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

New Friends, Finishes, and Getting Ready

This post is a little bit of this and that as I (Kara) wrap up my to-do list before I head stateside in just a few days for the Academy of Appliqué. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks, with a visit to Switzerland to see our nephew defend his thesis and a visit north to Heidelberg to share our needle book with a lovely bunch of ladies at the Hearts and Castles Quilt Guild. Their president, Gaby, invited me up to teach the needle book and to share some of my antique quilts. 

Stitching away!

Hard at work cutting their pieces out.

It was great to see the ladies put their own spin on the stitches and the color placement!

Isn't this a fun background!

Branching out with her stitches.

Two people even finished their covers in class.

This awesome group was so kind and generous! From the delicious potluck to some lovely gifts, the whole day was a special treat. One of the ladies even wrote a blog about the day, and you can read it HERE. It is in German, but if you open it up in Google Chrome, it should translate it for you.

The spread of food!

This pillow cover is made by stitchers in Bethlehem and was a wonderful and unexpected gift!

After this class, it was time to get back to the grind and finish up some details before I head west. When I put together our mushroom wreath last June, I knew that the moss should be wool, so I thought I would wet-felt green moss. It turned out exactly as I hoped, but fast-forward to kitting time, and I realized I needed to make a lot more!

Ready to get wet.

Time to get rolling!

The finished product.

Some other projects that need to be completed were a few sample boards for some of the ribbons and fibers we will be selling. I was able to complete two out of the three—one for seam binding ribbon and one for wired ribbon. 

Seam binding is so versatile!

Pansy

Anemone

Ruffled Flower

Spiderweb rose and leaf

So many different flowers can be made with wired ribbon,

I had hoped to get our Fraktur quilt top finished, but alas, I ran out of time. Finishing the hand quilting on the Flora and Fauna quilt was another project that didn't meet the deadline. Frustrating to say the least, but as I was putting some things away, I came across a block that only needed about an hours work to get it to the completed stage. It wasn't a priority, but I just wanted to say I finished something this week. It is a miniature version of our Floral Elegance block that we will be teaching this September at Baltimore on the Prairie. 

There are a lot of textures in this block.

Bias silk, seam binding and wired ribbon are used
for the flowers.

Hooray! A finish!

There are still a few days left for a few more finishes, but only so much of the day can be spent stitching when life's details call—dogs need to be walked, husband fed, house cleaned, and maybe I should pack, too! I have to remind myself that it's about the journey and not just the finish, although a maid sure could help!

A Creative Trial and Error

When Teri and I (Kara) began our In the Garden quilt, the plan was for Teri to make the whole quilt since she would be teaching it in the states, and I would make individual block projects and/or shop samples. The quilt is finished and you can read about it here, but I am slowly chipping away at the individual blocks. The most recent one that I have finished is the violet block.

Having just a block is not as attractive as a finished project when it is on display in a store, so I wanted to create a little wall hanging out of this sweet set of violets. Deciding on a wall hanging was the easy part, but figuring out how to do it and what materials to use? Now that was the challenge. What I started with was not what became the end result, so I thought I would show you some of the ideas and trial layouts that I had before I was happy with the outcome.

My first idea was a mix of patchwork with a little crazy quilt embellishment. I gathered fabrics and trims in purples and greens.

I had a surprising amount of different trims
in these two colors.

A selection of coordinating fabrics.

Checking to see if the colors are good.

Idea #1

Idea #2

Idea #3

Idea #4

Idea #5

I was just not liking my original plan and everything I tried wasn't turning out the way I thought it would. Walking away from it was the best choice since I wanted to chuck it all out the window. My thinking time is when I walk the hounds so while we were walking, my vintage lace collection came to mind and I decided to give that a try when we got back.

"Try the lace Mom!"

This crocheted trim seemed like it had potential. In the end it didn't make the cut, but I liked the green velvet frame.

With the velvet frame, but not sure where to go from here.

This lace seemed like a better fit along with a yarn-dyed piece of fabric.

And the winner is...

A different lace and even a different purple fabric than any of the ones I had originally chosen,
but I was finally happy with the look.

The challenge with this block was to do something that would highlight not detract. Everything I had tried was just too much competition for the simplicity of the violets. The green velvet ribbon makes a nice frame and the lace is a good, texture contrast with the cream-colored wool. I felt that they all played nicely together and would make a really, sweet wall hanging. In a perfect world, it would be quilted, bound, and hanging on my wall, but Christmas and our daughter's wedding at the beginning of the new year have made sure that hasn't happened. At least it is a lot closer to being completed and hopefully you have enjoyed seeing the process from start to almost finished. 

How do you decide what works and what doesn't when you are creating? Do you draw out a plan or just start cutting? Do you have a tried and true method? We'd love to hear about your creative process and maybe your process will help someone else!

If you would like to make your own set of violets please click HERE to purchase the pattern.