The charm of this quilt is the gorgeous fabric centres which use a lot of large prints from the Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics, bordered with fussy and unfussy cut hexagon florets.

If you look at the quilt, you’ll notice that many of the florets are not fussy cut at all, but, mixed with a number of florets which are fussy cut, the quilt becomes more interesting as the viewer’s eye scan the various hexagons individually. As fans of the Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric range, you can probably identify the fabrics. This is a chance for you to cut into those fabulous big prints and showcase them.

Let’s see a few florets in detail:

Have fun! K

The post Glorious Garden Quilt – Cutting Tips appeared first on Kim Mclean Designs.

When I start a new quilt, I need to “get into it” first, because usually it would have been some months since I’ve touched the fabrics in the baskets and I can’t remember what each fabric offers in terms of components for the different bits of the applique.

I would usually choose a block that has a lot of little shapes in it with no major parts that I need to watch out for. The Pond fills this bill really well, it has many small shapes which will make me rummage my tidied baskets mercilessly. 

The first thing I did was to do the actual pond itself. Trace the design onto the pond background fabric, number the shapes ( see tutorial # 1) and choose the fabrics, iron the freezer paper templates on to the prints and cut and place them on the pond fabric so that you can see how your colours are going. Choose the  fabrics for the swans first – need body and wings and the head plume. I would use a textured fabric that reads solid and a contrasting print for the wing and something solid for the head plume that goes with the body. if you go to the GloriousColor website, look at the following fabrics for what I call “textured fabrics that read solid”:

KF ” Rosette” – there are a lot of colours here but if you look at the flowers individually, I can see a bird’s body there, when you iron the template for the body, you’re going to see only that colour and it looks solid but has texture in it. I hope I’m describing this right, really hard to put into words, wish this is a real class! 

PJ “Shell Montage”, ” Scallops” and “Feathers” have areas that read solid & textured. BM ” Shell Scapes”, ” Aurora”, “Babble” & ” Shingles” – these are more geometric but there are areas where the effect is solid. It all depends on how big the shape of the applique is.

The next things you’ll be choosing are the ducks, fish and frogs combinations of fabrics. Work from the swans outwards and you’ll be watching the colours develop. When the animals are done, use the plants to increase the colours, see if you need more greens or reds or yellows or whatever. I did some minor embroidery for the water lilies stalks.
Go back to the background of the block, you’ll see that you need to applique the reeds first along the top edge of the pond. These are made using the Clover bias strips maker 1/4″.  Now, applique the pond onto the background. This will make it easier or you to decide on the colours for the other shapes.
Next, I would choose the fabrics for the trees, I used the PJ ” Floralburst” and “Lacy” ( I think this is the name for it), other suggestions for the trees:
KF ” Cabbage Patch”, Diagonal Stripe”, BM ” Petra” , ” Plaids”, “Pythons”, ” Sand Dollar”, “Dancing Paisley” in green & pink – these are my fave colours and “Rings”. I also love ” Gone Fishing”, there are large fish area that might be interesting to use as trees. I don’t think it would matter if you go out to the other area of the fabric if your tree is bigger than the fish! I bet by now you’ve found lots of fabrics with useful parts.

The cats are next – I love the PJ “shell” and “scallop” fabrics for these but check out the new “feathers” – some beauties there.

Now that you can see a lot more colours sitting on the background fabric, choose fabrics for the 5 standard tree pots. I find these to be quite fun. Choose the lollypop tree, then the centres of the pots, then a coordinating print to go with centre and then the round things for the planter feet and the circles up the top. To name a few, look at the following fabrics for the trees: ” Big Blooms”, ” Radiation” , ” Parasols”, ” Shell”, ” Scallops”, ” Feathers”, ” Petunias”, ” Suzani”, ” Iris & Peony”.  If you examine the big florals, you’ll find a lot of things that might be suitable for the pot’s centres – things like the centre of flowers or the smaller secondary motifs in the fabrics. Look at “ombres”, “aboriginal dots” for the contrast outside area of the pots. Use a solid for the round things – in a colour that is in the pot.
Choose the fabrics for the birds feeding on the trees. Choose colours that might be missing from the whole picture or something that coordinate with the trees. I would pick a colour that appears in the standard tree and then choose something that is a contrast to it.

