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!

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.

A Bitty Bite of KFC Quilt

A Bitty Bite of KFC

Inspired by Laundry Basket Quilt's

KFC @ the Flea Market

Measures 13.5" square including the itty-bitty prairie points.

I quilted this in Sew Fine from Superior Threads (grey) and Auriful (colors).

This won first place in the Miniatures Category at the 2015 Quilter's Anonymous Show.

Some comments from facebook:

Darlene Piche Perspective is everything! WOW!

Sandra Stehman Beautiful

Victoria Edwards I can see why

Noella Frail The star is beautiful but u love the vine and flowers around the outside

Debbie Holman Love!!

Shirley Dunlop Congratulations. Beautiful.

Anita Krauskopf Very nice! Like the touch of embroidery work around it.

Snowball Quilt design by Kaffe Fassett

Snowball Quilt

pattern by Kaffe Fassett from Country Garden Quilts

Harbor Steps in Seattle is a beautiful quick walk through from Seattle Art Museum down to the waterfront. 

Each block is a different floral fabric and I used different greens for the corners.  

Some comments from facebook:

Debbie Carlson Stunning

Lisa Cornay Roberts Simply gorgeous

Donna Fleming Meyers How adorable! I guess I better make one. I have lots of scraps!

Hilda Wessels I love it! So much!

Gina Nania Love the different greens; that's just like a real garden.

Sue Kater Love it! Perfect for summer!

Tia Hegstad I love how you've put most of the large blooms a bit off centre. It really brings it to life.

Nery Sharir Summer summer summer good on the eye

Debbie Nelson Heinle The prettiest I've seen in quite a while!

Janet Zucchero Smith How colorful! you have been busy!

Jeanette Eitzen Glasgow So lovely with the bright colors!

Levana Spencer Very pretty and joyful

Susan Ingham Wow!

Susan Ingham makes me feel like I am having a fabulous dream!

Anne Andersen Gorgeous. heart emoticon

Julie Sims beautiful!

Sharon Dallman Beautiful colors, prints and of course the whole quilt! heart emoticon

Suzy Rhine Beautiful

Phyllis Houck I love PJ"s fabrics because of the flowers so this quilt makes my heart sing it is beautiful.

Valerie Saffel beautiful.

Ann Champion Gorgeous!!!

Rosalie Glickman Beautiful!

Liz Schreiner Charming!

Joan Zieger I want it. I want it. Stunning. Perhaps my favorite of all.

Wendy Baker Oyler Love it

Ann Jones Rogers Love it!

Debbie Selman love your colour choices!

Rachel Smith Wow, this is beautiful!

Vicky Coughlan Gorgeous!

Debbie Holman Love. Love. Love!

Shirley Dunlop Beautiful and special because you used scraps.

Jackie Pryor Stunning colours!

Rosemary Hawk Lovely

Mary Foley Love this, looks amazing.

Economy Patch Quilt - Country Gardens Quilt

Economy Patch Quilt
Pattern by Kaffe Fassett from Country Garden Quilts Book

This was a true scrap quilt for me.  (As with any of the pictures, if you want to see them larger, open them in a new window and you can zoom in.)

It is displayed here on the outside steps of the Seattle Art Museum.  I love the museum and they have wonderful visiting exhibits.  Love being a member.

My beautiful cat Lois.  Placing a quilt on the ground is cat bait.

I love the backing fabric.

I quilted it in rounds of feathers.

Some comments from facebook:

Carol Adams This is stunning. I have collected blues to make this but love your reds!

Ann Kelly It glows!

Joan Mailing Rmt Stunning is right!!! LOVE this!!1

Linda Lambert It's Amazing !!!

Gina Nania I made this in the blues that are in the book and love it, but this is striking too. Good job!

Joanne Cleaver Beautiful!,

Mindy Melinda Way-johnson really nice placement of color!

Trudy Rupka Norton This is gorgeous!!

Ann Whitaker-Sauls Beautiful quilt! Love Kaffe's fabrics and designs period. I've spent the better part of a week organizing my fabrics. My shoulders and upper arms are getting a really good work out.

Kris Lattin Gruben Absolutely stunningly beautiful!!

