Kicking Off the Patsy Thompson Designs Blog Hop

Happy Monday to ya and welcome to day 1 of the Patsy Thompson Designs Blog Hop. 

Patsy has been so generous providing all of us who are participating in the hop designs to stitch out.  AND....there will be one winner chosen from each blog this week to select a downloadable machine embroidery design from Patsy Thompson Designs as well!!!!   How exciting is that?

Being an admirer of Patsy's work for years now, I have always wanted to be able to achieve a feathered wreath (one that actually looks like a feathered wreath and not a lopsided loopy mess).  My choice was a no brainer.... I choose the Majestic Feathered Wreath 1 & 2.  

Perfect beautiful wreaths....yep.....I can now achieve the same results using my embroidery machine.

Earlier this year I visited Jinny Beyer's Studio and purchased some beautiful border fabric and a coordinating green fabric.  Our kitchen is green and I thought the border print below would make a lovely table runner.

 Patsy's Majestic Feathered Wreathes on the black fabric and Jinny's border fabric on the outside.....how could I go wrong?

How many blocks did I make?  Twelve....yes...twelve!  Why?  I could not stop and I loved playing with different thread combinations.  And....well....there were those two blocks that I cut into while trimming the batting for a trapunto block (we wont' talk about that).  Patsy's designs are so much fun to play with and they are digitized very well.

I used Patsy's method of centering blocks.  She has posted a wonderful tutorial on her blog and you can read it HERE.  (If you are a video junkie like me, Patsy has lots of amazing videos that you can find HERE.)  You might notice I have double stitched each design (I just used the minus spool button and started each sequence again because I wanted the stitching to be a bit bolder).

Trapunto takes Patsy's wreathes into another realm all together.  They just pop right off of the piece squares.  The stabilizer and thread I used was by Floriani.  

After stitching the blocks on 9 1/2 inch black fabric I decided that the blocks were too large proportionally given the border I wanted to use.  Given I own so many rulers I knew I was bound to have the perfect one for the job....and I was right.

This Creative Grids 8 1/2" Fussy Cut Ruler was just the ticket!  I just laid the ruler over the top of my blocks and centered it over my design and rotary cut away the excess.  I'm one who hates fiddling with rulers so this made my job uber easy.

See...nice and uniform 8 1/2" blocks.  Then I needed a ruler to cut the triangles I set in around the squares.  Yep...had one of those too :)

I have no clue as to how I acquired this ruler...but I sure was glad I had it because it made cutting those triangles and corners a breeze.  You can find one HERE.

Back to those amazing Wreaths!!!

The border fabric on the side was approximately 3 inches wide.  Somehow the border seemed too thin.  If I used the wider border print it might take the focus off the Feathered Wreaths.

What about using the wider border just on the ends?  That looks pretty good....or so I think.

Next I need backing, batting and a binding.

I got as far as cutting the batting and had the thought.....What about making this table runner reversible?  Since the Feathered Wreaths are so much fun to make I thought I could make one identical to this one using different fabrics and colors and have two table runners in one.  I have not decided just yet.  The quilting will be fun because I'm going to outline the Wreaths and they will pop even more.

Speaking of popping...check out these close ups:

You can really see that I used 2 layers of wool batting.

What a great time I've had using Patsy's designs and I am so GRATEFUL she has been so generous...THANK YOU PATSY!!! 

There will be many more of Patsy's designs in my future :)  Would you like to see them in your future too?  Just leave a comment on this blog post telling me which of Patsy's designs you like best...you can find them by clicking HERE.  Did you know Patsy has recently added Pre-Cut Applique Shapes too?  You can see all of them HERE.

Would you like 5 extra chances to win?  Sign up for Patsy Thompson Designs Newsletter by clicking HERE.

Best of luck to everyone and be sure to stop at each of the blogs to increase your chances of winning.

Gene Black An Alabama Artist and Quilter Blog   11/11/14

Marjorie’s Quilting Bee Blog   11/12/14

Jean Creates Blog   11/13/14

Sew Cal Gal Blog   11/14/15

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Big Ole Giant Majestic Smiles,
Kelly