Panache Applique

After making most of my applique pieces over the past two weeks, I've started arranging and sewing them down to the quilt. It's fun to see everything start coming together, but the grapes still remain my biggest challenge. After much experimenting, I've been using the good old freezer paper method to make them all. I wasn't sure if the freezer paper would work for circles so small, but it does. They're not perfect circles, but neither are grapes, so I'm cool with it!

I've used my sewing machine to attach all the other applique pieces, but I think it might be too cumbersome to maneuver and sew around all these small circles, so I think I'll try sewing them by hand and see how that goes.

In other news, I wove another rag rug using my new weaving skills! I used an old duvet cover (the green and white), a friends old shirt (the navy)...and get this! A disastrous quilt top I've been hanging unto because it seemed like a waste to throw it out (the purple/royal blue strips). Turns out you can rip up anything and weave it into a rug! There's something very comforting about that, and I also feel virtuous for not letting it all go to waste.

Panache Applique

I finished the main part of the Panache quilt, got all my wedges sewn together and attached to the background. I'm still not sure what color to make the center circle part, so I'm saving that for later.

Now, it's time for all the applique! Each corner of this quilt has a spray of flowers, leaves, vines and grape clusters. It's a LOT of little pieces, and I think the hardest part will be all the tiny grapes. Each cluster has 24 grapes, and there are 8 clusters, so...

I'm trying to figure out what method is easiest for making all these little grapes - so far I've tried the sewing around a circle of fabric, and then pulling the threads so it gathers into a circle. I'm not sold on it yet, so next I'll try the method where you wrap tinfoil around your little circle and fabric and iron the hell out of it. I'll report back.

Panache

I got over my inertia and delved into a new project a couple days ago. This is a free pattern called "Panache" I found on the RJR Fabrics website, and I liked that it was a mix of paper piecing and applique - you know I have a short attention span and like to mix things up!

I decided to use a different color palette than what the pattern called for, so doing a fabric pull was the first order of business, and it took me awhile! I'm not a great colorist...I mean, I do OK, but it's not something I'm confident about. I used stuff that was already in my stash, mostly fat quarters, and there was much pulling things out, putting them back, and mulling things over.

The center star part is is made from wedges that are sewn together from very strange shaped pieces. They all got cut from templates, which are very fiddly, and the angles were kind of tricky to sew together properly. But wow - I'm loving how it's all coming together, and so far I'm pleased with my colors. I mean, it's BRIGHT, but I like it!

Once I finish sewing all my wedges together, it gets set into a wider pink border and then I applique cool little flowers and leaves and vines around it. I'm excited.