Kitty Sorgen So beautiful, Summer! Doesn't it feel good to use those scraps?

Anne Andersen It is a wonderful quilt, Summer.

Karen Silence So so so so so so nice

Suzanne Meader Great idea for scraps...it's beautiful!

Wendy Rohde Love it

Cindy Schwarz Gorgeous!

Pam Dustan Vedder Love it! Am doing this pattern for my granddaughter in blues.

Maxine Jones Gorgeous

Sheryll Baum Seidel I ran to my book shelf to make sure I had that book and I do!!

Anne Riker Deister love this.

Sharon Dallman Beautiful quilt Summer! heart emoticon

Ruth 'babeyruth' Bass Gorgeous

Lydia Goode I actually have this in a kit...all blue fabric but really like it in the red too!!

Tula Pink Quilt Finished...

I made this quilt for my sis-in-law for Christmas this year.  It went together relatively quickly and was really a lot of fun to quilt.  I did horizontal feathers on the background and floraly feathers that radiated out from the center.  The pattern is called Moxie and was designed by Tula Pink.  If I'm being honest I feel the pattern grossly overstates that amount of fabric needed so make sure to print out your templates and look at the quantity needed before you go shopping.  I used a variety of fabrics including Cotton & Steel, Phillip Jacobs, Tula Pink, and Kaffe Fassett.  

Fire & Ice Broken Star Double-Sided Quilt...

"Fire & Ice"

This broken star pattern is by Cheryl Malkowski.  It is from her "Blocks to Diamonds" book.  I used batiks for the star pieces on the front and the black is from Faye Burgos.  

I did the quilting on this quilt.  It measures 71" square.

I have a lot of scraps in these colors, so I put them together to make the back!  The zig-zaggy parts were leftover from the edge on the Zig Zag Quilt.  Took me two years to use them!

My Wild Lone Star Quilt Completed...

Forest Park in Mukilteo, Washington, will always have a special place in my heart.  Victoria and I did our first Mommy & Me swim class there and spent many happy hours on that playground.  We still love the park but don't get there as often.  Miss Madeline kindly climbed this tree for me so I could get another "favorite" spot in for the quilt picture.

Word of note - you might already know this - with blogspot if you click on a picture it opens up the picture viewer and you can scroll right or left through that blogs photos.  Alternatively (and better, I think!) is you can right-click a picture and open in a new tab.  You can then click that photo and get a giant picture if you want to see better detail. 

My Wild Lone Star

This pattern is from "Scrappy Firework Quilts" by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.  Her instructions are impeccable and I really enjoyed making this quilt.  I also have her "Friendship Strips" book from which I plan on making a couple pieces. 

It is machine pieced, hand appliqued, and I machine quilted it.  My favorite applique memory was working on it at the reptile museum with friends.  It measures 73" square.

I am so happy that the points match!  It also lays flat!  This is a BIG DEAL because I wasn't sure it would lay flat.  :)

It might be hard to see the color but I quilted the background with a darker grey thread and a flower pattern.  I thought of it as night flowers.

The background and binding fabric are from Phillip Jacobs, called Brocade Peony.  It's a little less bright than in this picture, might be my monitor.  I love the print.

Some comments from facebook:

Sarah Page This is wonderful. Bright, happy, alive.

Anne Andersen A really gorgeous quilt Summer. 

Jillian Grant Lovely work, beautiful quilt!

Susanne Holst A piece of art - stunning work and detail.

Shilpa Singh Gour 3D Gorgeous !

Trish Bloomfield are you doing the happy dance? I would be .

MaryJean Cummings Bower Breathtaking ...beautiful colors!

Glenna Quigley wow , love it

Mary Julia Skwar LOVE how the applique works with that quilt! Beautiful work!

Evelyn Bylemeer I just started this quilt on Monday, love the pattern!

Barbara Falb Fine Wow that is spectacular - Bravo!

Cathy Good Stunning!!

Betty Eberle Very Pretty Love the colors

Sharon Dallman Summer I clicked on your photo to see more of the quilt and it is just beautiful! I really love the fabrics you used for your appliqued flowers! heart emoticon

Kathy Fey Stunning!