Thursday, April 2, 2009

"Garden Lace"....Creating Trim

What a superb play day yesterday was! 40 degrees and hard rain outside, cozy sewing room with pretty fabrics, ribbons, and lace inside, emailing on and off with my buddies, listening to good music as the rain poured down...it was pretty darn wonderful.

I call my project "Garden Lace" because all the flowers in the fabrics are indeed from my garden, and the dominant element to go with them is from my lace collection, which I have been shamefully ignoring lately.

To construct my little quilt (which as I said last time, will be another contribution to the Alliance for American Quilts Crazy about Quilts contest, which I do hope lots of you will enter), I used the same machine applique technique as I did for "Elle and Dave", which will be written up in the next issue of CQMagOnline, going live on April 25th. This is a fast way to work.

I needed solid trim to go between my fabric patches but wanted to use lace...so....

I got out some ribbons of various widths, some likely lace pieces (the short bits were perfect), and my Steam a Seam fusible strips in both 1/4" and 1/2" widths. (If I had had the Lite version of my Steam a Seam, that would have been better for embroidering through later, but I used what I had on hand.)

This shows the ribbon with the Steam a Seam on it below, and the lace I'm going to iron it to above.

Et voila!
Here's another one...

This is ironed on, viewed from the back.

Here it is from the front.

And here's the batch of them.
Most of these pieces of lace were short and I loved using them up this way.
The ribbon colors were chosen to go with my floral fabrics....

I do like how unified this looks. Controlling the elements going into a crazy quilt gives it some order...and I always love that balancing act between order and chaos....

I'm going to enjoy hanging some embroidery off the edges of the laces. Toward that end I just happened to have ordered some lovely new threads from Maureen Greeson's new website. Her prices are very good and her service is excellent. Visit her here:

www.MaureensVintageAcquisitions.com


and you will be glad you did!

She carries exactly the kind of supplies I love! I encourage you to check out her new site. ;-)

More rain on tap for today....you know what I'll be doing!

13 comments :

Vicki W said...

Wow, your printed flowers look fantastic with the lace trims!

bluemuf said...

Hi Allie, I have been following your blog for some time now and decided to finally post a comment.

I love this technique using ribbon and lace. And your quilt is gorgeous.

Karen

Anonymous said...

I like that lace/ribbon technique too! Very interesting and clever!

Marie Alton said...

Allie ... love these! It's neat how they set each other off...thanks for sharing ... and for the heads up and link to Maureen's site & blog!

Raspberry said...

Oh! Lovely. I think the lace turned out great. It's just beautiful.

Marty52 said...

Love the way you used the Steam a Seam on the ribbons... brilliant! I think I'm almost ready to do some stitching, you are inspiring me!

Susan Elliott said...

Allie, el Magnifico! OK, I have no idea how to speak spanish but I'm hoping I just called you Magnificent, not to be confused with Millicent. Except, Millie and Allie are kind of close..

Anyway, like, the lace is totally perfect with those flowers or as we say in Balto, "flairs" -- you are such a whiz bang and I'm so glad to be in your universe. Back to my boring life in the linoleum-lined Laundry emporium...

Summerset said...

Very pretty! I like how the lace unifies all the pieces and adds a bit more color with the ribbon, too.

Debra Dixon said...

A frilly girl's playland!

FredaB said...

Hi Allie

You have just given me a new idea for my new quilt. Have tons of ribbon and lots of lace. I did not know the Steam a Seam came in rolls. Will have to get some.

Beautiful as always.

Hugs

FredaB

Esther Gregory said...

your block looks great. I really love that lace over ribbon idea. I'll have to try it out some time.

Jean said...

Wonderful... have you ever gone to any of the museums and looked at the quilts they have? That's what your bring to me... just wonderful, special... lovely!
Keep up the good work... before you know it, there will be a whole lot more people that understand how to do the great work you do! Thanks for sharing!
Oh, and we are expecting snow/rain mixed here for the weekend! Maybe I will get to do something in my sewing room... have a great weekend.

Maureen in MD said...

Hello -
I have tried to figure this out with the ribbon and the lace. Does the SAS go between the ribbon and the lace? Doesn't that dull the color of the ribbon? I think I am missing something. Maybe you can explain again to us slower learners.
Maureen in MD