Project Progress: House Quilt

I am already having a great time piecing together the house blocks I bought at my favorite estate goods dealer.  The colors are bright and fresh and springlike.  Sewing this quilt will both relieve, and create, cabin fever!

The colors in the batik jelly roll I bought complement the houses very nicely.  I'm impressed with the workmanship on the blocks.  I believe them to be hand pieced, not machine pieced.  The evidence is in the irregularity of the stitches, and the hand knots.  There is a minor problem though.  It seems that the blocked are not precisely the same size - something I think I can disguise well enough.

Reverse of blocks!

I'm thinking of making two wall hangings, rather than one larger quilt.  One to keep and one to give away to a dear friend who could use some cheer.  Here are a few shots of the process so far!

Just looking at the colors together makes me feel happy!  Let me know what you think so far!

Upcoming Project: Quilt Completions

I love almost anything previously owned.  I frequent thrift and consignment shops, estate and yard sales, and antique shops.  In one of my favorite shops, tucked away in a corner box was the hard work of a quilter. At the top of the box were a stack of 30 perfect little log cabins.

Of course I purchased these (for a ridiculously low sum).  Since obtaining them, I went out and bought a jelly roll of sherbet colored batik strips to finish a quilt top.  Do you think it's cheating to start with those wonderful pre-made squares?

Under the little log cabins was another wonderful example of piecing excellence.

It's still in star shape, not even on the edges, so it too needs to be pieced with other fabric to complete the quilt.  What would you do with it?

But I Digress

Yes, I am working on my jacket.  However, I often have more than one project in the pipeline.  My first loves (garment sewing and altered couture) tend to get the lion's share of my attention, but every once in a while another project calls to me.  I started this wallhanging quilt this past summer.  It was another time intensive kind of thing because I designed the cat applique, the top was machine pieced and then the cat was hand appliqued into place.

Then, I hand quilted the top to the other layers and hand closed the binding.  I learned hand quilting on a hockey trip with my son to the outskirts of Amish Country in Pennsylvania.  I happened by a quilt shop when two Mennonite women were demonstrating the technique.  Up until that point, though I'd tried to follow instructions in books, it had just not really sunk in.  Seeing them do it made all the difference!

I think it's a really cheerful piece.  I love the bright colors in the batik squares, which were purchased as a set from Jo-Ann's.  It'll make a really nice hanging on someone's wall.  Ok, enough procrastinating... back to my jacket!

Max's Quilt

Well, Max's quilt is finally done! This was quite an interesting process, and took a long time, partly due to losing a place to sew part way through the project (a couple of times!)! First I went through all of the baby clothes provided by Max's mom, looking for interesting motifs that would make nice memories for Max's mom, as well as provide visual interest in the quilt. The motifs were then cut out and stabilized, and joined to plain denim pieces by machine piecing. Some motifs were too small, so these were hand appliqued to the quilt top. Then, I added lots of brightly colored buttons to the quilt top (it's ok, Max is well beyong the age to eat buttons!). The entire quilt top was then backed and bound with recycled fleece fabric to make the quilt cozy and warm for snuggling. The entire piece is twin bed sized. I hope Max gets many years of enjoyment from it!

The Wedding Gown

So, for the past several weeks, I've been consumed with sewing a wedding gown for a client... the lesson learned in the process was not to try to do such a big project in such a short period of time again (stay tuned to see if I actually learned the lesson, or if it's just the PTSD talking). I had three scant weeks, start to finish, soup to nuts, concept to finished gown! The gown itself was not a problem and the bride was lovely (no bridezillas here), but several aspects of the dress gave me fits. If I had it to do again, the skirt would have been attached differently so that the belt would lie the way I wanted it to. Also, the hand embroidered celtic knot, in the wedding colors of royal blue and emerald green, was WAY more time consuming than I thought it would be - yes, that very simple looking little knot, took hours. My favorite parts of the dress were the chiffon cloak, which took the place of a veil, and the way more chiffon overlaid cotton to make the perfect shade of ivory for the dress.

Now that that project is complete, I'm turning my sights back toward a major project I began over a year ago for a friend. It's a quilt made from discarded baby clothing, and I have to say, it's coming out super! Check back soon for pictures!