Hibiscus Flower

 Yesterday was the day 

MELINDA BULA

taught a class through my quilt guild.

We did her Hibiscus pattern!

Gorgeous!

The pattern has complete instructions and pattern!

It was recommended to purchase her fabric kit...

Since I don't like my things looking like everyone else's...

I used fabric from FABRILISH!

This is all hand died fabrics.

It's not a solid or molted solid,

These hand dies are not uniform, you'll see in the next few pictures.

So, I roughly cut each pattern piece out

and pinned it to the color I wanted it to be.

YES!

This took a long time.

It would've been easier to buy the kit!

Here are some of my fabrics...

This is how I took my fabrics to class!

Everyone laughed at me!

We had a very short class after our guild meeting Tuesday.

Melinda gave us homework, IF you wanted to do it!

Homework:

Fuse your big flower petal fabrics,

cut them out.

I DID IT!

Since I already had all my pattern pieces pinned to my fabrics,

I fused most ALL my fabrics,

and cut out most ALL my pattern pieces.

I DID MORE!

Now, 

Let me tell you 

EVERYONE 

in class called me an over achiever!

HA!

I had an evil plan!!!

While they would be fusing and cutting out their pattern pieces,

I would be fusing mine together!

MY PLAN:

To have an almost completed flower by the time I left class!

Funny note:

Just before lunch,

One of the ladies said, "Nina, you might have been the smartest one of us all."

HA!

My little brain and hands 

have been working with scissors and fabrics since I can remember!

My thought was that I could cut it out 

without teacher supervision...just sayin!

Here it the flower with the base petals

AND

the center completed.

More color going on.

Adding more of those little pieces

I stayed up until 12:30am cutting out!

Honestly,

I DO NOT like that pink!

BUT...

I'm NOT taking it off!!!

This can be fixed during the thread painting stage.

The pink just needs to be more on the purplish side.

Then,

we auditioned background fabrics!

It was fun seeing what made different colored flowers POP!

These were the 3 backgrounds I tried:

I thought it would be cool to use a nontraditional background...

Like fabric with words? 

NOT!

Might have worked in a darker color though?

Dark colors usually make the lighter colors POP!

This one was just OFF!

This is another fabric from FABRILISH!

THAT'S IT!

How do you know if it's the RIGHT fabric?

YOU like it!

You're heart beats faster, 

you smile,

you react!

YOU LOVE IT!

(Nobody else has to like it but YOU!)

There are still pieces to finish adding,

and I do hope to get this flower totally fused by the end of this weekend.

This was SO much fun!

This will really come alive when it's thread painted!

WOOHOO!

THAT'S my favorite part!

Oh,

Melinda Bula is a DOLL!!!!

She's funny,

sweet,

encouraging,

kind!

Take her class!

YOU'LL LOVE IT!!!

Happy fusing!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL YOU!!!

Nina

Quilting Mini Hexagon Quilt 4

I got ALL the grey background finished!!!

WOOHOO!!!

But, FIRST...

Let me share one of my favorite Christmas gifts...

My daughter gave me this tomato pin cushion.

It's HUGE!

It's PINK!

It's BLING!

It's FUN!

I LOVE IT!

Ok...

Let's get back to the Mini Hexagon quilt!

The quilting is coming along so nicely!

It's SO  exciting!

Let me tell a little on myself...

we ALL make mistakes!

I went the WRONG WAY!

Blahahaha!

Can you see on the lower right 

where I've started taking out the stitches? 

I was supposed to have gone in the OTHER direction!

This is what it should be looking like. 

 Here's the back...

as I take out the stitches.

Don't you LOVE looking at the back of a quilt?

I DO!

AND...

Drum roll please...

blrblrblrblrbrl...

Here it is!

With all the background stitched, 

the stars REALLY pop! 

Here's a few close ups...

The bottom left corner.

The right side. 

Isn't it FUN watching a quilt come to life!?

