"Summer Garden #2" 03-12-13

I FINALLY finished the Monthly Mini for Surside Quilters Guild - early this morning!  When I was working on it yesterday morning, my back-up Pfaff wouldn't turn on.  The switch is just stuck, or broken or... whatever.  So, I uncovered the Juki that I bought to use for FMQ, but I haven't used it for several years.  After a light cleaning and a drop of oil I read the instruction book - it had been so long I couldn't remember how to thread it!  It does sew beautifully, a nice even stitch, but it only goes forward and backward.  I had to revise my plan to satin stitch the two side edges, but forward and back were adequate for everything else.  I took the quilt to the meeting this morning and hung it up.  Then I realized I had not photographed it, nor had I done a final measurement.  I hope it is straighter than the images below indicate - they were taken with the camera above my head since the quilts are hung high.  The color is a bit off also.  Maybe Mary Crawford, who had the winning ticket, will bring it back someday so I can do better photography.



"Summer Garden #2" Del Thomas 2013  Approx 18" x 12"
Cotton fabric and batting.  Fused, machine pieced, raw edge applique, machine quilted.
Owned by Mary Crawford, San Juan Capistrano, CA
 

The flowers are cut whole from yardage, they are basically just one piece - however, I slipped in a petal in a few places because of the overlap of the print.   In this picture I notice that I missed the outlining stitch on some of the holes on the left leaf.  Guess I'll have to borrow it back from Mary!
 

 
There is always a bird on the quilts I make and this one is one the label.  But I fused the label too close to the bottom and the facing covered up this guy's feet.  So, after the facing was done I drew them again over the facing.  Something I might do on purpose sometime in the future.
 

I like to use colorful backings on my quilts.  This one isn't as outrageous as some, but it is bright!  Sometimes I match the print in the sleeve, but I just ran out of time on this one.  Why, oh why, do I leave things to the last minute?   

I like this quilt, but I think it would have been a better design if I had allowed more background space around it.  Especially at the top of the flowers and the sides.  Has it started my creativity motor?  I'm not sure yet - I hope so.