Below the pond, choose fabrics for the turtles, find a feature area in a fabric, might be centre of flower in the fabric, its not a big area, but it needs to be quite distinctive, also look in the ” feather” fabric. Choose the lower bird’s fabric, look at the Coleous, Feathers, Shells, I’m sure by now you’ve found lots of things for the birds.

Now that you’ve got most of the fabrics chosen sitting on the background fabric, fill up the missing colours in the flowers/ leaves around the pond.
Lastly, fill up the berries on the trees using a mixture of  strong reds, pinks and a sprinkling of other strong colours, these berries are used to add colours. Not hard is it? I did some outline embroidery around the pond, I think it is called ” stem” stitch.

The Fountain.

The first item you need to choose is the arbour tree, I’ve used the “ombre” because you can make the tree go from one colour to another from the bottom to the top. ” Ombre” comes in many colourways, choose one that you love, then choose the fabric for the fountain. This block is really easy as far as for choosing the fabrics. The hard part is the very many circles to sew ( what was I thinking?)

When I cut out the little circles for the fountain, I numbered it according to the “squirt” – so,  “squirt” # 1 has 5 circles and this would be numbered 1/1,1/2, 1/3 etc and I would put these in a separate little ziplock. I then gathered a collection of blue/turquoise shot cottons and use these for the water droplets. Iron the circles to the different blues and re – bag these before they get lost. Later,I would applique these circles with the freezer paper templates still on top ( save myself from marking them)
I love fountains, real ones as well as the applique variety. I did mine in “shell scapes” but I could have easily done in other fabrics, “Shingles” came into mind, also some stripe fabric like the “Serape”  or “Python” might be interesting.Choose a fabric that will go with your rose arbour. 

Choose the fabrics for the 4 birds, I should have chosen something with a bit more contrast to the trees I think, mine kind of “merged” a bit! The pots shouldn’t be  problem, put whatever takes your fancy. Don’t forget the star in the middle of the fountain. If you’ve chosen a fabric with a feature motif that you can centre where the star is, you’ll save yourself from having to do the star – or you can skip the star! 

Now, the “roses” circles. As the tree have changed colour from the bottom up, you might like to keep an eye for the colours of the circles. In mine, some of the red circles are too close in colour to the tree branches, I think I should have put some green or strong yellows next to the orangey part of tree. 

Till next time, happy stitching! I’ll go over the Kitchen Garden and the Folly and perhaps some basic hand-piecing ( I do mostly hand piecing). I’m not good at machine piecing but I think I can do some step by step tutorial for the easy blocks like the star and pinwheels. Or is this going to be too simple for most of you?

This tutorial was originally posted on the Glorious Applique Blogspot in 2013.

The post Pandemonium Quilt tutorial #3 – The Pond and the Fountain appeared first on Kim Mclean Designs.

I thought I’ll rabbit on a bit about fabrics, the most important thing is to look at fabrics as a source of components for the various bits of the applique shapes. Quite a lot of fabrics in the Kaffe Collectives are rather busy and usually I can find lots of things in it to use for applique. When I open my fabric package from GloriousColor, I pull each fabric to it’s full width and look  for the interesting areas to use.

Take the ” Coleus” fabric below, those leaf veins are great for bird’s tails for example, or a little tree?

And the bit below might be good for the body of the bird or a fruit or a vase – with the lines going horizontal. The leaf shape next to it, is also interesting, for a flower perhaps? Move your freezer paper templates around the fabric and see! Don’t look at the fabric as a whole, find the components, you’ll be surprised how many useful portions there are in a fabric.

