Sunset on my Garden

Here is my latest wall hanging, with bright colors as the backdrop for country-inspired wool applique. At first I wasn’t sure the red and yellow half square triangles were going to work out as part of this design, but now I am glad I went ahead with it. Here are some specs:

This wall hanging measures 35″ x 15″. For the wool applique and embroidery I used matching DMC floss. The shapes were fused with HeatnBond Lite (I love this product, and it is the only one I use for applique). I quilted around the applique shapes with monofilament; however, I wanted to quilt the background with a thread color that would complement, not compete with it. I chose a light (2310) Aurifil 50 wt – the perfect combination of color and weight for this bright background. I finished it with leftover binding from a flannel quilt I made a long time ago (see it here). The flannel binding added amazing depth to this quilt! I wish you could touch my wall hanging to feel all the wonderful textures…

The story behind this quilt: The other day I found some yellow and red triangles in my stash, which I had trimmed from blocks for a previous project (see it here).
They were paired with RST so I just had to stitch them together, press,
then assemble them into rows. What next? The resulting rectangle of
half square triangles stayed on my design wall for a couple of weeks. The solution to my design problem came from two ladies, Leonie Bateman and Deirdre Bond-Abel, who own Quilted Crow, a store in Tasmania, Australia.

Photo by Brent Kane for Martingale

I was browsing through their new book called “Country Elegance” and wouldn’t you know – I found a wool applique project (pictured above) with half square triangles on the background. My background was much bigger than the one used for the pillow in the book, so I changed the design to fit it. This book has beautiful projects with creative combinations of piecing
and applique, two techniques I use a lot on my quilting projects. So, it
is a keeper!

Notice that the flowers have reverse applique – a new technique for me. It was so easy to follow the  the pattern instructions! Reverse applique is quicker to do when you use wool and cotton as you don’t need to needle turn any part of it. I will use this idea on other projects but, before I do, there is a table runner in the book that I will have to make.

 In the meantime, I hope you are keeping warm and quilting away!