circles tools.  

Choosing fabric was a lot of fun - I used Aboriginal Prints, Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs fabrics, batiks, Liberty, Cotton & Steel, Tula Pink and many more.  I did have a lot of stash but I kept buying more.

Thanks for reading!

Pennsylvania Star Quilt

Pennsylvania Star

design by Edyta Sitar

74" x 74" cotton, cotton and wool battings

Hand-appliqued.  Machine pieced.  Machine freehand quilted.

It is primarily batik fabrics.  The cheddar is a commercial fabric from Wyndham.

Quilted in Aurifil Threads.

I have a domestic Juki with a 9" throat.

I used a wholecloth red fabric for the back to really show off the quilting.  Scrappy batik binding. 

Pandemonium by Kim McLean quilt finished

Pandemonium

design by Kim McLean

92" x 92" cotton, cotton and wool battings

Hand-appliqued.  Hand and machine pieced.  Machine quilted.

Reverse

My Side, Your Side

design by Summer Truswell based on traditional barn raising pattern.

Machine pieced.

This is my vision of animals running amok at night.  I worked hand needleturn applique on the blocks - lots of time at swim practices!  I cleared through a lot of scraps making these two quilts.  Special thanks to Susan Webster at Gathering Fabrics for giving me the Cotton and Steel fabric gift.  

This quilt won first prize in the Large Solo (made by one maker) category.  It also won Viewer's Choice at the Quilter's Anonymous 35th Annual Show in Washington 2016.  

For some extra bits about Pandemonium see http://summerlouise.blogspot.com/2016/04/more-about-pandemonium-how-i-organize.html

Garden Party Quilt

Garden Party

70" x 70" cotton

Hand and machine pieced.  Machine quilted.

Garden Party won Second Place in the
Original Bed Quilts Category at the La Conner 2015 Quilt & Fiber Arts Festival.  

I hand pieced the center grandmother's flower garden hexagons using English Paper Piecing.  The next border in the medallion quilt is made using Karen Stone's Lady Liberty paper piecing method.  I then added some more hexagons, Double Pinwheel blocks, and lots of Flying Geese.  I used a variety of prints and batik fabric.  

I loved quilting this - I used Aurifil and Superior Threads So Fine.

I photographed this at the Seattle Art Museum.

Row by Row Experience Quilt Completed

Row by Row Quilt

Row by Row is a large quilt shop hop where you visit shops and get a free row pattern.  The pictures are on the facebook pages so you can pick rows you like, visit the shops and stitch away!  If you are the first one to show and tell your quilt at a shop, you get a prize of 25 fat quarters.  If you used the shop's row in your quilt, you get a bonus prize!

Last year, I tried but only was able to collect about five rows.  This year, because of the increased visibility from last year, there were a lot more shops participating.  I collected my eight patterns on Monday and Tuesday of this week and have pretty much been non-stop sewing since then.   Plus watering plants because we are having incredibly hot weather right now and about 1/4 of my plants are not established yet.  

I sewed the blocks and then decided because they were fairly narrow and long, I wanted a border of flying geese on each side.  I also wanted to set off the blocks a bit so I used white sashing in between.  As I was stitching the sashing I decided that would be a perfect place to quilt a poem, so there is a poem there and the rest of the quilting is done in an all-over freehand water/wave pattern.  I'm really, really happy with how it turned out.

I turned in my quilt at my local quilt shop, Gathering Fabric in Woodinville, Washington and Susan awarded me the 25 Dimples fat quarters and also a very generous gift card.  She is going to display it for a bit too.  :)

I hope you participate in Row By Row!  It's a lot of fun.  I visited three new shops and enjoyed putting it together.  Rows made: Quilting Mayhem in Snohomish, Keepsake Cottage in Bothell, Circa 15 in Kirkland, Pacific Fabrics in Bellevue, Pacific Fabrics in Seattle SODO, Gathering Fabric in Woodinville, Undercover Quilts in Seattle Pike Place Market, and Pacific Fabrics in Seattle Northgate.

Poem on Sashing:

Winter Sea by Clinton Scollard
Landward the breakers roll and run,
The gray-white ospreys near and flee,
Beneath the long slant winter sun
Beside the winter sea.

With chilly gleam the shingle shines;
The sand with icy umber glows;
Back from the beach the stunted pines
Stand somber in the snows.

The horizon shows a steely glint,--
A line of pickets white patrolled;
The empty zenith holds the hint
Of cruelty and cold.

The north-wind clarions; 'tis a dirge,
A requiem, a threnody,
Keyed to the sad sound of the surge
Beside the winter sea.

from http://www.blackcatpoems.com/s/the_winter_sea.html

Some of the comments from the Washington Row by Row page:

Denise Larson Love it! Summer do you think you could post where all your rows are from?

Cindy Coffey Such a beautiful quilt! Love the colors.

Marlene Edwards I need to get out and get my patterns so I an make them. I love these blocks.

Dolores Smith The Quilter's in Washington have done an outstanding job. I haven't seen one quilt I didn't like, well, there were a couple I did love!

Janissa Brambila Yes! I see some Pacific Fabrics rows in there! Awesome!

Julie Strauss-Ming That is a really lovely quilt. You made the rows come together nicely.

Maria Marty Kemper So pretty

Mary DeEmo Nice job, Summer!

Grace Schievink-Assink Beautiful job!

Wendy Patrick Great job, love the flying geese border...!

Deanna Bushman Wow, its gorgeous! Congrats!!!

Cheryl Taylor This is beautiful!!!

Kyla Overson Fast !! Awesome !!

Sharon Coots Wow that was fast. Nice quilt.

Trudi Kolk like the white background, it pulls it all together.

Kelley Bova Congratulations! That's beautiful!

Deanna Lynn Stills Cole Beautiful colors!

Justin Renshaw Nice work! I love the light background choice, too!

Sherri Delaney Keil Beautiful! You were busy!

Deborah J. Rutledge I love the sides of you quilt also, that was a LOT of work...

Karen Rose Wow that was fast!

Linda Love Very pretty. Great job!

Cathy Lytle Ackerman I love it.The ocean/ beach scenes are my favorite!

Lori Langell Wow beautiful

Jody McClain Jean Rogers, check this out! Beautiful setting!!

Eric Kennard Beautiful job, Summer. I love the cool, fresh look of your quilt. Kudos to you for making all of those flying geese! Wow! Very nice!

Angie Butterworth This is gorgeous! Congratulations to Summer who did a great job in creating a fantastic quilt.

Cindy Baker McKee Beautiful!

Dragon Purse Finished! by LEE Needlepoint

Dragon

hand-painted canvas by LEE

stitched by Summer Truswell 2014-2015

Stitched in Impressions (a silk / wool blend), Trebizond (silk) and Kreinik metallic (synthetic) thread in basketweave.  The facial hairs? are wrapped backstitch.

I love this purse!  It's a good size - about 14" deep. It is made out of red leather.  Also from LEE.

Some comments from facebook:

Dana D. -  Love this!!!

Anne Marie C. - Gorgeous! Love it with the red purse!

Louise S. - He is gorgeous!!

Dianne M. - Oh wow

Cecilia R. - Dragons are a favorite theme of mine and it looks great on the purse.

Cindy H. - Fantastic!

Sally C. - Fab! and how!

Carolyn S. - I have the same purse and love it. Just don't fill it too full. Unfortunately I did and the lining split.

Sherry E. - Awesome!!

Cynthia B. - Great work

Mary Ellen P. - Fantabulous!!!