Here is another great fabric, ” Scallops” – I used this for the dog’s body in the quilt. I can see quite a few different  animal bodies with this fabric. If  you look at the other colourways you’ll find even more useful items. 

Still the ” Scalops” fabric – can you see a tree?

Or with this one – you can use this for the cat’s face if you include some of the lighter area below it. Or – if you position the tree template half on the 3rd layer and the other half on the lower layer, the tree will be more interesting than a plain green fabric, don’t you agree?

This one would make a great tail or a vase?

This “Shell Montage” fabric is one of my favourite – in all colourways! I’ve used this for a lot of bird parts and flowers, again move your templates around and see what you can find.

I’ve used this portion as the standard tree in the ” Pond” block.

This ” Feathers” fabric is fantastic, can you see a lot of use for this one?

Or this bit? 

This is the “Brassica” – it is all yummyness. Trees, flowers, bird wings, leaves?

I love this fabric “Mirage” , used it a lot in the “Roseville Album”  – it would be great for one of the biggish tree, then you can put a lot of different colour circles for the fruits. 

And this is the ” Ombre”, my favourite, it comes in 2 new colours. I used it in the ” Fountain” block, I love the way the ” arbour” changes colour. 

I also love stripes, very useful for vases or planters or building structures. Also in pieced blocks, see the ” Wheel” in the quilt.

This fabric is great for the big pieces as well as for the small animal parts. I’ve used it in the “Disc”  block. I can see bird wings here!

I’ve used this fabric a lot, not sure of the name but if you go to the GloriousColors website you’ll find it there. Great for the larger trees, as the colour moves from red to pink with touches of greens.  

And this one “Floral Burst” I think it is called. If you use this for the bigger trees, the tree will have quite a few colours in it.

In a real class, it is much easier to show useful fabrics. I hope you get the idea with the few examples above. 

The next item I’m going to move on to, is the ” Double Circle” blocks that form the borders and sashings. For these blocks, I have these nifty gadgets which I purchased at quilt shows. These circle template stacks are made by a company called “Victorian Textiles ” but they they are wholesalers. I’ve checked with Kathy at “Material Obsession”and she has these in stock if you think you might need them. They come in 3 different packs, one is in 1″ – 5″ diameter, the next is 5 1/2″ to 8″ and 8 1/2″ – 10″ and they come in 1/2″ increments. They look like the photo below. Each circle has cross hairs on it so you can line them up.

If you read the instruction, for these double circle blocks, you are asked to cut 5″ square for the background ( the green) and 4″ square for the outer circle ( the yellow ) and an interesting 2″ circle for the focal circle ( the purple)  You can also buy the stack of squares!

Press the squares so that you can see their midlines.

I’ve lined up the 2″ circle on top of the 3″ one and drew the circle on it. I’m going to use this as a guide later.

 I’ve used the 2″ circle to mark the area, also mark with pencil the centres – I’ve put the pins there show you in case you can’t see the pen marks.

Now, line up those marks on the purple fabric with the creased centre lines on the yellow fabric.
Applique.  

When done, put the 3″ circle with the drawn in 2″ on top and line it up with the appliqued circle and the pressed midlines. You’ll have below.

Place the marked yellow fabric on the green and line up the creased line and applique the circle.

When done, turn it and onto the wrong side, you need to mark the 4″ square. I’ve also drawn in the 3″ circle inside the 4″ square. This is the sewing line of the block. If you are going sew using the machine later on, mark the 3″ circle inside a 4 1/2″ square.

And cut away the excess fabric using the 4 1/2″ square, see below.

 Finished block – easy, right!

Now, a little bit about which applique block to do first – you might like to think about this. I’ll go through each applique block in more detail in the future tutorials.

