Bright log cabin baby quilt

A former colleague commissioned a quilt for her fourth baby, due in early January. I made eight placemats for her a couple of years ago, and those were bright too. She loves wonky quilts, and her whole house is painted in bright, vivid, tasteful colors.

Baby #4 will share a room with his big brother, which is painted in lovely shades of orange and blue.

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I sent a photo of the first log cabin block I finished for this project to Heidi for approval. She said "I think it is lovely. Brighter the better. :)" I got the message and set that one aside! I did not have many bright fabrics in my stash, so I stopped at Joann's and picked up several fat quarters in brights. The next try was a winner.

Then I had to get even more brights, solids this time, for the back, which is one big log cabin block.

back

There is a little black and white center of each block that you'll see if you look closely. I decided to bind the quilt in this black and white dot from Joann's.

Besides the new brights from Joann's, I had a few other new fabrics on hand
as well as scraps from friends and my own projects.
There are a few thrift shirts also.

I couldn't be happier with the result. The mama says she is in love with it.

Finished quilt measures 44" x 59"
Machine pieced and quilted every 2 1/2"

Table runners keep running

A commission for Vikki, this is 14" by 45"
Some upcycled shirts and also fabrics from my stash

I had these three fabrics in my stash, two from Nancy,
and one from the batch I bought from Leslie Schmidt when she moved to Switzerland (aqua).
I wanted something swirly and abstract.

These fabrics were such fun playing together.
Upcycled shirts, stash fabrics, some from Babsy,
some from Leslie.

I have been better at making items for us to use, thanks to Babsy's encouragement. Table runners are great, because they sew up quickly, and they add a pop to daily life.

A scrappy baby girl quilt

Well this is probably my favorite quilt yet. The process from beginning to end was blissful.

A friend commissioned this quilt for her brother's first baby. She is the same friend who commissioned wonky Mother Goose log cabin baby quilt for her friend's baby, below:

Quilt for Adelaide, made about a year ago

I kick myself that I didn't take photos on the weekend, before washing the quilt, because I ended up having to take pictures in artificial light. Except for this first one below, of the binding, made with Alisse Courter fabric.

In this closeup you can see the Sujata Shah wonky flying geese;
also, the half square triangle blocks were pieced by stash sister Nancy's former daughter-in-law

The parents like owls ... apparently ..

There are scraps from every which source ...

.. scraps from thrift clothes, from a special friend's stash,
from Nancy, from a quilter who sold me her stash before moving to Switzerland ...

scraps from my dear friend Susie .. 

.. scraps from my old vintage stash ..

I just had to document every square inch. As I quilted over each inch of this I enjoyed it more than I can express. I wish I could have kept it. I hope Eveyln and her parents will love it.

Susie's scrappy girls pillow

I made this 20" pillow for Susie before we went to visit her and David a month ago. She loves it. She says she hugs it a lot.

Susie gave me the girl fabrics: matryoshka dolls, silhouettes in the wind, talking girls with birds.

I will be making three of these for Christmas gifts in the next couple of weeks, but smaller: 16".

I pieced the back with some of the fabrics Susie has given me: matryoshka dolls, bees and flamingoes.

before quilting

after machine quilting

Holiday table runner

I've been under the weather. I was chatting with my Instagram buddy Babsy about heading for a nap while I was home sick, and she said she hoped I would be snuggled under a quilt. Funny thing is, I have only once made a quilt for us, that is, not for one of the kids. It was in Istanbul, and it got threadbare, so we don't use it now. So I was going to snuggle under a store-bought whole cloth quilt.

Babsy makes beautiful pieces for her home (like this), and she inspires me to sew more for our own place. I just seem to always be making a quilt for someone else, either for a gift, or to sell. Because I work full time, there isn't much time for other projects.

