Earth Turtles Are Finished!

Hawaiian Applique Earth Turtles

My Earth Turtle Quilt is finally finished!  I started this quilt as a concept long before I put thread to fabric, but   the actual applique work began May 2011.  Talk about a Good Finish!  It is reversible as you can see below.  Everything is raw edge as taken from it's twin my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt which you can see here.  This time I quilted it to look like grass in the background, with echoes over the border and only in the ditch for the turtles themselves.  This gives them that little pop that is so nice.  This quilt is a different color palette than I normally work with and I feel this quilt is that much more intense for the change.

Earth Turtles Reverse

This quilt is a nice twin/twin XL as you can see it runs edge to edge on my full size bed, easily comfortable for an adult or child sleeping in a twin size bed.  It is an Hawaiian Applique Quilt in that the fabric is folded multiple times and then cut as you would a snowflake.  The fusible web I used made it a challenge to cut, so it was good to have DH's help with that.

Earth Turtles Flimsy Finished!

Now lookie here.  My Brown turtles in the green grass.  Also known as my Art for Your Bed quilt top is finished.  I finished up the applique and sewed the center strip yesterday.  What a difference from the quilts I normally work on wouldn't you say?  

This quilt is destined to be for a twin / twin extra long bed.  It measures 57" x 99.5".

For the Serendipitous Leaf in the very center of the quilt I hand stitched that and then looped a connecting stitch back through all of my stitches to link them.  

I took this picture of Tiny as she looked so cute and ready to help with my next project, Peppermint Burst.  I'd say if you ask her it's sure to be a good one!  Does anyone want to come cut the fabric for me?

A Serendipitous Leaf

The current state of my Sewing Table

I've been working on my Brown Turtles in the Green Grass.  My friend Vicki called it my Earth Turtles and I thought that sounded good.  So far I have two of the three vertical rows appliqued to, and stitched on.  The quilt is 99.5" long at this point so needless to say I'm not adding any horizontal rows.  Here's what it looks like when I clean up before leaving a project for the day (something I rarely bother to do).

What do you think of that leaf?  Personally I love it.  It will be at the centermost point of the quilt, the one and only.  It was taken from this last scrap of fabric.  In a moment of pure serendipity,  I saw the leaf was in that bit of scrap waiting to get out.  After digging through pictures I found the perfect model a Red Oak leaf.  The veins of the model were yellow and I just happen to have a lovely buttercream yellow which I will use for the detailing.

Can you see the leaf?

DD is off for a nice long three day weekend so I don't know when I will get back to this quilt but hopefully it will be soon as over the past couple of days working on it has been a real treat.

Christmas Quilt-A-Long Year 2 June Lunch

Yesterday, I had worked myself up for so many days about what I would sew on our Christmas Quilt-a-long day that I went and put in some time on my Earth Turtles, as I couldn't stand it another day, I added two more to my collection.  That brings me up to four and as this will be a twin size quilt unlike it's own twin the full/queen Hawaiian Ocean Appliqué Quilt this one is already half way done!

So what was I to do today?  Work on the ocean wave border for Children of the Sea of course.  Not much to show there, as after at least an hour of ironing and a while of cutting curves; few minutes ago I found myself quite lost when I started to line up everything to sew and thought it best to take a time out for lunch.

DD has gotten into the swing of things and did a bit of artwork of her own on fabric.  Not bad for a first try, especially as I'm sure we've all tried to write on fabric for some reason at some point and know what a challenge it can be.  Just in case you're wondering I'm nearly certain the girl in purple is sticking her tongue out.  Hooray for the Christmas Spirit.

Happy Stitching!

Christmas Quilt-A-Long Year 2 May: Art for Your Bed

I was really torn between the Quilt Festival, Blog hop more or Quilt?  Sheesh, what a pair to be torn between.  I did get back to my little project for the day though.

This is the reverse applique turtle quilt I've been talking so much about.  It's planned to be a twin size, but it might have it's own designs on me, we'll just have to wait and see.  Already this block walked all over me.  Look at the way it pops and crinkles!  Not my normal method at all, but I just love how organic it is.  What do you think?

I've always known this quilt to be the contrast of my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt, born of one, but forever another.  I'll square it back to the green and we'll see how the other blocks go before really settling on a layout.

No worries, I am still working on the Hawaiian Ocean, I prepped another 3 blocks for DH to cut for me, and I'm sure there is an end in sight there somewhere.

How have you been getting along this find Quilt-a-long day?  It was beautiful and hot here earlier, but then the sky opened up and dumped rain all over us.  The sun is still hiding behind the clouds so I think I might just plan my colors and maybe cut the fabric for my Christmas Scatty Stars BOM, as the light just isn't good enough to keep working on these turtles.