A Tardy Tutorial

Better late than never is not our normal life mantra, but sometimes that's just the way life is—especially when it comes to blog posts! Thankfully, there are no blog police out there and we can just roll with what the week brings and deliver a blog post a day (or two) later than we normally do.

We are working feverishly on quite a few projects for next year and as we do, we try to be diligent about taking pictures for our handouts. When we teach a class, we feel it is important to give our students all the information they might need to finish the project once they leave the class, thus all the pictures need to be taken for our handouts. This tutorial shows how I (Kara) have made the split leaves for one of our class projects. 

Split Leaf Tutorial

For this method I used a full leaf template, the convex side of a half leaf template and two different green fabrics. 

Step 1

Place the convex side of your leaf template on your first fabric.

Step 2

Trace the center vein line starting at the top making sure to trace the top and bottom curve of the leaf to help your placement later.

Step 3

Finger press along drawn line.

Step 4

Place on second green and pin.

Step 5

Appliqué the turned-under line between top and bottom marks. Turn over and trim the excess second fabric to 1/8 of an inch.

Step 6

Center full leaf template over appliquéd seam line and trace around with a marking pencil of your choice. I use a white uniball Signo rollerball pen which you can find HERE.

It helps if your leaf template has a drawn
center vein line, but I just eyeballed this leaf.

Drawn leaf

Step 7

Trim leaf leaving a generous 1/8".

Back side of leaf

Step 8

Place on background and pin or baste in place.

Step 9

Needle turn edges under!

There are a lot of ways to do split leaves for appliqué, but this method has worked well for me. As with many components of appliqué, it's always good to try multiple methods and find the one that works best for you. Hopefully, you will give this split leaf method a try.

In the not too distant future, we will be able to share the projects that we are working on in full. It's keeping us pretty busy, and Teri is also getting ready for an exciting, cross-country road trip. You can bet that her travels will include some fun quilty stops! 

Thanks for bearing with our tardiness in posting!

But wait; there's more!! (NE Inspiration)

What would a road trip be without a quilt shop or two? I (Teri) did stop and visit a couple, and then we made a special trip to a quilt shop that might be familiar to you. I knew of it because I've received their catalogs for decades. But we will visit that shop later in the post.

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the rest of my New England inspiration.

Norton House–A Quilter's Paradise, housed in a building nearly 260 years old, is in Wilmington, Vermont, east of the the Green Mountains. How cool to shop for fabric in such an historic building, filled with centuries of stories.

The New Hampshire Law Enforcement Officers Memorial on the grounds of the Legislative Office Building in Concord, the state capital. It was difficult to capture the entire design without a helicopter; I can only imagine how impressive it is from an aerial view. It is shaped like a star, with the red, white, and blue flowers filling in the spaces between the star points. Stunning.

Lobster is everywhere in Bar Harbor, Maine. Wouldn't this notecard be a wonderful basis for an embroidered design?

Fabricate is a charming quilt shop in Bar Harbor. They also have scrapbooking supplies, and a room of yarn, as well. And it's housed in such a uniquely shaped building!

We saw this door on the side of an old church in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. I love the wood, the handle, the hinges—such character! What is it about old doors? They certainly pull you in... 😉

My wonderful husband drove over an hour to take me to Keepsake Quilting. It was just too close not to go and see this shop in person! The catalogs are jammed with quilt goodness, and the store did not disappoint.

What a greeting as I entered the front door! So bright and cheery.

I found rows and rows and rows of fabric in room after room...

...with notions sprinkled throughout the store, ...

...and patterns and precuts galore.

The spacious, inviting porch has plenty of seating for patiently waiting husbands. Mine found some freshly baked cookies at the neighboring grocery store to tide him over while he waited.

My package was tied with a beautiful bow—of fabric, of course!

I thought it was special that they tied my bag with a fabric bow, but look how nicely they folded my fabric to put it in the bag. Such presentation! If you ever are driving through New Hampshire, Keepsake Quilting is a must-stop. Everyone there was friendly and helpful, and the shop is oh, so inviting! It certainly lives up to its catalog.

One of our lunch stops had tables painted with lovely, quilt-like designs. I could easily visualize them appliquéd and/or embroidered.

This is just screaming to be stitched! Can you hear it, too?

But then there was this lovely sign, hanging on the wall right next to the table where we ate dinner one night. What? Really?! THAT is hardly inspiring. Well, maybe it inspires me to cook some lighter meals now that we're home! No more lobster rolls and blueberry pie.

By the way, have you checked out the rest of our vacation inspiration? Kara's Spain trip, Inspirational Quest (Vacation), and part one of my NE trip, New England Inspiration, are chock full of color and beauty. And don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post with your six-word story of the bees and fuchsia! I just happened to finish this busy little bee the day before we left for our vacation, but more about him to come in the very near future. 

