Guild Name Tag Swap

The quilt guild I belong to (Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild) did a name tag swap in April.  I decided I wanted to play and threw my name into the hat.  This swap was for secret swap partners.  We all filled out a quick note that had our name and a thing or two we like and our preferred name tag size.  This taught me quite a bit about what people want for a name tag as well as how challenging it can be to work in 4" by 5".  

I really struggled with this project.  I wanted to make an embroidery design but my confidence with my embroidery software just isn't where it should be for that kind of work.  I must have worked for 6-8 hours with that software and I couldn't get a design I liked enough to stitch onto fabric and actually use.  In the end, I drew this simple mushroom and just started working.

Step one was to pick a background fabric and get her name embroidered on to it.  I even used one of my machine's built in fonts for this one.  I thought it was playful.  Then I traced the shapes of my rough drawing onto some fusible web.  I really took advantage of the fabric for the mushroom top.

Thankfully my fusible web was forgiving.  I forgot to applique stitch the stem before I pressed the mushroom top on.

I lifted the bottom edge of the mushroom cap and stitched down the stem.  Then pressed the cap back down and blanket stitched it down.  These are the kinds of projects that use up those bits of batting you don't know why you saved.

I did a little thread painting along the bottom to make it look like the mushroom was in the grass.  

I added some texture to the mushroom cap and the stem.

I quilted the background to give it some movement but my main goal was to really give the entire piece an equal level of overall quilting.  Time to trim and bind.

I used the same fabric for the backing and the binding. 

I wrapped it up for Monica. 

This was a great small project that I think took about two hours to complete.  Working at this scale isn't easy but I think I learned a great deal from this.  Mostly I learned to trust my instincts and know when to just go for it.