The 2018 Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, VA

Well, for the first time in the nearly three years since Kara and I (Teri) began our blog, we missed a posting on our regular Thursday. A few times, we have posted early, or a bit late, but we have not—until now—failed to post every week. I think we had a good excuse. We hope you will, too, and will forgive our negligence!

Kara and I, back, with our stitching sisters,
Jan Vaine and Kathy Breidenstiein.
We were missing a few: you know who you are! :) 

As always, we had an absolutely fabulous time at the Academy last week. We love catching up with friends, many of whom we only see at this event. Those ties that bind us, like a quilt, are strong, and our love of the craft connect us in ways our non-stitching friends cannot imagine. Kara and I were both so busy teaching and chatting with people that we neglected to take as many photos as usual—and then mostly within our classroom to document our students' successes! We will have to do better next year. Still, we hope you will enjoy our week through these photos.

Our first class was Oiseau et Panier—Basket of Flowers.

Just stitching away! 

Not a bad view from our window!

 

Stitching the base of the basket

     

Back-basting appliqué

Rose-making

Basket-stitching

We were so impressed with the progress made during class! Everyone left with many flowers ready to stitch onto their blocks, and plans for their finished work. We can't wait to see photos as they come our way!

Our second class was Zierblumen—Bouquet of Flowers

Our class was so large, we had to move to a bigger room!

More roses

Kara and I were so busy, we didn't have much time to enjoy this lovely view of the James River, but we did manage to capture the early morning sky before heading to class on the last day. 

The first couple of days of this class, we worked on appliquéing leaves and stems, and creating our blooms off-block. By Friday, we had a full bag of flowers to arrange in our bouquets. 

  

Taking a photo of your arrangement to use as you are placing your flowers can be helpful in creating your final placements.

Such beautiful arrangements! Aren't they absolutely lovely?! It was hard to say goodbye at the end of the day. Again, we are looking forward to seeing photos of finished blocks as they come. (Promises have been made! 😉)

After packing up our classroom and loading the car, we decided to wait for the sunset before heading out for our last Williamsburg dinner. We were sound asleep early, resting up for the drive home. (Really, we were sound asleep early every night all week! How can stitching be so exhausting?!)

On our way home, we stopped at a charming antique shop, housed in an old schoolhouse. I was sorely tempted to purchase this sampler, but settled for a photo instead. If I knew a blacksmith, it would have surely been in my possession. Such amazing workmanship, dated 1779. Such a gem!

Another Academy draws to a close, but our minds are already working on our next blocks. We've gotten some wonderful suggestions of flowers to stitch from many of you. We shall see. It has been wonderful for both Kara and me to have this time to teach together after so many months. Next, it's my turn to go to Germany!

Back-Basted Basket Weaving

In November, I (Teri) taught a workshop for the Baltimore Appliqué Society on this lovely flower basket block, made by Mildred Tahara. I wrote about this stunning quilt in the post, In Praise of Jane Austen: An Album Quilt, including close-up shots of the blocks Mildred made that will be BAS workshops. Elly Sienkiewicz designed the patterns Mildred used.

As I began stitching my model, I pondered the basket. My favorite appliqué method is back-basting, so I knew that would be how I'd construct my basket. I studied the baskets on both Elly's and Mildred's models. (Elly was kind enough to loan me her block.) When Elly first made the block, she used a solid piece of fabric and used reverse appliqué.

Basket, reverse appliquéd by Elly Sienkiewicz
What a perfect fabric for the basket!

Mildred also reverse appliquéd the basket with a single piece of fabric, but then she appliquéd the rectangles of white on top of it to give the basket an open look.

Basket appliquéd by Mildred Tahara

Since I was using Mildred's quilt as my teaching model, I wanted the basket to have the same look; however, I don't think I have the patience that Mildred must have, because I couldn't imagine me trying to appliqué all those skinny rectangles. So I decided to "weave" my basket, using the back-basting method. Here's what I did.

First, I marked every other spoke on the back, and basted them, using one piece of fabric. I then trimmed and appliquéd each of the spokes.

Next, I basted the cross-bar on top of those spokes, trimmed, and appliquéd it.

Here is the back of the piece, where the basket is marked. Note the light marked lines in the stitched spokes, which helped me place the first alternating spokes. Here, I am basting the remaining alternating spokes

The basting lines are marked on the outside of the spokes, so that when they are trimmed and the basting stitches are removed one at a time, the marked lines are my turning lines. 

As I stitched these spokes on top of the previous spokes and cross-bar, I got the illusion of having woven the basket fabric. But all I had to do was stitch straight lines...easy peasy!!

After the inside of the basket was finished, I basted one large piece of fabric over the entire basket design—the inside and the outside edges. I marked the basting lines with my white pencil.

First I trimmed—very carefully—along the inside edges and reverse appliquéd the inside of the basket.

After the inside was reverse appliquéd, I appliquéd around the outside edge of the basket, removing just a few basting stitches at a time, not more than an inch or so ahead of my appliqué stitches. 

You can see the woven look that is achieved.

And here is my finished basket!

I am nearly finished with the block. I just have a few flowers remaining to create and stitch. I will be teaching the second part of the this block in January, at which point I will share my version with you. It has been great fun to stitch this Flower Basket, inspired by both Elly and Mildred. 

There are many ways to stitch a basket. How might you go about weaving an appliquéd basket?