Baltimore Garden Quilt Layered Flowers

On the original antique Baltimore Garden Quilt made in 1848, many of the flowers were created by arranging and sewing tiny fabric petals one at a time, building up layers to form the flower. 









While making my reproduction quilt, I devised a method to make these flowers easier to arrange and applique by sewing petals in layered groups which rotate and overlap. With this method, we can assemble these flowers in layers instead of sewing single petals one at a time.


This technique is shown In the book, Baltimore Garden Quilt, for a flower with pointed petals (the book is still available at  www.barbaramburnham.com). In workshops, I taught this technique on a flower with round petals, and with the luxury of more time and more detail, students received a detailed, illustrated, step-by-step handout to follow along. Now I invite you to give it a try! 

For those who could not attend my workshops, or want to begin their own Baltimore Garden quilt, I offer a FREE Layered Applique Flowers Tutorial (PDF).* The tutorial includes a pattern and templates you can print onto freezer paper with an inkjet printer. (My method of applique is "freezer paper on top," but you can use other applique methods.) There are also helpful references to the book, Baltimore Garden Quilt, so you will want to keep your book handy as well. My books and patterns are available at my website Store. 

*Adobe Acrobat Reader can be found here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Keep Stitching!
Barbara M. Burnham
www.barbaramburnham.com

(c)2018 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

Teaching Hand Applique at Paducah 2015

Join us in Paducah, Kentucky at the American Quilter's Society QuiltWeek for some applique!  Whether you are a beginner or advanced appliquer, have fun learning new techniques in Paducah. I will be teaching SIX different applique workshops! Many workshops are almost FULL, so hurry and register. 

Mark your calendar for April 22-25, 2015. Bring your friends! Enjoy the incredible AQS contest quilts! Visit the vendors! Enjoy learning new techniques!

Edge-Ruched Flower and Bud - Wednesday Afternoon 1:00-4:00 pm Lincoln Room

SOLD OUT Dress up your appliqué quilts or clothing with easy edge-ruched flowers and buds. Learn easy techniques to finish this little block. Start with a simple leaf and stem and learn to appliqué smooth curves. Sew a fancy ruched flower and a bud bursting from its calyx. Add a stuffed circle or button to finish your ruched flower. I will also show you how to turn your ruched flowers into fabric jewelry to wear.

Applique Stems and Vines - Wednesday Morning 8:30-11:30am Lincoln Room

SOLD OUT Start as a beginner or expand your appliqué toolbox! Barbara will demonstrate as many methods as time allows to make stems, vines, and basket weavers for various styles of hand or machine appliqué. Determine which methods are best for each appliqué situation. Learn about bias and straight grain, when each cut is most effective, and easily figure out how long and how wide to cut fabric for stems and vines to fit your project. Learn several methods of stem placement, how to neatly turn under cut stem ends, and how to reduce bulk or add dimension. Handout booklet is loaded with graphics, tips, and tricks for eighteen different methods. Choose a few methods to sew stems on your class project, or make samples to store in your booklet for future reference. Top off your stems with colorful yo-yos or add flowers of your choice.

Baltimore Garden Dogwood - Thursday Morning  8:30am-4:00pm  Lincoln Room

SOLD OUT This graceful applique block is drawn from the antique quilt featured in Barbara’s book “Baltimore Garden Quilt,” and may have been inspired by our native dogwood trees. Honor tradition with red and green, sew pink dogwood flowers, or learn ways to harness the power of modern fabrics for any color flowers. Start as a beginner, or expand your appliqué skills! Learn techniques to finish this block using needleturn with freezer paper on top method. Begin with gentle, smooth curves and pointy points on leaves. Choose from several methods to make stems and two ways to place them in graceful curves. Learn how to appliqué inner curves and round outer curves on the flowers. Experiment with layered appliqué. Finish with perfectly round stuffed flower centers, or embellish with French knots or beads. Learn Barbara’s method for accurate placement without marking the background, tips for handling small pieces, and ideas to make your hand appliqué faster.

Baltimore Garden Bluebird and Tulip - Friday Morning  8:30-11:30am  Lincoln Room

SOLD OUT A single tulip clipped from one of the original blocks in Barbara’s “Baltimore Garden Quilt” is joined by a swooping bird. Start as a beginner, or expand your applique skills. Learn to applique smooth inner and outer curves, and two methods for a graceful curved stem. Master inner and outer points and learn tricks to make your fabric do as YOU wish using freezer paper on top as a guide for needleturn. Barbara will offer a method of accurate applique placement without marking the background, and tips to make your hand applique faster. For a final touch, the bird will seem to come to life with an embroidered eye.

Antique Cornerstone Applique - Friday Evening  5:30pm - 8:30pm  Lincoln Room

SOLD OUT Inspired by an antique Pennsylvania applique quilt, learn to hand applique with an easy back-basting technique and needleturn using very simple tools – fabrics, pencil, scissors, needle and thread. Start as a beginner, or expand your applique toolbox! Choose fabrics and marking tools for best results with this easy and portable technique. Honor tradition with red and green, or go wild from your fabric stash. Determine the order of appliqué placement and how to align symmetrical pieces. Learn to appliqué gentle inner and outer curves, turn angles on flower buds, and perfect points on leaves. Barbara will offer tips and tricks to handle small and large applique pieces, and ideas to make your hand applique faster.