It starts to have a beauty to it,

a personality.

Even though this quilt is small,

(16x17),

it's still a lot of work!

I know I can't quilt any on this tomorrow,

it's a full day between getting ready for the Melinda Bula class

and other commitments in the evening.

But,

I'll share the Hibiscus fabrics and all the prep work!

Should be a FUN class!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL you!

Nina 

Quilting Mini Hexagon Quilt 3

This has been a fun day!

It's raining outside,

Hubby is watching football,

I'm quilting!

I really am excited about quilting this quilt!

First, though...

stitch in the ditch...

EVERY seam!

NOT my favorite thing to do,

BUT,

it really does make a difference!

Here it is all pinned and ready to go!

All the HORIZONTAL lines are stitched n the ditch.

Totally stitched in the ditch!

See how it just lays nicely with the stitch in the ditch?

Here's the back.

Now...

LET'S get to the fun part...

QUILTING!!!

Working on the grey background

and

using matching grey thread.

Here all the inside background is complete.

I'll be doing lines just inside the teal boarder on the grey.

Always LOVE a close-up!

I KNOW it's hard to see.

I'm using a wool batting 

because 

I like the stability of it with a lot of quilting.

I'm using Quilter's dream...

I LOVE this batting!

If you've never tried Quilter's Dream batting,

Please DO!

It's fabulous!

Hopefully I'll at least be able to finish the grey background tomorrow.

Monday,

I have to get ready for a 2 day workshop,

Tuesday & Wednesday.

Melinda Bula is coming to my guild to teach a workshop!

We're making her Hibiscus flower.

I can't wait!

This will be a fun workshop!

But, there's a LOT of prep work to do before class.

Go have fun!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL you!

Nina

Quilting Mini Hexagon 2

I GOT IT!

I GOT IT!!

I GOT IT!!!

For the most part anyway...

LOL!

Ignore the top right designs on the grey background fabric, please.

I just don't like how geometric it is!

The rest of it is spot on!

Each TEAL and Lavender star 

will be the same design on each point,

then the strips will be just inside the hexagon,

and there will be 6 different centers.

The PINK and Yellow star

 will be different!

As you can see,

The Yellow points will be straight lines,

and the pink hexagon has a cool design in it.

The grey background around this star

will also be different from the rest of the background.

This is it!

It ALL clicks for me!

(Make sure you go ALL the way to the end of this post...

I've added an updated photo)

So,

How do you decide what to quilt on your quilt?

This is a frequently asked question!

It HAS to please YOU!

You can quilt it ANY way YOU want!!!

Sometimes it tasks a little drawing 

(as I did here)

to figure out exactly what YOU like for your quilt.

Quilt your quilt the way YOU think it will look good!

ENJOY

the quilting process!

It's supposed to be FUN!!!

Here it is mostly drawn out!

WOOHOO!!!

I LIKE IT!

Let's quilt this thing!

Sew the pieces of life together.

It makes a BEAUTIFUL you!

Nina

Purple Flower Completed!

It's finished!

WOO HOO!!!

I LOVE IT!

There was no plan when I started this.

I do wish I had put a little thought into it,

but that's ok.

This was loads of fun!

The purple thread is Aurifil 50 wt.

The background grey thread is

WonderFil 100 wt.

Here are some closer photos...

Now...

Let's get back to the 

HEXAGON MINI!

I'll post some more quilting options tomorrow!

I'm ready to quilt that one!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL you!

Purple Flower Coming Along!

This has been SEW much FUN!

It's almost done...

This is the whole thing.

There is so much movement and 

different things to look at!

This is just the newest section...

Such a FUN background!

This is just another picture.

Is there a trick?

The only thing I've done is

NOT made the same motif the same size,

NOT put the same motif next to each other,

KEPT changing the motif!

You DEFINITELY don't get bored doing this kind of background! 

Try this!

Pull out a fat quarter and PLAY!

This is great fun!!!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL you!

Nina