Paisley Daisy Feathers

Hi, its my first day here, so be gentle with me! For the benefit of those who don't know me, I'm Trudi, I'm a Quilter, Long Armer, mother of both a teenager and an adult child, allotment grower, and on other days I also work part time.  Mostly, I'm a quilter.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be here and have plenty of ideas of how to make life just a little bit simpler with the Sizzix Big Shot.  I've been quilting for close to 25 years now, a stroker and collector of fabrics, and mainly make big quilts.  I guess I am a modern traditionalist, I like all the pretties!  Since my children have gotten to the stage they can forage for themselves I get more time for quilting.

So, to break myself in gently I recently went on a retreat, and part of which was to decorate the ticket tote for another attendee,  As a long arm quilter, I love feathers, and was recently lucky enough to demonstrate with the Nel Whatmore dies at Festival of Quilts.  Whilst there I had time to percolate a few ideas.

I selected some Art Gallery fabrics from my stash, and the Paisley Daisy die, and with a few bits of packaging from a recent purchase cut myself some plain paisley shapes. 

Having roughly cut the shape about 1/4" bigger than the cut papers, I like to glue baste them.  I use a cuticle tool, to smooth down the edges and ease the fabrics evenly on the convex (outside) sides.  It also helps snipping within a few threads of the edge on the concave (inside) curves as it  persuades the fabrics to lie flat. 

Once the glue is dry, after a good press with a dry iron, I removed the papers, pressed again to ensure my seams would lie flat, and machine appliqued my paisley shapes to the back part of the bag.  Nothing fancy in this, I just used my normal sewing foot, and a straight stitch, but was careful to pivot with the needle down when I needed to adjust my direction of sewing. 

As my bag had been deconstructed, I could load it up on the long arm for quilting.  As the quilting is small scale and dense around the appliqued shapes, they take on a trapunto feel about them. 

The circle for the center was cut free hand, however, the Circles die would be a great addition for this, as it has 3 sizes to choose from. 

I am pleased to report the recipient of the bag was thrilled!  As was I with the results, so much so, I have a  table runner planned, along with the addition of the Leaves die, which I intend to hand applique. A nice project for the cooler evenings now the nights are drawing in.

Til next time, when I hope to have something a little seasonal for you.