Laughing Leaves

Laughing Leaves is one of my classes itstarted out as Organic Leaves but I had to change the name to get people interested in it. Funny how that works. I recently received a question from a former student about the project and thought I would share it with you.

Hi, Frieda.

I took a class from you in Nov. 07 at the Schaumburg quilt festival. I made a lovely fused arrangement of leaves, which unfortunately festered in UFO status until this morning. Today I resurrected it and fused it to a piece of batting (was that the next step?) and I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to quilt it.

I looked at your website and gallery -- beautiful quilts! Unfortunately, I couldn't see close enough to figure out what you'd done with the unfinished edges of the leaves and stems. Could you remind me? Am I supposed to satin stitch the sides of the stems and various leaves? Or stitch around all these edges with monofiliment?

I'm a longarmer, so once I've got the leaves done, and perhaps the edges of the "divider strips" I can figure out what to do with the background, but I'm most concerned about the leaves. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Regards,

Carla

ANSWER;
Dear Carla,
Congratulations on moving on with your UFO's!!!
I don't stain stitch any of my edges, I think of these pieces as art pieces that will be displayed on a wall and the fusing is stable enough not to need to be satin stitched. I do a straight stitch down the center of the stems, or outlined, stitched in the ditch around the stems. I didn't finish any of the leave edges as they are all made with decorative blades. I did stitch in the ditch in-between all the "blocks" and added in some fun free motion quilting where I thought it would be good. Laura and I will be at the Chicago show in the Art Fabrik booth 1495, I think, please stop by and bring the quilt if you get it finished.
Fondly
Frieda