Sidetracked!!

Hello! I hope everyone has had a nice week! We have had beautiful weather here all week even though it is October and it should be feeling like Autumn.

Here are a couple of photographs of the fabulous sunset we saw last night.

Now back to stitching..... Well, as you will know if you read my last post, I am supposed to be working on several baby quilts at the moment.  I have pieced, layered and basted one top ready for quilting and I have chosen the fabrics for a second quilt top and, even started piecing them together..... however, that is as far as I got this week, as I was sidetracked!! 

For some little while now I have been following a very talented Textile Artist called Alison Whateley both on Facebook and on Instagram and I love her work.  I find it very inspiring and, after Alison posted a couple of short videos on Instagram showing how she works on the background of her pieces and then adds in the details, I just couldn't resist giving it a try and made this little quilt of globe thistles, which I love and which we have in our garden here.

I did use a slightly different approach as, I didn't free machine embroider the piece that I made.  Instead, I layered a piece of backing fabric and batting together and then free motion quilted the fabric scraps which form the background through all the layers. 

I added a few lines of stitching using a couple of the decorative embroidery stitches that I have on my sewing machine.  I then added the applique on top using a raw edge applique, finishing the edges and adding details with free motion quilting.

To finish off, I added some hand stitching and a few sequins and beads. When I had finished adding the details, I added some binding to make a mini quilt about 10" x 12".  I was very excited to try this type of project and I must say I am very happy with the results.

Today though, I am going back to working on the baby quilts..... hope you have a lovely weekend!