Betsy's Closet is a Finish

I finished Betsy's Closet this week. I handquilted it in a checkerboard pattern, outlining the stitcheries. 

This quilt was such a joy to make! Thanks to Jenny of Elefantz and Kathy at Shawkl Design Studio ...it is a great idea to have this blog for us to share our progress and to be inspired by those who have gone before us. 

And of course, huge thanks to Brenda at Acorn Quilt and Gift Company for designing such an awesome pattern!

To see more pictures of my quilt and to read my update, please visit my blog, The Cuddle Quilter. 

It's a great day for quilting!

Betsy's Closet Ready to Quilt

Hi! It's Lesley from The Cuddle Quilter. Yahoo, I finished my Betsy's Closet quilt top this week! I loved doing the stitchery designs.  I used some pretty basic stitches including the backstitch, French knots and a few lazy daisy stitches. Thank you, Brenda Riddle, for a fabulous pattern! 

I pieced the nine blocks together with a collection of beautiful bright fabrics I picked up as a bundle through Sew Lux Fabrics.  

I added a few more colours from my stash and cut the 2" squares...no quick piecing for me.  I wanted to enjoy putting them together!

I love this type of sashing and border. I chose bright and cheerful and I think it works. I decided to go with a purple and white combination for the teeny tiny 9-patches...

I really do adore this little quilt, but now I have so many questions...how do I quilt it?  By hand or machine? What design?  Flannel on the back or regular backing?  I welcome all suggestions! 

I also have a question. I used a fusible interfacing on the backs of the embroidered blocks so that any errant threads wouldn't show through. Now that the top is finished, I'm realizing the interfacing is a little thicker than I'd like, and the extra layer may be a tad tougher to hand quilt. What do you folks use behind your stitcheries?  

Thanks for visiting to see my Betsy and a big thanks to Jenny of Elefantz and Kathy from Shawkl for hosting this site for all we Betsy lovers. It's a great day for quilting!

Only two left

Here are my latest two blocks, I only have two left to stitch and then I can assemble the top.  This has been so much fun to work on.

Finished Top!

I started assembling the top before I had finished the little red coat, so today when that one was dry (from rinsing out the blue marker), I just had a little more to do to put it together.

Some assembly notes that may help you:

I enlarged my designs to 120% and didn't want to deal with 120% of 2 inches, so I enlarged the sashing pieces to 2.5" x 2.5" (a 25% increase).

I DID NOT cut out the embroidery pieces to the specified size as the pattern indicates, but instead drew rectangles that included 1/4" seam allowances (in my case they ended up being 8.5" x 10.325") around the embroideries with blue wash out markers, matched the edge of the vertical sashing pieces to the drawn line and stiched 1/4 inch in from the line and edge of the sashing.  When I was sure embroidery was properly centered between the columns of sashing, I trimmed away the excess fabric on the sides, leaving the tops and bottoms alone until I was ready to add the horizontal sashing.  Sorry I didn't take more "process" photos.

I actually figured out how big the rectangle should be by assembling a vertical and an horizontal piece of sashing, pressing and measuring them.

Benefit #1.  If I marked the box in the wrong place, I could remove the sashing and start over, rather than have to re-embroider an entire block because I had cut it wrong.
Benefit #2.  When stitching first and trimming second, my fabrics stretch and wiggle less.

I may put an additional border around this before I quilt it.  For now, it is going to Chattanooga Quilts in Ooltewah, TN so, hopefully, people will sign up for my class.  I plan to hand quilt it and make a couple of small pillows to go with it.  It will probably end up in a granddaughter's bedroom someday.  The fabrics I used were primarily Aunt Grace's Garden Party by Judie Rothermel.  I did add a few other prints of Judie's that were in my fat quarter stash and went with the colors.


