Friday, May 30, 2008

Spring CQ....Iris

It's not really a Siberian Iris...it's more a generic one.

This time I thought I would try just appliqueing my flower on, using fabrics and the buttonhole stitch. But I constructed my flower in a slightly different way for me...I used that water soluble stabilizer.

As an experiment, it worked pretty well.
I used clear thread in a zig zag and just slapped the pieces together on the stabilizer base.

Once the flower was dunked in water and then ironed dry, it looked like this.
I knew that none of the stitching along the edge would show, as it would be covered by the buttonhole stitching. Plus this kept the edges from fraying.
I was just too lazy to back all my little fabrics with fusible web...and a little nervous about fusing directly onto my quilt, anyway. Plus I just don't like hand stitching through fused fabrics, even if I do use lightweight MistyFuse.

It was just a matter of a few pins to hold my "unit" in place while I stitched it on.

See, once the button hole stitching went on, that raggedy edge with the machine stitching completely disappeared.

Which brought me to this point. But then I decided there should be one open flower...

All of a sudden my quilt is dominated by the presence of this iris!!!
But that's o.k....the roses to come will balance it all out. And do we have roses coming!!!!

But meanwhile I think I will just cover some seams for a few days. I feel like just plain ol' crazy stitching while the roses get ready to pop outside.

5 comments :

Anonymous said...

That open iris is just stunning!

Summerset said...

My siberian irises will open in a week or two - I can see the buds but no flowers yet and yours are almost exactly like the real thing! Just beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Hi Allie,

Just wondering if you could snap a pic of the "whole" work in progress???

I'm loving your flowers!! Keep it up!!

Also, what size of thread do you use normally for your decorative stitching?? (what size did you use on the irises???)

Pat Winter Gatherings said...

Very nice, I can see some lily of the valley tucked in somewhere too.I noticed I had a carpet of it by the front sidewalk yesterday after the rain shower.

Anonymous said...

Allie,

This gets more beautiful each time I view it. Your blog is indeed a treat. Thank you for sharing.

Shel