I don’t know about you, but the first block always seems to be the hardest to crack. I think it is because you need to ” get into it”. I know writers, painters who need to do a trial run first each time they sit down to do some work. I think you need to get the hang of the fabrics in your stash. So, I’ll choose a block where you don’t need to do a ” major” decision – e.g. the Folly or the House blocks where you have to decide what the roof and building structures would need.

I did the Pond block first – the actual pond itself. I did all the applique of the pond’s animals, press and would use the completed piece in the block. By using this as an entree, you’ll break the ice. You’ll  loosen up. 

The other block which would serve as an entree is the Fountain. Not too many decisions here!

This tutorial was originally posted on the Glorious Applique Blogspot in 2013.

The post Pandemonium Quilt tutorial #2 – fabrics, double circle blocks appeared first on Kim Mclean Designs.

This is a set of tutorials for the Pandemonium Quilt. I thought I’d start with a basic applique and then go on to the different applique blocks in the Pandemonium Quilt and after, go on to the pieced blocks.

After you’ve opened up your applique sheets, cut up the big sheets into the blocks, it is probably easier to handle. Number the applique motifs in the block from #1 to whatever, however, instead of numbering the different parts of the shape as #1,#2,#3 etc, use #1/1, # 1/2, # 1/3 and so on.

Do same for the freezer paper templates,this way, when you cut up the different bits, it will be easier to find, see photo of the freezer paper diagram to the left.

I would also put those slash marks as in the photo, you’ll see later why I would do this.

And when you cut up the shape, don’t cut right through, leave a tiny bit of paper hanging, see photo to the right. I use a craft knife to cut my freezer paper templates.

I usually do this as I cut out all my freezer paper templates in the one go and store them in a zip lock bag till I’m ready to do the fabric cutting. Leaving the bird above as a unit will make it easier to find.

Having chosen your background fabric, transfer the design onto the fabric. Use a light box, and if you don’t have a light box but have a glass top coffee table, put a lamp under the glass top. Failing this, go the the picture framing store and purchase a glass sheet, cover edges with masking tape, place the glass sheet on 2 stacks of telephone books and slide a lamp under the glass.

On the background fabric, I also write the numbering ( the same ones as on the paper sheet). It is going to be covered up with the applique fabric anyway and it is going to make it easier for you to find the matching freezer paper templates.

Having done this, we come to the fun part, choosing the fabrics and cutting up the pieces. (I love this part, scissors clipping away!)

Now, you can dismember the bird template and iron them onto the right side of the print fabric.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this pen, it is called ‘Frixion’ and on it it says “remove by friction”.

I’ve used this pen to mark around the shapes. It is rather effective and when ironed, the black marks disappear. It also comes in various colours. Perhaps it is best to do a test for yourself, just in case it damages the fabric.

Better safe than sorry. Otherwise, use a 2B pencil.

Notice that I’ve extended the slash markings onto the fabric, I’ll be using these to position the different parts of the bird, like in the series of photos to the left.

I also baste the pieces with a running stitch close to the seam line. Or, you can use the Roxanne Glue with the needle like tip.

See the series of photos to the right to see an example.

I also baste the pieces with a running stitch close to the seam line. Or, you can use the Roxanne Glue with the needle like tip.

Now, you are ready to needle turn applique, it is really easy.

Trim the seam allowance to about 1/8″, but in a big piece like the coral tree, only trim about an inch or so at a time, or the fabric will start to fray.

Use a small needle, number 12 or 10, I usually use the silk threads or the Aurifill thread.

Just in case you’ve noticed, I’m a left handed person ! so may be you’ll need a mirror to see the mirror image. Sorry – but I can’t applique with my right hand. I think this is probably why I get lost when I’m driving.

When you get to a point, do a double stitch, then stuff the fabric in, press it with your finger and stitch down, easy peasey.

You now have all the parts of the motif that need to go under the body done. Trim the seam alllowance a little bit.

Using those slash marks as guides, position the body of the bird.