Thanks so much, ladies, for the motivation to make this.  I have loved this project and your kind comments have been such an encouragement to me.  My friend, Deb, and I are working on starting a blog of our own (her daughter-in-law is helping us) and while there isn't anything there now but a header we are changing, if you go and follow us, you will be in at the front end when we start posting in a week or two. www.chosen-sisters.blogspot.com

Blessings on your fingers and your sewing machines and your eyesight!  May they work forever.

Capi

Block 8

Well, ladies, here it is...my last block.  The little red coat was supposed to be block 8, but after I finished all of the red embroidery, I found that I was almost out of black DMC.  How can anyone run out of #310?  So, I moved on and embroidered the sunsuit and cut out sashing squares while I waited for a good time to dash into Hobby Lobby.

It was hard to decide if I should add black to this last square, especially since there is NO black anywhere else in the quilt top.  But in honor of historical accuracy (and the willingness of my dear friend and chosen sister, Deb, to lend her daughter's beautiful coat to my little girl many years ago), I decided to add black velvet pocket flaps and collar to this little red coat.

The coat is stitched with chain stitch and the green dress peaking out from the bottom is stitched with outline (or stem) and trimmed in half pinwheels of blanket stitch.  The buttons are satin stitch...I wish they were perfectly round, but alas... The collar and pocket flaps are stitched in Ghiordes knots, also known as Turkey work and single knot tufting.  This stitch is photographed well and described in A to Z of Embroidery Stitches by Country Bumpkin.  The stitch remind me of cable stitches used in smocking, but the upper cable isn't pulled through and is left as a loop.  Only the bottom cable is pulled tight against the fabric.  After all of the stitches are finished, you clip off the loops, VERY carefully, little by little, to the depth you would like, making "velvet" from your embroidery floss. I used wonderful serrated scissors that I purchased from Lyn Weeks at the Smocking Arts Guild of America convention in Atlanta this past October.  This is the link to those scissors on her website.  They were absolutely perfect for this! http://www.lynweeks.com/products.cfm?fullid=F2AE9541-1422-B11B-BA71468FF4096477&id=86
If you decide to order some, please tell her that Capi sent you.

I used all six strands of floss so the velvet would have a nice pile.  The back of the stitching looks like rows and rows of backstitch, very close together.  Now that it has been photographed, I will press tiny pieces of iron-on interfacing over the back to secure the stitches.  This is a lovely stitch to add to smocking and embroidery.  It makes nice manes on horses and tufts in the centers of flowers.  I usually work it from the bottom  to the top of the shape I am filling.

Block 3

The sunsuit with bloomers was the eighth block I finished...I ran out of black floss and had to stop working on the little red coat.  Today's trip to Hobby Lobby solved
that problem, so I will be able to finish the last one tonight, I hope.

About the sunsuit...the suit and bloomers are outline stitch and the straps are chain stitch.  The yellow plaid lines are long straight stitches, couched at the intersections with two stitches, one horizontal and one vertical.  The buttons are blanket stitch pinwheels with a little red X in the middle to resemble button stitching.

The white trim is made of adjacent fly stitches, but I shortened the anchor stitch so it would look more like rick rack.

The stems and leaves are backstitches with a lazy daisy and the flowers are two red lazy daisy stitches, close enough together to look like hearts at first glance.

Block 2 is number seven for me...making headway.

The "tucks" on the front of this dress are stitched with the palestrina stitch, making lovely little bumps on the front of the dress.  This is one of my favorite stitches and one of the signature stitches that I use on the tape measures that I make for the Etsy shop that my friend Deb and I have (etsy.com/shop/ChosenSisters).

The lace collar and cuffs are made using the open detached blanket stitch.  Wonderful directions and photos for this technique are published in A-Z of Embroidery Stitches 2 by Country Bumpkin Publications of Australia. (No one is paying me to promote their books.  I just happen to love them.)

The little splash of red in the bullion rose turns this from a Sunday dress into a simple, classic Christmas dress, at least in my mind.
And, no, I haven't finished all three of these blocks in the last day or two.  I just got around to taking the pictures and posting them.  Off to work on my little red coat!