And the Winner is...

We were thrilled to see so many wonderful flowers listed in our giveaway! It is great to know that so many stitchers out there love flowers as much as we do. Lilies and tulips led the way as the most popular flowers, but there were quite a few that piqued our interest since we hadn't stitched them before. Flowers have been our mainstay to stitch since we began our little business, and we thought it would be fun to show some of the ones that we have stitched—along with a few that are now on our stitching radar. And of course, we will reveal who the lucky winner of our Botanical Beauties quilt kit!

Bias silk ribbon tulips

A wired ribbon lily

And an appliquéd lily

Wired ribbon violets

Wool Hydrangeas

Sunflowers three different ways

Wired ribbon

Silk ribbon

Wool

A rose is a rose...

Seam binding rose and leaf

Poppies!

From our Hopeful Bluebird Stitching Smalls

A wool lapel pin

Cotton Appliqué

Pansies

Seam binding

Bias silk ribbon

Sweet Peas

Wool

Wired ribbon

A few of the flowers mentioned that we have in the works

And while we haven't stitched these yet, here are a few of your suggestions—we even had pictures of them already!

Hollyhock

Nasturtium

Bee Balm

Coneflower

So that is a different kind of walk in the garden than we did before and we hope that you enjoyed seeing our passion for flowers in stitching form. 

Now onto our lucky winner...

Lorianne Alvesteffer

Congratulations Lorianne! Please send us a message with your address and we will put your Botanical Beauties kit in the mail to you. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our giveaway, and if you would like to purchase your own Botanical Beauties kit, you can find it and many other flower-themed projects available there.

Through the Needle's Eye

We Are Heading to the Prairie!

Baltimore Fraktur

We are heading to the prairie next year—Baltimore on the Prairie, that is! Our newest teaching adventure will take us to Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, Nebraska, for the Baltimore on the Prairie Appliqué Conference, September 9–12, 2020. We couldn't be more excited and wanted to share the projects we will be teaching. 

The conference has been held annually since 2008 and provides an opportunity for those who love appliqué to gather together to stitch, learn, and have lots of fun! People from around the world come and spend four days doing what they love—and hopefully, you might be able to join us as well.

We will be teaching two different wool appliqué blocks. Our first class will be our Baltimore Fraktur. This block is inspired by a block in a Baltimore Album quilt in the DAR museum. In this class, we will cover basic wool appliqué skills and a variety of placement techniques to get you started. Then we will enhance the project with ribbon flowers and embroidery that bring this block to life! We will have optional wool kits in two colorways, so you can choose which one suits you best.

Embroidery, silk ribbon, and wool blend together

Ruffled Hanah bias silk ribbon adds dimension to this flower.

French ombré wired ribbon and hand-dyed silk ribbon are used to create these blooms.

The next project we will be teaching will be our Floral Elegance vase. This design showcases a neutral palette, using wool and a variety of ribbon to create an elegant vase of flowers that would be perfect as a wall hanging or a medallion to build a quilt around.

Floral Elegance

A little embellishment on the vase

A wired ribbon rosebud

Ruffled bias silk mums and seam binding pansies are two of the flowers we will be making.

A little embroidery and embellishment with beads are the finishing touches.

We are thrilled to be heading west next year and are very excited about the two classes we will be teaching. It's such a great opportunity to spend time with fellow appliquérs—especially in the midwest. If you would like more information about next year's Baltimore on the Prairie, please click HERE. We hope to see you there!

Petite Floral Wreath

Last year in Sainte Marie Aux Mines at the European Patchwork Festival, I (Kara) sat next to a friendly woman from around the Frankfurt area. She was a quilter, an American and an all around lovely person. We struck up a conversation which nine months later, led to an offer to teach at her guild! It's funny how teaching opportunities come along. The next question was what class would they like taught? Our Floral Wreath caught their eye but that is a two (really three) day class so we decided to make a smaller version that would fit into a one-day class.

The smaller version.

Our smaller version has all the ribbon flowers of the first block but we have scaled it in size so that we could fit it all in one day. Here are a few close-ups of our latest block.

We used two new colors with the purple and orange silk
and we love them!

Hanah bias silk makes the best pansies.

As this class may have some students new to appliqué, we have simplified the clematis.
and used embroidery to give it depth.

Gathered ribbon roses are always fun to teach.

Can you believe this rose uses the same ribbon
as the rose on the left?

Leaf made with ribbon fly stitches.

Baby's breath

Turkey work centers for the clematis

Getting the supplies ready.

Kits in the making.

It will be a lot to accomplish in one day but I am excited to have a teaching opportunity here in Germany! As winter approaches, it's alway fun to create a little bit of spring and summer with ribbon. I'm looking forward to the Petite Floral Wreath class later this month at the Rheinland Pfalz Quilt Guild. It will be great to meet new stitchers here in Germany that love appliqué and are eager to have some fun with ribbon!

Teaching how easy and fun it is to make realistic flowers out of ribbon and appliqué is one of our favorite things to do. If you would like to learn how to make wonderful ribbon flowers and learn how to embellish your appliqué, there is a wonderful opportunity to do so in March of 2019 at the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Click here for more information about this fantastic venue!

Teri and I will be teaching two classes next March at the Academy: Botanical Beauties and Lovely Vase. Both classes will give the student plenty of skills to make wonderful floral creations out of ribbon as well as learning some embroidery skills to enhance your appliqué. 

Botanical Beauties

Lovely Vase

We hope to have a few kits left over to put on our website after the Petite Floral Wreath class but if your guild would like to host this class or any others, please let us know. Whether you are on this side of the pond or the other, we would be happy to come.  If you are interested in either of the Academy classes, please click on the links above to register. We'd love to see you there!