What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Two traditional block designs got mixed up !

Double Wedding Ring

String of Beads.

The leaf shape of the beads has to be one of the most versatile shapes available for us to use on applique blocks. There must be many millions of possible designs … I should count how many I have drawn up but I am pretty sure I could expand the number by lots if I stop designing quilts with what I already have.

The second design uses the same layout as the first, just the blocks have changes.

These started  when I was trying to work out how to get Strings of Beads to around corners.

I have just asked myself a question … what if … I made them look more like Medallion Quilts, with different colours backgrounds?

I need something to play twith in the next few days as it will be too hot to venture outside.

Love the colours, love the style of applique with leaf shapes as well as round and sometimes oval shaped beads.

Love the cross in the centre of the second one … and I am not going to try to pick a favourite amongst these two.

I fell in love with String of Beads the first time I saw the traditional block design, and started playing with the simple  leaf shape bead with pencil and paper.

 The first photos of quilts featuring the design they had been appliqued by cutting out the shapes with a seam allowance, turning the seam allowance to the back and tacking it in place, then hand stitching, including those two pointy ends.

About the time I read the first story in a quilting magazine about a new product which could be ironed onto the back of fabric, then fused onto the ...

I love Strings of Beads. The beads themselves can be cut from any scraps of fabric, selected scraps, or purchased fabrics. Mark the shapes onto fusible webbing before ironing onto the wrong side of the fabric, and then cut out.

I love the second design!

A very neat and tidy tangle in the design above!

The second design lacks tangles, but I like it as it is, though I can see a couple of changes I would like to make … if they work they will appear some time in the future.

There are not many days when I do not add more designs to the project file I have open … I don’t think I will ever run out of virtual quilt designs to share!

Interesting design with room for quilting to shine in the border.

The design above is a lovely all over design, but is more tangled than the designs shared yesterday!

A very interesting tangle of beads!

Less beads, but I like the second of these two best.

These designs are much easier to do since fusible web was introduced to the quilting world as before then the shapes had to be cur out, edges turned under, the shapes arranged on the background, then stitched by hand.

I love playing with Strings of Beads, and in the real world they are easy to add to quilts, table runners, placemats, cushions etc. Fusible web and machine stitching has made the beading simple and quick.

I love the second design!

I rarely complete a design without a contrast frame … even if it is only a contrast binding … but with this design I would use the background fabric for the binding. The big question is … how to quilt it?

Too much quilt stitching would detract from the fabric beads. I would outline every bead about an eighth of an inch ...

Two shapes arranged and rearranged to create two different block designs, add a simple quilting motif and the design above is what you get.

Simplify the more complex block design and add a dozen of them around the outer row of blocks leaving just four of the simpler block.

Cut out lots of one simple shape, arrange as desired!

Note that it makes it much easier to hold them in place if you add fusible webbing before you cut them out.

I love both of these designs, and note that I have used just one multi coloured fabric in the designs.to make them look scrappy in he virtual world..

My favourite of today’s pair of designs!

I should open up some of the older project files more often. There are plenty of designs in reserve, and I keep thinking of things I could do to add to the collections just in case I ever run short of designs to share. Sometimes I think I have barely scratched the surface of all the possibilities possible with Strings of Beads.

Very dainty.

Love the second design with all the seam lines between blocks covered with beads, though I would be tempted to make this a a whole cloth quilt with no seam lines until the border.

Applique designs using just a simple leaf shape as beads are the simplest form of applique I have found. I first saw String of Beads hand appliqued with seams turned under, but then fusible web came on the market and I found I could cut four layers at a time with scissors so it was quick, then iron them onto fabric and machine stitch. Quick and easy!

I like both of these designs, and have many others which I also like.

Interesting mixture of bead shapes in this project file.

I like the second design best … I think.

A fun way to use up lots of little scraps.

The applique can be done using fusible webbing and finishing with either hand embroidery or machine zigzag.

Love the second one!

Wow! Puzzle time!

If I was quilting these designs I would be adding some quilted lines of beads to link up the applique blocks.

Very pretty.

Almost the same, but I like the one block change!

Beads again, and I am back home again after a week with 30 like minded friends, old and new, sometimes stitching, sometimes talking, and often laughing.

The shape of the beads in these designs is my favourite applique shape … simple in itself, but can be used to create an unlimited selection of designs on projects from a pot holder to a king size quilt.