Baltimore Garden Rose Sprig - Saturday Morning  8:30am-11:30am Lincoln Room

SOLD OUT This graceful little rose sprig is clipped from a pattern in Barbara’s book Baltimore Garden Quilt. With freezer paper on top as your guide for needleturn, learn to hand appliqué with gentle curves, Vs, easy points, and a two-part flower bud with inner and outer curves. Choose from several methods to make graceful curved stems. Honor the traditional with red and green, harness the power of modern fabrics to fussy cut roses and buds, or try an optional broderie perse technique. Barbara will offer tips and tricks to make your hand appliqué faster, and teach you how to manage placement of small appliqué pieces with no marks on the background.

Hope to see you in Paducah!

Barbara M. Burnham
www.barbaramburnham.com/

(c) 2015 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

Baltimore Basket - Valuable Lessons in Applique

I was just going to make one more block … this Woven Basket, in a two-day workshop (many years ago) taught by Anne Connery; this time, with MAQ - Mid-Appalachian Quilters held at Shippensburg University in PA. We stayed in the college dorms, slept on cots (with no air conditioning in mid-July), shared meals in the Grand Dining Hall, made lots of new friends, and learned more Valuable Lessons in Applique.

 

Included on Anne’s supply list was: “Several yards of 1/8 inch bias strips, sewn, seams pressed to center. Store the finished strips on an empty cardboard roll to bring to class.” Those bias tubes would form the basket. Supplies also included freezer paper, fabric basting glue, Pigma Micron fabric pens, along with fabrics and the typical appliqué supplies. (Notice that I learned my previous lesson: always bring your own background fabric to class. That way, your blocks are more likely to eventually go together in a quilt!)

 

Anne first gave a wooden skewer to each student, and got a few puzzled glances.

She also provided a cardboard stencil that she had made, with thin lines cut out to represent each weaver of the basket. The horizontal lines were omitted (not cut out from the stencil), which helped hold its form.

In turn, each student used Anne’s stencil to draw permanent lines for each vertical basket weaver onto their background fabric. The Pigma Micron pen is permanent on fabric – other pens might run, smear, or disappear while working Anne’s method – (another Valuable Applique Lesson).

After the drawn lines dried, a dollop of glue was poured onto the shiny side of a scrap of freezer paper. Then we used the point of our wooden skewer to dip into the glue, and “paint” a thin line of glue along the drawn line, as we laid the bias tube centered along that line and onto the glue – just a little at a time, because the glue dries quickly. All that is left is to do is applique the basket that is all held firmly in place. (P.S. I still use this method to glue baste applique stems along a drawn line.)

Anne taught us how to determine, on such a complex block, what comes first, and what comes next, what goes on top of what, etc. That can be a challenge when looking at a black and white printed pattern.

 

We practiced a bit of reverse applique …   

 

inked a few details … 

 



… and we made one single scrap of white fabric look like a flower by inking details and dimension with feathery strokes of black and brown Pigma pens.

 

Before this block was completed, I had to (of course) add a tiny bluebird. I would also like to commend, in case you’ve noticed, the careful machine quilting done by my friend, Marty Vint. That couldn’t have been easy, going so carefully around all those appliqué pieces!

 

This basket block is in my Pride of Baltimore II quilt, along with 11 other blocks and a central medallion with the schooner. I'll write about more of the blocks, and Valuable Applique Lessons in future posts.

Pattern for this basket block can be found in the “Baltimore Beauties and Beyond” series by Elly Sienkiewicz.


(c) 2015 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

Satin Rose with Trapunto and Broderie Perse Butterfly



Satin Rose Trapunto and Broderie Perse 

Invitation to a Workshop with Barbara Burnham
Learn to hand applique and trapunto a dimensional single stemmed rose made with glossy satin fabric. Add a broderie perse butterfly and finishing touches with delicate inking or embroidery. Learn how to handle unusual (non-cotton) fabrics so you can add interest to your hand applique projects!
Join us at Seminole Sampler Quilt Shop, 71 Mellor Avenue, Catonsville, MD 21228
Saturday: October 20, 2012  10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Call 410-788-1720 or toll free at 866-407-2363 to register. Cost is $45 (plus $15 kit fee).
Kit includes the pattern, all the fabrics, butterfly, stuffing for the satin rose, freezer paper, and threads to match applique.

(c) 2012 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

Freezer Paper - None goes to waste!

I love freezer paper. It is useful for SO many things in quilting!
Here is another great use for freezer paper, even those little scraps you might toss in the trash.
Write notes to yourself (or others) and press the note to a fabric instead of tape, sticky office dots, staples, or pins, which may damage fabric, especially pins that might stick you someday!Even safety pins can rust and leave holes in the fabric.

For example: 
"Save for binding on Mary's quilt."
"Save this piece of backing for sleeve."
"Has been washed."
"108-inch Wide Backing - washed and pressed"
"9.5 yards" - Cross through that amount when you cut off a piece, and write the new amount.
Numbers or letters that are keys to your pattern, a piecing order, or a quilt layout idea.
I have one fabric with a freezer paper note that says "This red fabric bleeds!"

How about this one: "Free to Good Home."

Save information from selvages when they are cut off. You might want to have that information later. Write it on freezer paper, and press it to a corner.

Maybe your guild has a sale or flea market. Roll a fabric piece, write the price or yardage on a strip of freezer paper. Wrap the freezer paper strip around the roll, and press the strip to itself at the end.

I bet you can think of other things you might want to note on your fabrics ...