Well, getting sick is a not-so-great way to find time you don't normally have. I had this weekend all set aside to work on a quilt order for an "Andrea" quilt. (I will treat it as second in a series.) When I got sick with a sore throat, I knew I couldn't get through appointments all day with students, nor did I want to spread the illness to them. But I haven't had a fever, and I have a certain amount of energy to sew something at a slow pace. (You should see me normally, I jump up and down from sewing machine, to design board, to cutting table, to ironing board, back to machine, etc.) Who wants to just sit or lie around all day?

I had pulled out holiday fabric Nancy gave me that I absolutely love. I had no idea what to do with this old-fashioned print with scenes that look like Currier & Ives prints. I have 4-5 yards of it! After posting the photo below at Instagram, I thought about a table runner for the kitchen table in our little farmhouse. We don't have a formal dining room.

I didn't end up using any green;
it wouldn't stick!

I have been inspired by Victoria Gertenbach at Silly Boodilly ever since getting into modern quilts, and I used her table runners as inspiration. Her work is A MA ZING.

I thought I was going to use only large blocks, but that never seems to happen, no matter how hard I try. Little dots, checks, swirlies or plaids have to nudge their way in.

So there! I made something for us! When Don got home from work yesterday, he was appreciative! Now he can make toast for breakfast and look at something besides whatever is sitting on the kitchen table, because this piece inspires me to keep the table tidy. (How long will this last?)

Isn't this fabric the sweetest?
Both Babsy and another Instagrammer said they have this fabric in their stash also!

kimono scraps art quilt

This was the most interesting commission I have had yet.

At the study abroad fair a couple weeks ago, I was chatting with a long-time colleague about her upcoming retirement. She told me she plans to learn to quilt. Well that was a fun conversation!

Sitting next to me was a professor who is taking a program to London summer 2016, and he was listening to us with growing excitement. Understand, "excitement" is very measured in professors, generally. He said, "I have a commission to tell you about when you're finished!" And then Cindy and I chatted a bit longer.

I have tried to upload a better photo of three gold slivers, but I'm having technical problems.
You can see one here. A wonderful friend suggested doing something
with the Japanese tradition called Kintsugi of filling cracks of broken crockery with lacquer dusted with gold.
What a beautiful concept.

He proceeded to tell me that when he lived in Japan, he would go to the Chion-ji temple market regularly and pick up silk kimono scraps. (How fun is that!) He collected them week after week, not knowing what they would become but loving them all the same.

For years he has been looking for someone to sew them into some sort of small quilt. He asked if I would do it, and I could barely hold in my excitement. On my laptop I proceeded to show him the art quilts of Debra Smith I had recently discovered, all made with kimono silk, and I told him I had recently made an art quilt of Indian silks. Never had I dreamt of using silk in sewing quilts before. The fact that I was somewhat prepared for his request is just very serendipitous.

Here is an image of the scraps after I photographed them with my iPhone and saved them in a Pantone app, to match the colors for buying silk. This is actually one group of scraps. There is a second one with a decidedly different palette, so I separated them.

I stopped at the VOA thrift store a couple of days later to find silk blouses to fill out the design. I used three: taupe, lilac, and gold.

I struggled with the challenge of arranging these scraps in any satisfying way.

Below is one start.

No.

But at last, after several arrangements on the design board, I started improvising in a way that felt right. I used one of the eight silk blouses I found thrifting for the background, first affixing it to featherweight interfacing. The interfacing took time to iron on, but it was worth it for ease of sewing and quilting.

I ran out of taupe silk for binding,
so I used this cotton Hawthorne house fabric
called "fronds" in golden canyon.

I also used pieces of the lilac and gold silk blouses I found.

I wanted a medallion on the side, like in ancient Japanese art.
This grew larger all on its own.

I plan to give him his art quilt tomorrow. Of course he is paying me, though we have not set a price. He seemed to think money was no object. Maybe I should charge $5000. :D

Let's see if he wants a second one with the other group of scraps.

This art quilt measures 24" x 27"

silk, with cotton binding

Urban garden modern improv wall quilt

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

London. Virginia Woolf. Map.

Art quilt measures 32 x 31"

From upcycled clothes

Etsy listing