Her technique is to cut templates from full sheets of label paper that get adhered to the right side of the fabric, then you turn the piece over, coat the edges with glue and use tiny screwdrivers to turn over the edge..she does absolutely lovely pieces and in fact, won the first place ribbon in the large applique quilt category at Road this year - here is her quilt...
Being currently fascinated with landscapes and landscape quilts, I wanted to see how she approached them. First we picked a picture to use - and reduced it to just the major elements...then auditioned fabrics and cut chunks of those fabrics, glued the edges and built up the picture against a piece of stiff clear plastic..for tricky details, we used the label paper, but mostly you just cut a piece that roughly matched the shape from the picture and worked from there...
I picked a Tuscan landscape to work with..I changed my mind about the back fabric and the sky a couple of times...until I got this - its just in the 'glue basted' stage..have not done any of the appliqueing yet...
After dinner (we opted for really fast for this last night and ate at In-N-Out - a local burger joint that makes delicious cheeseburgers), I took a class on Cathedral Stars by Shelley Swanland. I was seriously hoping to finish this quilt during the three hour class, but realize I was seriously deluded and out of my quiting mind! I got done with the top by the end of the class...but I was not happy with how the sashing came out..had to take it home and have several conversations with Jack (the Ripper) but finally, it came together ok - not perfect, but acceptable...I quilted it Sunday and thought about adding one of the piped bindings like I had seen in the Roundabout..rummaged around in my Granny's stash..found a package of unopened piping and started sewing it on...well..much to my dismay, the fabric had dry-rotted! There was black fabric dust EVERYWHERE..on the floor, on my clothes, under my fingernails, all over my machine....after that debacle I decided that the quilt was just going to get an ordinary binding!
I got the binding sewn on the front and took the quilt with me to the Dr's office to do the hand stitching on the bask while I waited..no sooner had I taken the needle out to do the very first stitch than the nurse called me back! That happened a couple more times - I had to have my mammies grammied and it happened in their waiting room too, and at the pharmacy!..I guess taking handwork is a way to ward off having to wait for long..and if you do really have to wait, you have something to do...
The flowers are formed during the quilting and then afterwards I added the beads and some embroidery thread stamens..overall, its pretty darned cute! And I love the colors of the kit I got!