The images to the left show the next part of the process:

1. Baste or glue the body close to the seam line.
2. Applique.
3. When you get to the tip of the beak, stitch down twice.
4. And again push in the fabric, press with your finger and continue applique.

It’s not hard is it?

The concave curve – there are a lot of these in my patterns. Fear not. It is really a cinch.
Clip the concave curve and just sweep the seam allowance in with your needle, press with your finger and applique away. That was simple…

Concave curves must result in convex ones as in the tail end of the bird. Push the fabric in small bits at a time, press with finger and sew – repeat this till you have all the bumpy bit sewn up. If you try to push the whole bump in the one go, you’ll probably end up with a lot of fraying, with me anyway!

Voila, the bird is done! Easy isn’t it ?

This ends the first tutorial. I hope you manage to get something out of these ramblings!

Let me know if you would like me to cover other aspects of the applique basic. If I know how to do it, I’ll certainly try and show you.

I’ve tried all sorts of methods when I first started doing applique, I still find the needleturn as described above the simplest.

Please, if you have other methods, post a comment and we can all learn something.

Next time, I’ll start on the Pandemonium applique  blocks. I’ll try and explain how I go about choosing fabrics for the block and what aspects of the block to watch out for.

This tutorial was originally posted on the Glorious Applique Blogspot in 2013.

The post Pandemonium Quilt #1 – Basic Applique Tutorial appeared first on Kim Mclean Designs.

This quilt was inspired by an 1800’s one, I’ve had it pinned into my scrap book since the early 2000, it has now sort of morphed into something else and the only thing now that is similar to the antique one is that the pots are in the same position. It took me a while to realize that the best way to design it is to do it in quarters, this way, the leaves can merge into each other.

If you read through the instruction sheets in the pattern pack, it is important to transfer the position of the trunk to both sides of the background fabric, you may need to use a lamp under the glass coffee table.

Unlike the other quilts I have done, the midline guides here are only used for transferring the design on to the background, they will not be used for measuring the final size of the block. You will be using the line of the trunks of the trees to measure the final block size. As you’ll be marking the final block size on the back of the background fabric, you really need to make sure that this trunk line is at the same position at the front as well as at the wrong side of background fabric.

You also need to mark the squares carefully, as there are 2 blocks which must be transferred in reverse. If one looks at the bottom left quarter, the right bottom one is the reverse. Going up, the top right quarter is the right side and the top left is the reverse. You’ll also be needing 2 sets of leaves templates, one reversed and one set as is.

Now, to the fun part, choosing the fabrics. I’ve elected to do it in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter colours. This has given the appearance of half the quilt being diagonally light and dark which had my husband rattled a bit! There was a suggestion by someone in a previous post that she might like to do hers with darker colours down below and going lighter towards the top, this sounds good too and might be easier to control.

I have a lot of lighter colour prints which I don’t use very often, so this quilt was a good opportunity to use it. Colour wise, this quilt is a great one for you to use you stash, I don’t think you’ll have any problems with it. The best way is to lay out the numbered background fabric on a big table or the floor and place the pieces of fabrics with the ironed on freezer paper templates at the right positions and build from there. Leave a decent area around the ironed on templates so can see what fabrics you have used. Please refer to the previous applique tutorials, these were done for the Pandemonium Quilt but the method is the same.

Colours and patterns to use

Use those fabrics with texture on them, the Feather, Brassica, Scallops and Shells for example. Stripe fabrics would be a contrast to the texture and give movement. Don’t forget the geometrics to breakup the florals and the textured.

If you are going to the quilt with the four colours, it might be a good idea to do the cutting of the fabrics for each square in sequence and also write at the edge of the square which quarter you are doing. I did get myself into a knot! But this doesn’t mean that you will though.

This tutorial was originally posted on the Glorious Applique Blogspot in 2013.

The post Trees of the Four Seasons Tutorial appeared first on Kim Mclean Designs.