four crayons and a piece of muslin

One of the things that makes Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage so absolutely amazing and gorgeous is the crayon tinting. Since I fully intend to finish that one after I'm done with Hocuspocusville, I'm going to have to learn to do it, and do it reasonably well. There's a good tutorial at Sew Mod that explains how it's done on the Crabapple Hill patterns. And another at Urban Threads.

So I decided to give it a try. I'd thought about converting one of the patterns from International Sunbonnet Sue to embroidery, maybe on a dish towel. And then I got to thinking about the crayon embroidery posts over at mamacjt's blog....



I didn't find the exact post I was looking for until after I'd done my coloring and embroidery, so I missed the freezer paper step. And I didn't do my black outlining by machine -- mine is hand embroidered with 2 strands of black DMC. I don't think my free motion skills are quite up to that yet. I also gave up on the light tinting because I wanted her lobster to be really red and her slicker to be really yellow.



I would have liked to do a quilting design that looked like waves, but I really wanted to get her quilted, so I stuck with my usual stippling. I do like the way it looks when it's this tiny and close together.



And the detail that it adds in the tiny open spaces. Definitely worth the stopping and starting again!



I didn't quite follow anyone's instructions completely, but that's one of the fun things about quilting -- glancing at the pattern and then doing your own thing. I like the way my crayon tinted and embroidered Sue came out. Not sure how -- or if -- I'll finish her, but not every experiment has to become a finished quilt. I think I'll just hang her in the sewing room the way she is for now.




I do kind of like Sunbonnet Sue. The traditional pattern makes cute baby quilts. And the more creative versions...those I really love. At the Sisters quilt show a few years back, someone had recreated Nancy Drew book covers with Sunbonnet Sue applique. I didn't get pictures, which I still regret. that was the neatest quilt.

When I saw International Sunbonnet Sue, I wanted it. There's the lobster, and Sue as Sherlock Holmes, and Sue as Cleopatra holding a snake... I haven't done much applique, but I've got a happy collection of applique books that I've fallen in love with. Someday I will learn needle turn applique and make myself a Baltimore Album quilt.

This post is linked to Try it on Tuesday at Jo's Country Junction, Freemotion by the River, and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, and Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.