Plenty: Still to be done

Remember Princess Plenty? It's a design I love, by Australian quilt teacher and designer Lynne Alchin. I started it last year, entirely hand pieced and hand appliquéed. Consequently it's a 'slow burner'.

 Every quilter needs a slow burner, don't you think? A project you can take with you to stitching get-togethers with friends, work on in front of the tv on cosy winter evenings, or pop into a cabin bag when you travel, just in case you find yourself with time on your hands. 

You can be sure if you don't pack some handwork you'll find yourself twiddling your thumbs in an airport transit lounge for seven hours, bored to bits. It's there in Section 3 Clause 10b of Murphy's Law.

Here's the plot so far...

Princess Plenty's central border is temporarily stalled, waiting for me to complete and attach that final sawtooth border. What can I say? too much repetition wearies me.

Something more engaging, the first of four intricately appliquéed borders, has been occupying my attention in the meantime. It even travelled with me to Zimbabwe and Botswana in February.

Leaves, vines, berries, pears, cornucopias, stars, birds, various flowers. There's always something different to work on so I'll never lose interest, and I'm loving it.

Another quirk of mine is that I like to tweak a quilt pattern just a little, rather than reproducing it exactly. What can I say? I'm full of weird ways😊

Here's how I created this little yellow and blue flower. 

I cut a yellow background, according to Lynne's pattern, and fussy cut a circle for the flower centre.

Using a circle I'd punched in card I made the flower centre by drawing up the fabric around it and pressing, then appliquéing it to the yellow background.

Next I turned the flower over, carefully cut the centre out and removed the circular card. This also helps the centre to pop when the quilting is done.

I snipped around the edges of the flower and, using a Sewline glue pen, folded over and pressed the petal shaped edges with my finger and thumb. 

My interfacing of choice here is Floriani Stitch and Wash Fusible which gives a nice firm base for shaping my appliqué pieces prior to stitching.

I took 8 x 1cm sequins and, using the method I described in this tutorial, made dots and appliquéed them evenly to the front of the flower. I've found that with circles this tiny it's easier to get a smoother circle if I leave the sequins in while I appliqué them.

I slit the back again and removed the sequins. At this point it's ok to cut the gathering threads on the wrong side to release the sequins because they are securely appliquéed down.

Voila! My finished flower!

Sure, I'm making slow progress on Princess Plenty, but what's the hurry?