Progress on Aurifil Dresden Summer Stitch Along - Week 2 embroidery designs by Susan Ache

Hi,

Hope you are doing well and having a good Summer. 

Today I'm posting my progress on the Aurifil Dresden Summer Stitch Along. The stitch along is for a Dresden quilt with hand embroidery designs. I forgot how much I enjoy doing stamped line embroidery! I finished stitching my Week 1 designs, so I was looking forward to Week 2 so I could stitch some more! It is very relaxing, and also working on them has inspired me to get out my embroidery books to possibly try out some more stitches.

Here is this weeks progress:

Embroidered designs (I chose to use 2 colors in one design, and I may add some French knots to the center!)

Stitched week 2 Susan Ache designs - I chose to use 8 weight
Pearl cotton (I have a little stash of it!) You can also use 
Aurifil thread.

Detail of embroidered design - I like playing with combining the
thread colors to match my fabrics

I have been busy cutting out fabric and sewing the Dresden wedges for the quilt. There are a lot of them to prepare. I was tracing the template and cutting them out with my rotary cutter. Since I have a cutting machine (Brother Scan n Cut DX125) I decided to try that. I made a tracing of the wedges to scan into my machine. I was able to cut out 8 wedges at a time from my 10 inch squares (layer cake) of fabric. I am still using the rotary cutter for cutting out pieces from jelly rolls. I could get a little more from the 10 inch square cutting by hand, but it takes a bit more time! I have more projects to work on, so I decided to give the cutting machine a try.

Here is a photo of my chain piecing so far - I pieced these on my Brother PQ1500S straight stitch machine - it did a great job!

Chain piecing makes a fun banner!


You can get the 2 designs for this week at this address:

auribuzz.com/2025/07/04/Dresden-Summer-Stitch-Along-week/2

Hope you enjoy this shared project!

Happy Quilting,

Blessings,

Denise A Buchwalter-Losczyk                              .

Tumbler Quilt Project closer to being completed! And a Summer Quilt Along you can join in on!

Hi!

Hope you are doing well and having a good beginning to your Summer. 

This year I am hoping to finish some uncompleted projects. I recently added binding to my Tumbler quilt, and it is now closer to completion. I plan to add some embellishments on the border - I will share once that is completed! (I have some ideas in mind!)

Here is a photo of my Tumbler quilt without the planned embellishments:

Bound Tumbler Quilt

Binding Detail on Tumbler Quilt - hand quilting on the border

I'm hoping to enter this into a show, I recently realized a Tumbler quilt is one of the easier quilt blocks to sew! I used my Accu-Quilt Tumbler die to cut out my fabrics. I'm hoping adding some extra touches will help elevate my quilt a bit more.

Of course, I couldn't help but start a new project. I recently saw the Aurifil 2025 Summer Quilt Along designed by Susan Ache with Moda fabrics. It has embroidery stitching in the centers, and is a Dresden plate design. I usually create my own designs, but once in a while something just looks fun to make. I like her Cross-stitch designs very much, and I enjoy doing stamped embroidery, so it looked like a relaxing project to create. Also, it will be my first Dresden quilt created without paper-piecing!

Here is my earlier quilt with Dresden plates paper-pieced. It also has machine applique on it. I designed and made this for the 2009 Hoffman Challenge. It was accepted and shown in the juried show.

2009 "Water Lily Medallion" designed, pieced and
quilted by Denise A Buchwalter-Losczyk
Created for the 2009 Hoffman Challenge

                                

I'm hoping to make 2 quilts, one for myself and one to gift.

The first 2 embroidered blocks, and some of the fabrics I am using for the Dresden wedges (I decided to use threads that match my fabrics for the embroidery):

Embroidered Susan Ache designs for the 2025 Summer Quilt Along

Some of the fabrics and threads I will be using,
Kaufmann and Liberty for Riley Blake fabrics

You can join the Quilt Along here, at Aurifil: auribuzz.com/2025/06/20/dresden-summer-stitch-along-week/1

Wishing you a relaxing and enjoyable Summer, full of creativity!

Blessings,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

Resharing this event: Embroidery's BIGGEST Event! 🎉 Live Demos, Machine Deals & Prizes | Hoop ...

