22nd Feb 2017 The Secret Garden’s Basket 3 D look

What I woke up to 3 mornings ago. I never need a holiday away from here. Im on a constant holiday.

Where I’m up to today Wednesday morning. Some flowers hand appliqué and some leaves machine appliquéd down. Most of the left hand side is finished except for the bottom flower. My bow will be the last thing I appliqué down.

Thursday morning my time earl morning the sun is filtering through the windows.  It took me 1 1/2 hrs yesterday to button hole around this Bow LOL My machine is old and I had to stop every few stitches lift my foot and  turn the fabric ever so slightly so it would keep a smooth edge. My thread kept breaking due to the build up of glue on the needle from the iron on fusing at the back of the bow which is holding the batting in place to give me a padded look. 1?2 way through my machine told me it needed cleaning, a new needle and oiling LOL  SO I did and what a difference in the stitching then. Most of my leaves are appliquéd down now.  

Where it all started 2 weeks ago.  I like to use coloured paper for my print offs I can see the pattern as a picture this way not lines on white paper.  Its just the way I see things.

Many other quilters commented on the orange paper back ground thinking that was my fabric so I decided to try it on a lovely piece of orange fabric but I was not happy with it.

Placing my flowers to get the balance I want in my flower arrangement.  I all ways print of to copies of the pattern. One to refer back to and one to cut into.

Cutting out the stems on a print out so I can mark them on to my background fabric or alter them if I wish. a couple I did as my flowers were too big.

My SG after I had finished making all my pieces now all the pieces are ready to be appliquéd down by hand and machine. I ended up using the first choice of back ground fabric which is a lovely soft blue which was once a lovely Kimono. It is a fine 1005 wool tight weave and so lovely to work on.

Here you can see I’m making bullion stitches.

Close ups of flowers on my SG so you can see how I’m appliquéing the flower heads on and embroidering them

One leaf appliquéd by machine, it really gives the leaf a defined shape.

4 flowers embroidered and appliquéd down.

My last flower I have done so far, I added lots of stem stitch to this one to give it mare depth from a distance. Bullion knots in the centre.

I took satin bias strips then ironed on fusing strips behind them, this made it easy to weave as I ironed the tips on to the top of the basket shape and then wove the strips till I was sure they were all woven properly and evenly spaced .

Backing here is a pale blue silk see how it changes the colour of the strips?

Ive used a lightly silver and gold shimmery backing, looks a bit like dragons scales LOL In the past I used it to make a Dragon wall art piece for my Son.

All ironed down and trimmed. These are strong colours but my flower arrangement is subtle so needs this effect at the bottom of the block I think?

Ironed on to some batting before I quilt all those strips in place I want a 3D look as it looked rather flat.

Im using a very fine bite stitch here, 3 straight sttiches then one in to the material . My machine is over 40 years old and this is the appliqué stitch if I’m slow it works well to appliqué down these strips. Machine appliqué is new to me. I did stop at every weave do a back stitch and then start on the other side, slow but worth it for the end look.

All strips quilted down now to trim back the batting.

I cut out the surrounding of the basket in one piece. Its a piece of Kimono fabric with a little glitter in it to. I wanted some thing dark but not black this is a dark navy with silver threads. first I ironed on some iron on fussing to the fabric I used then cut the shape out as one piece, I carefully ironed it to the vase shape. I did cut my vase shape slightly smaller so that it was a perfect fit and cover? and when I sew it to the background fabric finally it will roll over around that edge as  the out side 1/8th of the frame has fusing and nothing else behind it. So if Im lucky it will look 3 D!

It took me several hrs to make I can not believe how long it took me, getting those weaves to be even was a challenge on its own LOL So there is a days sewing LOL

My latest fisher man has settled in to my garden well and truly now.

Red delight always nice to have a splash of red in the garden.

Ive never seen this before either LOL Its a growing spore its been so so wet the last month that all sorts of spores are growing here not good for ones health if you have asthma!!!!! But boy is this a stunning display and so so yellow.

One of the flowering ginger plants I did not grow this one either LOL

A storm has just been through, the heavens open for about 10 mins then its all gone till the next one.

This lily just appeared in my garden thats one thing about rain forests areas things just pop up for the first time even after 20 years here????? Its so pure white and so beautiful I have so enjoyed watching it grow and then it started to flower this week.