Aunt Millie’s Garden « *Snippets and Blabbery*

Aunt Millie’s Garden

I just finished glue-basting this first block from Aunt Millie’s Garden by Piece O’ Cake Designs. I’m super excited about it, and instead of being exhausted, I can’t wait to start the next one! I’ve been collecting Denyse Schmidt fabrics for about six months in preparation for this project.

aunt millies garden-1

I also found a few new gems on the web - these are some super awesome embroidery sites:
First I found PimpStitch (don’t miss their blog), thanks to a photo on Flickr. From there, I found Stitchy Stitcherson’s blog (I really love that name), which lead me to AnnieOakLeaves (awesome - free patterns!) which lead me back to Floresita, whose blog I already love (and is chocked full of free patterns), which lead me to Stitchy Britches (another great name), where I ended up at Exceedingly Curious’ scans of an 1886 pattern book! What a cool find! Thanks to John Governale for all that hard work!

So that’s it for the black hole of productivity (a.k.a., the internet) for today.

I’m stoked about Joe Biden. Excellent choice. I sad the Olympics are over, but glad I may actually get some sleep this week. I’m excited that my husband has a job interview this week and things may be changing soon.

Now, it’s 7 am, so it’s time to head to the park before it’s 100 degrees outside!

25 Aug 2008, 3:38pm
by Valerie

Wow! My morning just disappeared, thanks to this post! I’ve been enjoying your blog for a while and look forward to following the ones you’ve mentioned.

Your applique block is so nice.

And good luck with your husband’s job interview.

25 Aug 2008, 10:01pm
by Rebekah

This is beautiful! I definitely want to check out that book…I’ve been wanting to do applique like this for ages and this is such a lovely pattern!

26 Aug 2008, 2:58am
by A Happy Stripper

Kudo’s to you. What a great beginning, great fabric, too!

27 Aug 2008, 5:50am
by Blabby

Thanks, girls! And thanks for reading and commenting. I have officially stitched down six tulips :)

9 Sep 2008, 1:48pm
by Samantha

Hi, I am from South Africa and my quilt group have just started Aunt Millies Garden as a block of the month project. I am so excited as my baby is now 16 months old and this will be my first project since he was born. We just got the first 3 blocks (T1-T3)this week. Going to bet started next week when I get my back ground fabric!!!

Your block is wonderful, and I can’t wait to see the others! Sorry to sound silly, but what is glue basting? What applique technique are you using? I am going to use the freezer paper technique, all by hand, hope I can keep up..LOL

10 Sep 2008, 8:02pm
by Blabby

Hi Samantha! Thanks for commenting :)

I’m using freezer paper. I cut out my freezer paper shapes (traced from the pattern - keeping the numbers on the freezer paper), then cut my fabric a little bigger, then use starch and a mini iron to fold my fabric around the template. Once all the pieces are finished, I put the pattern under my background, lay out all the pieces on the backing fabric like a paint by numbers. I remove the freezer paper one at a time (because I need the numbers still) and glue each one down with a tiny bit of fabric glue (although, I’ve heard elmer’s works well also). Then I let it dry for a day. Now, it’s all assembled and ready to hand-stitch, and all the pieces are in place.

This is the only method I’ve ever used. I don’t know if it’s the best, but it works great for me.

Can’t wait to see some pictures of your blocks!

11 Mar 2009, 3:36am
by lin

hello there,
would you like to exchange scanned craft books with me?
my books are in here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/itsnotzero

my emai: itsnotzero@gmail.com

please let me know.
Lin =)