This pattern goes together very quickly, and gives you lots of open space in the center for adding embroidery and appliqué! There are only 14 blocks to piece, and two outer borders, so it will be on your table quickly.To download a PDF for this tablecloth, click on the button at the left to join the Candy Apple Quilts Yahoo Group --- the file is there waiting for you!
Time to reuse some of the patterns I have, and try and make them look completely different! This quilt has a formal name (which I can't remember....) but I call it the Orient Express. It has lots of Asian influence, and beautiful butterflies all over.
Any time I see butterflies, I think of my friend Lyn. That happened with this quilt, and then it dawned on me.... the Stained Glass quilt that we just finished for her had a beautiful butterfly pattern on it! That would be a great one to use again! I'm not sure if you can see the design in the close-up above, but it's exactly the same as the design used on Lyn's Stained Glass quilt below. Same pattern, but a totally different look!
Have you ever felt that you would run out of space for yet another quilt? The beds are covered, the walls are covered, the table tops are covered --- even the dog is wearing quilted jackets! A nice idea for a a small quilt is hanging it on a patio door or window. Let the sun shine through it and highlight your beautiful stitches! Here is a new wall-hanging made by Lyn Christian of A Design by Lyn that will hang in a sunny spot soon!
Lyn's quilt has butterflies in the center panel that can be highlighted with crystals, and the borders could be done, too. Here's a close-up of one of the butterflies.
There's always a good reason to finish up those small quilts! And now you have a new place to hang them!
Lots of people agree that sometimes it's just easier to keep stitching --- right over top of the embroidery! In the case of redwork designs, I think that's very true!
This quilt was done on a Gammill machine with a Statler Stitcher (computerized), and it would have been impossible to stop the machine for each tiny line that I crossed. The stitching is imperceptible on the redwork, and not a distraction at all.
The embroidery designs used in this quilt are from Bonnie Domeny at Threadlove Embroidery, and you can find the collection of all ten ballerinas here.
Our school district was having a fund raiser for the Marching Band, and they wanted a quilt that they could raffle off. Being in Ohio, I thought that the best block pattern that I could use was the Ohio Star. I chose blue and gold for the school colors, and embroidery designs with a music theme to them. I always prefer to do the embroidery on the fabric before the blocks are assembled, because I don't want the bobbin stitches to show on the back of the quilt.
As a special tough, I digitized the school logo, and embroidered it for the block that would end up in the center of the quilt. You can see a close-up of the embroidered logo in the block.
My favorite stabilizer to use for this type of embroidery is a tear-away/wash-away. You can remove the bulk of it by tearing it away after you embroider, and then proceed to assemble the quilt. When the quilt is finished, the block is nice and soft. The stabilizer that does remain behind the stitches holds up well over time, and any extra stabilizer just washes away when the quilt is laundered.