I got a tiny bit of stitching accomplished on this trip, but I found so many things to spark my creativity. I'm home and ready to stitch!

How about you? Have you found inspiring sights during any of your summer travels? Please share!

Zooming in for a Closer Look

Last week, Kara shared the story of the Album quilt that we made and presented to our dear friend, Bette. This week, I (Teri) would like to share some details of that quilt with you, along with a few more detailed stories of our making of the quilt. So put on your glasses; we have a lot of beauty to behold!

I'll start with a block that Kara made. She really likes birds, and she tends to want to put a bird on everything. (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit!) But I thought it was a bit humorous that of the four blocks Kara picked at random, two of them had birds. Bet you can guess which ones she chose to make! I think she was pretty happy when she got to the bird after all those acorns.

Kara's bird in an oak wreath

Almost every week, Kara and I got together with our friend, Jo Ann, to stitch and work on our blocks. It was wonderful to be able to encourage and inspire each other. Jo is incredibly creative and not afraid to try anything, so she gave us a lot of courage to attempt some new techniques. Watching her work on this monument was a thrill. She set the bar high, pushing me (maybe both of us) to expand my horizons and take risks.

Jo Ann's monument block with birds made of ultra suede

We had quite a discussion about what these were supposed to be. Jo made them cactus flowers, with blooms made of hand-dyed velvet. This design is also in my cornucopia block, but I made them strawberries, since it was filled with fruit.

Jo's ruched flowers are stunning!

If you look closely at the picture above, you will see a little bee flying above the top flower. Jo had the idea that we should put bees on our blocks, because Bette was our Queen Bee, leading us all as we worked at the Appliqué Academy. Kara and I loved the idea and proceeded to place bees on our blocks as well. You can see Kara's bee at the base of the wreath on her bird block above.

My first block was a basic wreath with leaves and buds. I am not sure what kind of leaves or buds they are supposed to be; I'm certain the leaves aren't rose leaves, but my buds are rather rose-like. The calyxes are made with wool to add interest. To make the wreath, I braided three bias strips of fabric, appliquéd it down, and used a fly stitch on top. Each bud is tacked with a bead.

My wreath of leaves and buds

With Jo's guidance, I tried stumpwork for the first time to make the wings on my bee.

Jo Ann's sister, Jan Vaine, has also been quite an inspiration for both Kara and me over the years. She taught us her method of Perfect Placement appliqué, and we have been hooked on a back-basting type of appliqué ever since. While I was venturing into the unknown making my bee's wings, Jan was using stumpwork embroidery to make the petals of her flowers. Her work is exquisite!

Jan's urn with doves and floral heart block

Detail of Jan's dimensional flowers

Last week, we showed you one of Bette's blocks, with her teeny tiny stems, for which she is well-known. Bette is the master of minute detail, and her work is amazing, as you will affirm when you examine her other block. She is truly an artist who strives to better her needle skills with every new piece she stitches.

Bette's block, depicting the end of the Civil War

Detail: date appliquéd with ultra suede

Detail: photo transfer on urn

Detail: flower crocheted with fine thread

Detail: padded acorns with knotted caps

Kara had fun creating the variety of flowers in this block. With all the birds in these patterns, I'm not sure how I didn't get one at all!

Kara's urn of flowers...with a bird, of course!

Detail: A bee and a flower made of wool and ribbon

My second block was a cornucopia, which I shared in November, here. This block offered so much more variety and was lots of fun. As I was planning what fabrics I would use to make each fruit, I decided to include a lime. It seemed appropriate to place a coconut next to it, though by scale, it is a bit too small. By the time I finished that block, we were tired of having the song "The Lime in the Coconut" stuck in our heads. (It may have been sung a few times in our stitching sessions.) If you'd like the song stuck in your head, take a listen by clicking here.

Detail: my lime and the coconut, surrounded by plums, a peach, and apples.

There were ten of us stitching blocks for this lovely quilt, from six states across the U.S. Bette was so kind as to send it to us for a lecture we gave in the fall for the Baltimore Appliqué Society. While it was here, I took some photos of some of the blocks. Here is a representation of the other stitchers in our group of friends.

Doris's block, so bright and cheery

Kathy's lyre block, with her ruffled ribbon rose

Lou's block, with dimensional pineapples—Lou made four blocks for the quilt and is Jan and Jo's mom.
She certainly passed down her talent to her daughters!

Megan's flower block, perhaps geraniums 

DeeDee's dove and anchor block, with lovely folded rosebuds and calyxes

We hope you have enjoyed exploring this Baltimore album-style beauty with us. The patterns were all created by the Baltimore Appliqué Society from the 1847 Samuel Williams Quilt, which resides at the Baltimore Museum of Art. I hope you have found some inspiration from these blocks. And we also hope that you, too, have found a group of stitching sisters, tied together by your love of needle and thread.