Pattern testing complete....here's the reveal!

Recently I showed you the start of my pattern testing for Terri Stegmiller's adorable Paws in the Garden project -- love that design! 

I'm really excited to show you the finish!

I had so much fun with this pattern . . . as I mentioned before, Terri created this with a nice large pattern that you can print out yourself, and match up the pieces with the marks on the pages. After that it was off to the races, as I picked fabrics, fused and stitched, and then (dare I say it?) added three dimensional embellishments!

(And I made it totally from my stash!)

Lookie!

Now I'd like to show you some details. You won't be bored, will you? Grab your cuppa and get ready for some photos!

This is what started the creative process for the 3D touches . . . I recalled that I had a few buttons left from the lovely folks at Button Mad. I thought it would be cute to let them "land" on my flowers!

Then one landed on one of the kitties' tails, too!

When it came to the flowers, I loved the ones that Terri designed, but I longed for some more "pop" in my garden, so I used the same techniques as in this post from long ago, and made this flower:

Here is a pictorial progress report on how it was constructed:

First, cut out the petals (twice as many, right?) and lay them right sides together. Pay no attention to those chubby digits there. As I have mentioned to you before, it's an aberration in the genes. The rest of me is slender, willowy, super model material. 
Ahem.

I have digressed.

Next you sew a quarter inch seam all the way around, except for the opening for turning the petals right side out.

After they are turned, pinch a tuck in them and stitch those bad boys into submission.

Then you are ready to put your flower together!
Now, flowers simply must have stems, and you all know that I have a frog and a dragon who frolic in my sewing area, right? So you knew that this was coming?

 After helping to choose the perfect color trim for the stems, Padsworth and Dragondrop got to work choosing buttons for the spots on one kitty, and the collar jewels for all of the kitties.

We have lots of fun here at the Lilypad!
Since I had chosen "blues" (fabrics) for the kitties, I named them Leon (Redbone), Bessie (Smith), and (Memphis) Minnie.
Here are some close up shots for your consideration:

Their collars are grosgrain ribbon, and Presencia thread holds their "jewels" on while they play in the garden.

This (above) is a shot showing the green backing fabric and the blue binding. I love a narrow binding and cut this one at (gasp) one and a quarter inches wide.
 

 A standard stippling (with my fav Aurifil thread....ya know, it was just like buttah!) made the kitties and flowers the stars of the project, and gave me a chance to practice, too!

Had to show you this flower one more time!

(Waving) Thank you, Terri, for letting me participate and test your pattern! I had a blast, and I hope y'all enjoyed seeing the process and the completed project!

I would like to encourage all of you to get the pattern and have fun making Paws in the Garden!

Love,

Quilters Bee Giving

Y'all be sure and hop over to SewCalGal's blog and check out the fun! She's packed so much in, that she has extended the party through December 15th!

There's an auction going on here.

There's a raffle here.

And here is the main page that explains all that is going on!

None of the bloggers that are hosting are benefiting from this -- there are four worthy charities that will receive the money raised from the auctions and raffle ticket sales.

100% of the funds go to the charities -- and you can choose which one to assist!

And have you seen the prizes? Wowser!

So, you just gotta go and party with SewCalGal -- because Quilters Bee Giving people! (grin)

Love,

 

   

Giveaway winner!

It's time to announce the winner of our Green Fairy Quilts sponsored giveaway!

Woot!

We'd like to send a great big Lilypadquilting THANK YOU to Green Fairy Quilts -- they are an awesome sponsor, and we hope that you enjoyed getting to know them!

Mr. Random put on his thinking cap and chose:

 And number 167 was KatieQ!! Seems to me she has won here at Lilypadquilting in the past, so she must have some powerful giveaway mojo revved up! 

I saw on her blog that her son got married recently, so maybe these pre-cuts from Green Fairy will come in handy soon! (Wink)

In our impromptu voting, it seems that many of you were drooling over the fat quarter bundles . . .

Giggles was one favorite

Bluebird Park was another

Personally, I was crushing on Holiday in the Pines . . . I had a quilt design in my head, right after I looked at it!

Be sure to stay tuned to Green Fairy -- awesome sales, stellar service, and fabulous fabrics!! What's not to love!!

Love,

It's not the luck of the Irish . . .

. . .  it's the luck of a quilter!

Be.

Still.

My.

Heart.

Got to Charleston and looked online at the current exhibits at the museum (which, incidentally is the oldest museum in the United States, I'm told. It opened in 1773!) and saw that they were showing some of their extensive quilt collection!

They call their exhibit "Quintessential Quilts" and being a lover of big words as well as of scrappy fabrics, I was definitely interested!

