Quick, answer this question: “What is Sandy’s favorite color?”
That li
ne brought a big chuckle when I recently asked it at a presentation I was giving.
It’s a little obvious when my work is collected together.
But sometimes I like to add a bit of red and white to the blue, as I did in this piece that’s next on my list of “ready to quilt.”
I’ve mentioned before that I like to work seasonally. So a small project I made this year as July 4 approached was this one called Stars in Bloom. The pattern came from Blackbird Designs, and I interpreted it in cotton and wool.
The rich red flower petals are various reds from my wool stash, the most prominent being from that red cashmere coat I bought a few years ago. The vines and leaves and blue stars are cotton fabrics.
I certainly want the quilt label to be unique. It’s important to include a label identifying the quilt title, the maker, the date. A simple rectangular piece of cloth containing this information is better than nothing, but since I began quiltmaking, I’ve enjoyed including elements of the quilt’s design in the label.
Ollie Jane’s Flower Garden has a lily similar to the one on the front of the quilt as its label. Walker’s Pasture has a miniature photo of the front of the quilt on the label. Mom and Apple Pie’s label features a flag (an appliqué element from the front – and the label you see at the right).
That said, I may have gone a bit overboard in this small piece. The combination of hearts and stars on the front led me to include a heart and a star. It took a big star (well, big relevant to the size of the quilt) to contain the title and my name. Then an even bigger heart was needed to surround the star. Above, the view of the backside. Do you think the label is visible?
As has become my custom, I embraced the raw edge on this label. The star was machine stitched to the heart, then the heart was attached using the “glue stitch” I learned from Jude Hill, hand stitching the label through the quilt back and batting. As time goes on, the raw edges will fray more, adding to the charm of the back. Or to the tattered look, depending on your perspective.
More about Stars in Bloom: This piece finishes at 12” x 17”. The appliqué is a combination of wool and cotton. The cotton pieces are hand stitched needle-turn appliqué. Some hearts are made of felted wool and stitched down with a whip stitch, again by hand. The quilting is free-motion machine stitching (incorporating some hearts in the design) using silk thread on top and cotton thread in the bobbin.
