Saturday, February 21, 2015

reds of winter



With all the cold and snow, color and heat are necessary.

Two projects for gifts. The blocks above are for a baby quilt I'm calling "sugar sand." It's for a mama-to-be who lives on a dune. The beautiful sand of Lake Michigan is called sugar sand. The mama loves hot pink and yellow. This is a subtle interpretation of those colors. The tan linen reminds me of sandpaper, and I adore it.

Below are fabrics for placemats and napkins for a bride-to-be. My stashy sister Nancy gave me all but the ochre with Swissy dots. The linen on the left is more of the stuff that I have loveloveloved from her. She visits shops in Myrtle Beach and gathers remnants for a song. I will make reversible placemats with the reds, binding in the ochre, and napkins from the linen toile-ish print.




Here is the arrangement my siblings sent for my mother-in-law's funeral. They have dried so beautifully, even the orchids. Sadly, I bumped them as I walked by and some orchid blossoms fell atop the roses. 




4 comments:

  1. Your handmade gifts for these special milestones, Ruth, will be cherished for many years to come. How clever and thoughtful of you to"think them up" and bring them to fruition. Special thanks to our "stashy sister" who has more fun buying these fabrics for YOU now than she ever did for herself. I'm sure of it. And I sit back here and watch it all with a deep, resonating smile. Thank you for sharing.

    And special thanks for showing the dried bouquet from your MIL's funeral. It really IS beautiful.

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    1. Thanks, Boots. At the moment Nancy is cleaning out her apartment to make way for her new life. I wonder if she is buying new? By the way, sometimes she gets remnants for free!

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  2. You do have the prettiest pieces of fabric. I like those that you show and think they will come out beautifully. Since we have to de-clutter the house before moving to Nashville next winter I know I’ll have to get rid of so much. I think I still have fabric from when I used to made dresses for my girls – in the 1970s! I could send you some of it if you like, but I am not even sure of what I have and/or if it would be useful. I know I have dress patterns from the 1960s and saw some for sale at a flea market – should give mine away instead of throwing them in the trash. I also have hundreds of my husband’s ties – how about that for a crazy quilt? That bouquet of roses is sweet.

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    1. Vagabonde, Wow, you're moving to Nashville. It makes sense. I wonder how you feel about it? When you get to your fabric stash, if you want to send me some, I would love it. I'd cover postage at the least. Please please please give it away, or sell it if you have the patience. There are people like me who treasure vintage fabric. When Don and I were in Paris for our 25th anniversary we spent hours at Les Puces de Saint-Ouen, and we found a tiny shop full of fabric. We found gorgeous things for our daughter, who minored in fibers in art school. And yes, I have seen ties made from men's ties. I wish I had saved my dad's ties for it, but I didn't know then I'd be doing this. I gave him many of his ties, and it would have been special.

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