letters, jelly roll races, and a bunch more

Last weekend at the quilt retreat, I worked on several projects,

including this scrappy Dresden.

Instead of appliquing each one to a background square and joining the squares,

I basted the background and backing to a fusible batting,

and then machine appliqued the plates.

It's a bit further along than in this photo, but you get the idea.

I also finished the letters for this word quilt made from word fabric.

It's a Latin phrase by St. Anselm which means

faith seeking understanding.

Because the last word is so long, I was trying to fill up the empty space in the first row.

Initially, I made a low contrast cross to fill the space,

and then I changed my mind and altered the cross to become an "f"

It's still low contrast, but now it has the sense of an illuminated manuscript

from medieval times, so I bought an embroidery hoop and some gold floss

and I'm going to embellish the letter and the background.

Stay tuned for how that turns out.

Initially, I thought a piano key border using the dark word fabrics would work

but it just looks too cute and bubblegummy for me, so I'm looking for other options.

Some of the other quilters had raced their jelly rolls already, and the quilter at the left

put her top together on the weekend.

I like the scrappy look, but I'm thinking one doesn't need a jelly roll to make a quilt like this.

More eye candy: lots of batiks (I think 40) went into this lovely.

A show and tell piece with loads of hand stitching in the embroidery, applique, and quilting.

Another lovely -- a four-patch, nine-patch variation.

Another jelly roll quilt, with flowers and insects made with Go Baby! dies

This is a baby quilt, but not made by Go. All the flowers are hand appliqued to a muslin,

then outlined in perle cotton in a big stitch.\

The border is wavy, but the binding isn't finished, so it's hard to see here.

This one is very fun in person.