3-D Flower project finished

It's done! That was fun.

I did make an iris for the lower right corner. It was an adventure. I decided to try one of Allison Aller's techniques that she published in the CQMagOnline, April, 2009 issue: making millinery flowers. Actually, I can't claim to have used her technique. I modified it to use the materials I had. I made ovals of white silk charmeuse. Then, not having the glue Allison used, I sprayed the ovals heavily with starch and pressed. I used three for one flower. On two ovals I streaked yellow pastel on the center end of the oval to about the middle. Not having a ball-shaped tool to shape the fabric, I used the tip of my iron on a cloth bag of rice (not having any sand.) Then I gathered the center end of the ovals with a few stitches. The two lower petals needed a row of yellow fuzzy stuff, stamens with pollen? I made those with Ghiordes knot or Turkey rug knot. using one strand of DMC floss. I found the starch didn't completely prevent ravelling of the silk, so I used fray check around the edges. Then I sewed the petals onto the block with the bottom two skewed to the side. With ribbon stem and leaves added, the iris is done. I'm sure this would have worked better if I had used archival bookbinding glue, a millinery tool and a sand bed, but who could wait to get those things.

So here is the finished block. It has another flower added besides the eight Allison taught and the iris. Notice some sweet William's in pink fused angelina fibers. I traded this color with Robin Atkins for some of the orangy color I had in my kit for the dogwood. And, Susan, I did make the waste canvas based butterfly. It's cute and I did want to use all the techniques Allie taught. That was a great workshop. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Allie's workshop

Oh no! Allie (Aller)'s workshop was over last Wednesday. She and Susan (Elliot) went to NYC afterward, then Allie flew home and both of them have updated their blogs before I reported on the great time I had. You must check Susan's blog for her close up pictures of Allie's remarkable quilt displayed at the workshop.

The workshop was on three-dimensional floral embellishment of crazy quilts. Allie is a gardener and has invented ways to represent the blooms from her garden in needlework. She introduced us to beautiful uses for silk ribbon, wired ribbon, silk shiffon, thick silk thread, angelina fiber, felted fabric, rick rack and more. I've been working on my class sample this week in addition to editing the Constellation Chapter, EGA newsletter. I finally got the latter out for proofing this morning, so I have time to give you this report. Here's a picture of my class project.

There is room for more flowers on it. My iris are blooming. Azaleas, too, but I really love the iris. Do you think I can figure out a way to make a 3-D version of iris for that lower right corner?

It was fun to meet Allie who is active on the crazy quilt listservs I follow and is an editor and contributor of CQMagOnline. Her enthusiasm and warmth were contagious during the workshop.

I almost forgot to mention our visit to Accessories of Old on the Sunday before the workshop. The proprietors opened especially for our chapter of EGA and our special guests, Allie and Robin Atkins, beader extraordinaire who gave us a workshop last year. Robin traveled all the way from the islands of Washington state for this workshop and a reunion with the friends she met last year. This shop is something else, loaded with vintage beads, buttons, ribbons, jewelry, hats, lace, and more delightful things. Susan blogged about this a while back. (I won one of the cards of buttons she had for a giveaway on that blog!) During this pre-Allie visit, I bought more buttons and beads. So gorgeous.

I am all fired up with inspiration for more projects. Oh no!