My Turn in the World Blog Hop

If you are blog hopping around the world, welcome to my blog.  My name is Sharon Barnes and I'm writing from a rural area called Longford in the state of Victoria in the land Down Under. I wasn't born in Australia, I was born in Florida and grew up in Ohio and immigrated with my parents and siblings in 1970.  My own children have left the nest long ago and my grandchildren are beginning to visit under their own steam.  By day my husband and I work in our own retail store selling electronics; by night I fondle my sewing machine and follow flights of fancy through social media.

I'm a little late for the World Blog Hop, but I've been tagged by Carole from Wheels on the Warrandyte Bus. Carole named her blog after her daily commute to work, and she put the bus travel time to good use practicing her applique.  You must check out her blog, Carole's work is amazing.  I've borrowed my favourite photo, it's Carole's Morrell quilt.  If I could make a quilt like this I would be very happy.

There are questions posed in the World Blog Hop, I've made up some answers.

What have I been working on?

When I am at home I spend much of my time in my sewing room.  All I make is quilts, nothing else.  I have turned some quilt tops into kids' quilts with a fleecy backing. I will be donating them to a local charity for Christmas presents.

I work on quite a few different projects at the same time.  I recently coped with all my UFOs (UnFinished Objects)  by packing them into boxes and starting something new.  The new project has some Ohio Stars:

I want to use these blocks in a medallion quilt, so I next made the centre block, this patten is called Flying Swallows.  Most of the fabrics are from Judie Rothermel's Peace and Unity range.  I don't have a finished picture in my mind, I hope the quilt will just grow and end up lovely.

My most important project is the Chester Criswell Quilt, now in its third year.

 

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I have become a fan of reproduction quilts.  The Chester Criswell Quilt was made as a bridal quilt for my great-great-grandmother in 1852 and I began to trace the blocks and re-create them in the middle of 2012.  Not content with just teaching myself applique, I also taught myself pattern making skills and offered the quilt as a block of the month to other interested applique fanatics.  The quilt is a signature quilt made by family and friends of the bride Mary McClellan Criswell, so I include a story about each block maker. It has been a roller coaster ride but also tremendously fun.  I have a small collection of antique quilts from the 1800s and the 1930s and I hope that this pattern collection is the first of many.  

How does my writing/ creating process work?

I don't actually like writing.  I like the idea of writing, I like to imagine what I would write about and I like to read my finished work.  But I do not like that moment of sitting down at a blank monitor or a blank piece of paper and trying to find the opening sentence.  I set myself small goals and try to write at the same time most days.  If I use a pen and paper instead of a computer then I don't get distracted by Facebook and Pinterest.

Now tag three more bloggers to continue.

Ahh.  I contacted a few bloggers but did not get any takers.  Everyone was too busy in the real world to spend time in the virtual one.  I'm not disappointed, I'm glad that real life takes precedence over the virtual.   Thank you for your time, hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers,

Sharon

Block 12 and a Guest Visitor

I asked Carole from Wheels on the Warrandyte Bus to be a guest blogger and she has been waiting patiently for the block she chose to be revealed.  You need to check out her blog too, Carole's fabric choices are excellent and she has a lot of Work in Progress to show.  Thank you Carole!

I was very flattered to be asked by Sharon to be a guest blogger for the Chester County Criswell quilt. She gave me a few different blocks to choose from and I picked the wreath block. 

Firstly I thought about which fabrics to use, I am making this quilt in blue and green rather than the original red and green. I like to have some similarity within the block and so I chose these two because they both had curvy bits in the pattern, echoing the curve of the wreath.

I wanted my wreath to be a perfect circle so I used a plate to round off Sharon's pattern.

I made the circular stem with bias using a 'Clover' tool. I have the fabric widths written in the box lid for my own reference (after throwing away the packaging long ago).

For the 1/4" bias I cut strips 3/4” on a 45° angle so that the fabric would curve smoothly. I fussy cut the fabric to incorporate the swirls.

I used the bias tool with a strip of visoflex, pinning it to the ironing board when you commence keeps everything together. I used 4 bias strips for the wreath circle.

The right side of the wreath is the same as the left but upside down so I printed out two copies of the pattern and stuck them together for a complete circle, then I pinned down the flowers and leaves. I didn't need to have the flowers on yet (as they go over the stem) and in hindsight I shouldn't have put them on yet as they became quite frayed and I actually lost one on of my bus journeys.

 I needle-turned the leaves and pomegranates first, then the stem and then the flowers. I sewed the inner curve of the stem before sewing the outer curve.  The flowers and pomegranates require some reverse applique so I placed yellow fabric underneath for the flowers and red for the pomegranates.

The picture below shows the reverse applique that's required for the pomegranates and flower centres. I forgot to cut some slits before sewing these down so I used a good quality seam ripper to cut into these parts.

Lastly I embroidered the pomegranate tendrils with a simple running stitch using 2 strands of DMC. When you are marking out the tendrils be careful of keeping them within the finished 12” block size, particularly if you round off the pattern as I did.

The finished wreath block.