So I walked to the museum and feasted my eyes on some lovelies -- some from the mid eighteenth century! (Of course, the kids think that's when I grew up, but that is a story for another day.)

They showed examples of whitework from the 1700's, with portions of the piece stuffed with cording, for more "umph" and wow-power; they also showed beautiful applique pieces and english paper pieced hexagon masterpieces, too.

I snagged these photos from their Flickr stream:

This Star of Bethlehem quilt was pieced in approximately 1850. You can see it up close and personal here. What intrigued me about this one was the applique work in the areas around the star. Those are flower sprays that appear to have been carefully cut out of fabric panels and placed just where the quilter wanted them to be.

This Tree of Life quilt is from the 1840's, and the quilter fussy cut a giraffe from another piece of fabric to place under her tree!  You may be able to see him here .  (If you zoom in, you can see him to the left of the tree roots.)

I hope these linkies work for you, because this one is so unusual. The pattern is native to South Carolina, and it's a combination of applique and reverse applique!

This is the last one I wanted to show you; it was made in about 1842:

It's called Stars and Diamonds, and reminded me of the hexies we are seeing all over blogland! They exhibited another paper pieced one that was made of the tiniest hexies I think I've seen . . . they were only about 3/8 across!

I sure hope that if you happen to visit Charleston, you have the opportunity to check out the museum and enjoy these quilts! We have an old and proud crafting and sewing heritage!

Oh, and don't forget to visit my friend, SewCalGal, and enter to win some fabulous prizes! 

Your purchase of a raffle ticket is actually a donation to one of four charitable organizations, so you will be doing good, and maybe win something wonderful! Check out her post to see the prizes!

We here at the Lilypad hope that you'll select the Greenville Humane Society for your purchase/donation to go to . . . they do some awesome work in finding pups and kitties forever homes!

Love,

Pattern Testing

See Moses.

See Moses pout.

Why is Moses pouting?

Because Snoodles is paying more attention to the kitties on the Paws in the Garden project than she is paying him!

Warning! Picture heavy post ahead!

Settle back with your cuppa in hand, and let's start the process of pattern testing. This is fun!

Long time followers here at the Lilypad know that we can be a little wordy, er, verbose, er excited about projects, so you'll not be surprised.

Terri Stegmiller put out the call for pattern testers some weeks back. We put our name in the pot and crossed our fingers and toes! (We would have held our breath, but we figured it might take a little while for Terri to choose.....we didn't want anyone to find all of us, Padsworth, Snoodles, and Dragondrop, lying on the floor and looking a peculiar shade of blue. So we just crossed our fingers and our toes.) 

Huzzah! We were given the opportunity to test this cute pattern -- Paws in the Garden! Here is Terri's version, courtesy of her blog:

Terri gave us carte blanche (I thought I would throw in a little French there, so you will know I am very cultured and sophisticated and all) to interpret this the way we wanted to. Music to my ears!

I started the process by printing out the pattern. Terri includes marks so that you can line up the pieces correctly. Really good idea. I mean, I know that not everyone has a frog and a tiny dragon frolicing in their sewing area like I do, but still.... (Grin)
I auditioned some fabrics. My first thought was "in the garden....I'll pull some florals and make cute kitties that way."

I liked these, but then I realized it might be hard to distinguish the kitties' markings amidst the lovely blooms.
Back to the drawing board, er stash.
Aha! I knew I had been hoarding blues for some reason! These called out to me and I pulled them out to audition.

And some creams and yellows -- I know the flowers are nice and big, but I really wanted the kitties to be the focal points, so I wanted the flowers to be a little softer.

I had some steam a seam (lite) and so I got to work.
Midway through the project I changed to regular steam a seam, and I have to say I liked it better. I had to spend less time arguing with it. (Wink)

Most of you know the process here . . . flip the pattern over and trace the reverse onto the wrong side of the fabric, then cut out the piece around the lines and peel one piece of paper away. You can stick your fabric piece onto your project then, and if you like what you see, you can peel away the rest of the paper and iron 'er down.

Then comes the fun! You know me, right? Embellishment time!

Fun stitches and some rick rack stems:

Even more to come, but we'll show you that in another post, soon. Look at these adorable kitty faces, fused down and ready to stitch!

Squeee! I'm over-the-moon excited about how this is coming along, and can't wait to show you what else I have up my sleeve! I've even given them names and started talking to the kitties! (Grin)
So now you know why poor Moses is pouting!
If you'd like to try Terri's pattern yourself, check out her blog for a link to her patterns!

See you soon with the big reveal!

Love,

PS. Don't forget the Green Fairy giveaway!
                        And stop in at SewCalGal's charity effort, too!