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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Deana's Rule #3

I began by piecing a background to applique on.  I placed two fabrics on top of each other, right side up, and cut a free handed curve with the rotary cutter.

Next, I removed the excess layers and seamed the curve together.

This is what I ended up with.  I tried to follow similar lines on the paper next to it.

Next I pieced the little barn's roof in strips that were cut different widths then seamed back together with offset rows.   I was trying to go for a patchy "tin" roof look. 

The roof is small and kind of hard to see the pieced sections in it.  At this point I used the embroidery technique by doing hand work for the fence, window, door, grass, and flag pole.  The flag is cut from a piece of fabric "that I wouldn't normally use" as described in the rule.  I tried to match the background of the flag the best I could so I was able to piece it in (too small to do much else).
Below is a selection of fabrics I found in my stash to help me fulfill the #3 rule.  They are all novelty prints I wouldn't normally use.   Below I have tropical birds, Star Spangled Banner music, pink (I don't like pink), frogs, and the very ugly fruit & vegetable print.  Next to that is a netting type fabric (I pondered making a chain link fence out of it), and then a silky grey.  Hmmm.  I really had to study these ideas for a couple of days.  You can see where I got the tiny flag from.



I really liked it at this point but wanted to show more depth so I put fusible webbing on the back of this VERY UGLY piece of fabric and cut out some useful pieces.

I arranged the melons, scarecrow, and sunflowers as desired.  All but the sunflowers were machine blanket stitched on with invisible thread to fused applique pieces.  Normally I like to cover the raw edges, but I didn't want an applique look.  I was going for more of a realistic look. 
The sunflowers are 3-D.  You can actually stick your fingers under them.  They are stitched on only at the centers.  This works because I fused another fabric to the back of them, making it stiffer and pretty much finished. 

My intent with the large sunflowers was to create a sense of depth pushing the fields and little barn into the background.

I realize that the sunflowers are not proportionate in size to the silo, but I'm not going for that realistic of a look in this quilt.

I am so very pleased!!

11 comments:

Marie said...

Your quilt is incredible!! You are soooo creative. How do you come up with all this stuff. Amazing! I love, love, love the sunflowers and scarecrow. What will you come up with next? Can't wait to see.

Pam in Texas said...

Very nice. I wish I had thought of that for my 5" strip. I like how your colors are coming together too. Good job.

Tamera said...

Oh my goodness! How wonderful! You are one creative lady...all the ladies here are so creative!

dorine said...

I love it!! The sunflowers are fantastic, and the veggies and scarecrow are darling too. The barn is really cute with the tin roof look. Very, very clever!

Annmarie said...

Another wonderful addition. You are soooo creative and patient!

Anonymous said...

Oh, my gosh, that is adorable! It's just perfect, and until you mentioned the proportion, my eye didn't see anything except barn way back and silo up front, and scarecrow in the middle. I love it!

Ann T. said...

Oh WOW, I love it. I hoped you would pick that fabric and use either the sunflowers or the squash, but you did BOTH. Your little barn is so cute, too. AND THEY ALL COME TOGETHER SO BEAUTIFULLY. And, I don't thing proportion is one of the rules, so it works. LOL
And thanks for sharing your technique. You are truly a clever lady!

lynne said...

wow. i love your process and thanks ever so much for showing us your journey. you continue to amaze me. i do think however, that your VERY UGLY fabric is VERY CUTE fabric LOL--but, i just LOVE fall and harvest, so it is right up my alley ;o) i love all of your fabric choices so far, they all look amazing with each other, not what you would expect, but the really work well with each other. i also love how you blended the blocks together by the "overhang" of the aplique onto the larger block....very well done!

Ann Marie @ 16 Muddy Feet said...

Everything looks wonderful!!! Can't wait to see what you do next time. You are always so creative.

Moira said...

Everything looks wonderful!

Unknown said...

Your mystery so far looks like you are just plain having fun and doing a great job of quilting while you are at it! Great work and I love the theme!