Vincent’s Garden Blog Hop: Day 5- Designer’s Spot Light
Honey Rose – “Taste and see that the Lord is Good”
When I first set eyes upon the Vincent’s Garden collection by Island Batik I tasted it with my eyes and could see that it was good for my design Honey Rose, the 2nd in Eye of the Beholder’s Victorian doorknob series.
Vincent’s Garden is my friend and fellow designer Karen Overton’s, The Quilt Rambler, 1st signature collection by Kathy Engle of Island Batik. I was thrilled when she asked me to design a pattern just for the collection. Who doesn’t like to play with fabric, color and design?
The fabrics in Vincent’s Garden represent all the elements from the color wheel, making it imminently easy to design in. It balances the warm and cool colors, having primary, secondary and tertiary colors and values, from light to dark to pull from, providing both color and value contrast, an element that’s important in my work.
I knew immediately the design I was going to make, the 2nd in our Victorian doorknob series, Honey Rose. These designs are all inspired by 2.25” diameter doorknobs found in the 1878 opera house Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY.
Honey Rose was the doorknob for the back door entrance/ exit to Hubbard Hall. (To find out more about the pattern jump over to the blog “Honey Rose - Taste and See that the Lord is Good”.) As a 16” quilt block I transcribed it from the brass into reverse applique with spots of under-coloring and applique. It can be made by hand or machine. The pattern comes with complete directions for both methods, and a full-size pattern piece. With the borders the piece measures 18” x 18”.
The 18” piece can be finished as a table décor piece. I have narrow tables and like to keep my decorative table linens on the table when we eat, so a small piece is perfect for me. Honey Rose is perfect for finishing as an 18” pillow, too, or turning into a tote bag.
It’s a great project size to dive into our reverse applique techniques, whether you make it by hand or machine. As you learn to reverse applique with our 4-step method you learn under-coloring and how to combine it with applique. The wonderful fabric collection along with these techniques gives you an end product with multi-dimensions once you’re all quilted. So much luscious texture colored in and stitched in.
By Hand reverse applique, you Trace, Baste, Snip & Stitch.
Trace the whole design on the wrong side of the light background fabric.
position the under-color fabric on the right side of the background fabric and baste it in place outside of the tracing.
Layer the dark blue top fabric on top of the light background fabric and baste right on the design line through all layers of fabric with a N0. 7 sharps needle and thick 12 wt. thread.
Cut away the top fabric only. In most areas it will reveal the light background fabric. Where you under-colored you will see the under-color fabric. The dark orange is appliqued on top for added dimension.
When you rev erse applique the dark blue top fabric to the background with a No. 11 Milliners needle you see a deep yellow beehive take shape.
When all done you’ve created texture with color and dimensions by under-coloring, reverse applique, applique and quilting.
Machine reverse applique is also a 4-step process:
Trace, Snip, Iron & Stitch using fusible.
Trace the design the the paper side of your fusible and iron it onto the wrong side of your dark blue top fabric.
Cut the design out right on the design line.
Trace onto fusible, a bit larger than the shapes, what will be under-colored. Iron onto the wrong side of the fabrics and cut out. Repeat for all under-color fabrics/ shapes.
Pin background fabric to paper pattern and place on light box. position corresponding under-color fabrics over corresponding shapes. Iron to fuse in place on the right side of the background fabric. Repeat for all under-color fabrics/ shapes.
Peel paper off of cut out top fabric, position on background fabric and fuse in place.
Pin fused top to pattern piece again and place on light box. You can see the shapes for the applique.
Cut out traced and fused applique pieces.
Position applique pieces on the top aligning with the design coming through fabric with the aide of the lightbox. Fuse in place. Stabilize with Terial Magic spray-on stbilizer.
Once fused and stabilized you are ready to satin stitch the raw edges with thread that matches each fabric color you are stitching. You only need two colors- one to match your top fabric and one to match your applique fabrics. I used Aurifil thread for this project.
Close ups of satin stitch of beehive. You use dark blue and dark orange-red thread.
Close up of stitching on center rose. You need dark blue and dark orange-red thread.
For those interested, Margaret will be teaching Honey Rose in-person at Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival on June 19, 2021 in a Hand Stitch Reverse Applique class. Sign up at kcrqf.com.
I got so inspired by Vincent’s Garden that I also designed an unofficial bonus pattern, the Beehive and Tudor Rose Mug Rugs. These cute 8” Mug Rugs are fun to make by hand or machine. You can make them as 2-color reverse applique, 3-color reverse applique with applique or 4-color reverse applique with under-coloring and applique.
Here, below, I combined Honey Rose with the Beehive Mug Rug set on point on each end to make a 16” x 40” table runner. I haven’t finished quilting it yet, but soon the “how-to” will be in a blog, so check back in with us and be sure to get some Vincent’s Garden fabric from your local quilt shop. For now, go to the end to be sure to enter into the giveaways.
The Quilt Rambler, Island Batik and I hope you love this collection and feel as inspired by Vincent’s Garden as we were. Don’t forget to enter the giveaways. The drawings will be Saturday March 6th. Winners have 48 hours to respond once notified, to claim their prizes. Read the Vincent’s Garden Blog Hop post for full details. Click on each prize link below and follow through to enter into the giveaway.
Prize 1 -20 FQ with 1 yard Sprinkles USA only
Prize 2 – 20 FQ with 1 yard black batik USA only
Prize 3 – PDF patterns open to international & domestic quilters
The 16” quilt block block ican be a springboard to create with. Look for my blog in the near future about creating table runners and quilts with Honey Rose and this fabric collection. There are endless possibilities.