A visit to Liberty London and my entry in the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge

Hi,

Hope everyone is having a good May! We came back from a visit to London (about 2 weeks ago). I am hoping to put together some notes and make a little scrap book of my visit, we did catch a cold, so that has delayed that a bit!

I am finally feeling better and have managed to finish the edges of my little quilt that I have entered in the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge. 

Here is my little quilt, it is approximately 12.2 inches x 14 inches:

"Under the Sea" Mini Quilt

This little quilt evolved during this year's Online Project Quilting Challenge. You can read more about how I created this in my earlier blog entries. I added the ombre purple batik border - first I was going to hand stitch a border, then that didn't seem quite right, then I thought maybe a faced border, when I found this fabric in my stash, the binding seemed like the right solution! It makes me very happy to look at it!

During our London trip we arrived a day early before our tour (we took a Rick Steve's 7 Days of London Tour), and we stopped by Liberty London. All the Quilt Craft tours make a stop there, so I had hoped to go there. Somehow I imagined more rooms of fabric! It was nice, one big room of Tana Lawn Cotton prints and another smaller room with Quilting cottons and gifts to purchase. 

I chose some Tana Lawn remnants from a small basket, and a Liberty London embroidered patch from the Quilting section. The Tana Lawn fabric is very smooth and soft, a fine weave.

Liberty remnants in packages

Lovely Liberty Embroidered Patch

Liberty fabric prints

The building was fun to see! We did look through the housewares section and the stationary department a bit. It is a bit pricey for us, so we only made the fabric purchases. (It was excellent quality, and a little pricey too, but I'm happy I bought them, they will make their way into my projects.)

Liberty London store outside

Liberty London looking up at the inside roof

Inside Liberty London store

Inside Liberty London - taken with a fish eye camera

It is a very unique and old wooden building! (I looked up some information on their website, Liberty London was established in 1875, the current building was built in 1924 as Tudor Revival architecture.) It took us a while to find it, we were walking and our directions were a little confusing - but we finally found our destination! I am glad we got to visit there.

Hope you have enjoyed my little post.

Many blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

Completed Project for Project Quilting Season 16-6 - Buttoned up!

Hi,

I'm finally getting around to posting this little quilt completed for Project Quilting Season 16-6.

The theme for this challenge was "Buttoned up".  I often add buttons to my smaller projects, so I decided to add some pearl buttons to this quilt, from Challenge weeks, 16-5 (follow your arrow) and 16-2 (ombre).

It has been fun letting this little quilt evolve.

I have retitled it: "Under the Sea". 

Auditioning Buttons for "Under the Sea"

Completed with Buttons added

"Under the Sea" Detail

It reminds me of some simplified Modern Art (Chagall's mobiles a bit, for example). 

Some of the small pearl buttons are from a Muscatine button factory, and were given to me by one of my Aunts. I have been using them occasionally in many projects. I used Tula Pink Aurifil thread for the quilting and stitching along the appliqued triangles. The fabric is some I hand painted recently. I'm planning to paint some more fabric this year to create a nice stash. I have lots of fabric paints to play with! It always finds its way into my creations. 

I'll post more about fabric painting later!

Hope you enjoyed this little post - get your buttons out and play and embellish with them!

Many Blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

VIRTUAL QUILT FEST DAY 1! (resharing, fun event!)

Completed Project for Project Quilting Season 16-5!

 Hi,

Hope you're having a good weekend! Here is my completed project for Project Quilt Season 16-5. The theme was "Follow your Arrow". 

I decided to add applique to my earlier challenge piece for the "Ombre" challenge (I hand painted and quilted fabric).  I used fabric from a batik charm pack purchased ages ago. They are nice and bright. I cut the fabric into little "arrow head" triangles. 

I used an arrow stitch from my Bernette B79 sewing machine to stitch around each patch. The stitch on the machine originally had a blanket stitch on one side. I learned how to edit the stitch and make it an arrow only stitch. I like challenging myself to try something new for each of these challenges. The challenges remind me of art school assignments! You have to create them somewhat quickly. They are kind of fun, and no grading!

Here is the completed mini quilt and detail photos:

Mini quilt with applique

Detail showing stitching

Detail showing stitching

Happy Creating!

Many Blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk