Flower Bed Star

       This quilt started is my 2nd attempt at adding 3d embellishments to a pieced quilt. I machine quilted the middle section and then hand quilted the flowery, sea green and grey-blue sections. I purposely leave things a little puffy, because the puffiness adds character and a vintage look. Otherwise (IMHO) quilts look like rugs and I'm not making a rug. The machine quilting was done in the ditch while the hand quilting was stitched around the flowers and the plain sections were made to look pebbly. 
       As is my habit I only used thrift store clothing for fabrics which were already in my little box, so I didn't actually have to go on a shopping trip at all for this one. I even figured out how to flatten and find layers in a bunch of old pillow stuffings and use it for batting. By the way the pillow stuffing was what I took out of my embroidery pieces. They used to be pillows. The hanging sleeve on the back of the quilt is the legs off of a pair of jeans.

Size: 62" x 62"
Design: Joanne Grimes
Quilting both machine & hand: Joanne Grimes
Embellishments: Joanne Grimes

finished quilt 62" x 62"

closeup of 3d stuffed embellishments
original 'scratch to reveal color' design from 1988

design upsized so 1/4" on the design equals 1 1/2" on the quilt pattern

the final pattern ready to cut out & put on the wall

fabric selection

pattern cut & put on the wall

the red dots mean those pieces have been sewn together, the circled numbers is the main pattern number whereas the numbers and marks on the edges tell me where each piece is supposed to connect to another piece

the 1st few rounds sewn together

another few rounds added on

layout of the next few rounds

those rounds above ironed onto fabric, then marked and layed out as to where they go

ironing on pieces to fabric

sections being sewn together

those sections sewn together

another round of sections layed out

those sections sewn on

the last rounds ready to cut out

the last sections being pieced

more piecing of the last round

finished top of quilt

cutting out embellishment pieces

quilting middle section with the machine

middle section out to flower fabric quilted in the ditch and embellishments sewn on