HQAL: The Dahlia Project update #2 and #3

Well guess who was surprised last week when I went to post on the blog for a SAL update and saw my HQAL post from 2 weeks prior still sitting waiting to be posted. I imagine I got so excited reading everyone else’s updates that I forgot to post mine. So this is a combined 6 week posting of The Dahlia Project. 

#2 At our last posting three  weeks ago, I shared this photo of the Dahlia quilt I am working on. It was a great start for this beautiful panel

I have made significant headway on the petals. There’s just a few more left to do. You can really see some definition and depth to the piece now. Funny how one photo looks so wrinkly and the other looks so smooth. I promise you nothing was done differently and I did not press it.

I used coordinating  Gutterman colored thread for the quilting.

The back is this wonderful daisy print. The fabric was just right for fitting the panel on 3 sides perfectly with a huge chunk of fabric left over on one side. So for the binding I am going to make a bias tape strip to use out of that.

 

#3 SO ~~~~here we are 6 weeks later and I have completed all of the outlining of the petals. 

You may have noticed a little bit more has gotten done. I have begun working inside of each petal. I am using a clamshell stencil 3 1/2 in. 

This is actually the first time I have ever used a stencil. I bought the wrong stenciling chalk only to discover it would not work in the thin lines. So I simply used a mechanical lead pencil and drew in the lines in the directions I wanted. No two petals are alike in nature and so no two petals are exactly alike either. I am truly learning as I go. I could have, if I had known, bought a smaller clamshell stencil for the smaller inside petals and as it opened up switched to the larger size. What I can say at this point is having discovered and joined this HQAL, corresponded and read so many amazing blogs, I have truly grown and am growing as a hand quilter 🙂

It is going fast and I am having fun with this process.

Now to remember to press the publish button, then go and visit the posts of my fellow HQAL members.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Daisy, Connie, Monica and Sherrie