Rose Garden « LoveBug Studios

Rose Garden Throw – Binding Finished

May 19, 2009 4:01 pm by Ebony in Stashbustin', UFOs

Yay! So happy happy happy! Last night I finished the binding on my Rose Garden quilt. It’s not just any binding – it was my first scalloped binding. I was watching a Law & Order marathon, procrastinating from doing other things, and I decided that if I was going to sit on the couch, I was going to do something productive. So I just picked up a needle & thread, bundled the quilt in my lap, and started stitching. It was getting pretty late, but I told myself – hey, only one more corner to do… only 8 more scallops… only 5 more scallops… only 1 more scallop – and then, finished! Well, “bound” does not mean “done” for this quilt – I have some surface embellishment I have been planning to do with some 3-D origami roses that I folded when my mom was in the hospital several years ago. It feels good though to get this quilt to this point.These scallops were an absolute nightmare… I think it was worth the trouble though. They are not quilt-show worthy by any means, but I managed to make them look halfway decent, and I don’t think anyone who sees it will fault me. There is one corner that I didn’t leave enough binding to turn the corner, so it curls a little, but it is nothing that a big stack of origami roses can’t hide. I am also very proud of the machine quilting I did here. Each white block has a giant flower in the center, and the borders have leaves all around. I did the quilting in white, but I did wish I’d done the quilting in red so it could be seen better. Oh well – maybe it is better this way, because after the roses are stitched on, the quilting is more something to be discovered on closer inspection of the quilt. I am so happy the binding is done!!! Happy quilting!

Rose Garden Throw – Quilting

January 10, 2009 1:16 am by Ebony in Uncategorized

Rose Garden

I started this quilt ages ago… and I’ve only recently worked up the nerve & gumption to finish it. I believe I started this quilt very early in the millennium, probably in 2003 or 2004. I was learning an origami folding technique using fabric, and I wanted to design a quilt to showcase the hundreds of fabric origami roses I had made. The quilt top was larger and more ambitious than any other quilt I had completed to that point, and I did not have enough confidence in my ability to finish the quilt & do it justice. I ended up completing the quilt top, the quilt back, layering & basting the quilt, but then I folded it up and put it away, to be completed when I felt I was more worthy. I don’t know if I’ve reached the point where I feel completely ready to finish it, but I got motivated to finish it because my goal is to enter it into a show either this year or next. The quilting is completely done, but the scalloped binding I selected takes forever to hand-stitch, and it’s likely that it will be several months before I finish this project – attaching all those origami roses & deciding where to put them will not be an easy or speedy task. In the picture, you can see that I’ve gotten about 6 scallops finished. Happy quilting!