Seed Pods From The Rare Seed Bead Tree

Here is the finished mini-quilt

Seed Pods From The Rare Seed Bead Tree
© 2010 Suzan Engler
9"x12" Textile Painting (cotton, beads, thread, machine and hand stitching)

This will be displayed at the SAQA Booth at the Houston International Quilt Festival. If you are in Houston come visit the SAQA booth and learn more about this wonderful organization for Art Quilter.

Satin stitch edging

The red beads from 2 blogs ago have resurfaced in a new form. I have cut them out and will appliqué the circles onto another quilted surface.
Now they look like seed pods to me - seed beads seeds!

I satin stitched (twice) over pearl cotton to make a nice clean finish on the edges. I used the couching foot; it holds the pearl cotton in place while doing the satin stitch. The foot makes it very easy to do; I probably would not have tried it otherwise!

Any little threads that were sticking out after stitching were colored with a black fabric marker.

This is a great finish for ATCs and other small projects.

Red Beads

Here is my current work-in-progress. I faced the circles and when turning, left just a little of the facing fabric showing. Makes a nice ring of color around the circles with very little work.

I am (im)patiently waiting for my order from Superior Threads to arrive before I can start quilting. I needed a special coloration for this little quilt - Rainbow Mango, Mango! I wish I had one of all of their threads on hand so I did not have to wait even a day or two. Oh BTW, I'm thinking about doing handstitching!?!

Visitor in the studio

I am very focused working to get my Kool Kaleidoscope quilt done by August 15th. But I had a visitor on the studio window and just had to stop and take a few pictures. This is the underside of a green tree frog. It is about 1 1/4" long and bright green on the top. For some reason they like to hang out in the upper corners of the windows and sliding glass doors. I wonder if has something to do with the air conditioning?

When Kalynn (eye on quilts) saw a photo of the kaleidoscope quilt ready for quilting, her creative eye saw beads instead of basting pins. I decided that I should follow her intuitive lead and will add some beads to the center of the quilt and the background.

The quilt has been quilted and is blocking. Tomorrow I'll add the binding and start beading!

Big Button

This was constructed from a large polymer clay button purchased at Houston International Quilt Festival, wool felt, and beads.