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"

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

"conversational geese" finished

When I finished this quilt top and posted it on Instagram and Facebook a while back, an old blog friend of mine in Oregon asked if it was for sale! :)

Well yes!

So I finished quilting and binding it today and will send these geese off to their new home with her next week. She plans to hang this on her bedroom wall. I think that is SO COOL.

I AM EXCITED AND HAPPY!

Almost all the fabrics are either from Nancy's stash or mine. Only recently I purchased a few of them, like the Charley Harper cardinal print, which I love. The red with white dots was a dish towel in Nancy's stash.

This blue print is nostalgic and cottage-y. So sweet.

The goldenrod in the meadow is happy for the geese to fly nearby. 

My FIL's quilt finished

I managed to finish the quilting on this one before we left for a weekend up north, our last weekend with him here with us this year. We will put him on the Zephyr train Saturday.

I am happy with the soft thickness, accomplished with a cotton/poly batting 80/20, and with quilting every 2-3 inches.

This Instagram pic, taken with my iPad, shows the quilt cooler than it is.
The other images are truer warmth.

I gave him the quilt in the car in the back seat as Don drove and his brother rode in the front. He seemed pleased. Didn't say much, but he never does. The important thing is that he knows I love him, I loved having him stay with us, and that this will keep him warm.

Andrea's quilt finished

It's a birthday present, and even though the recipient doesn't read my blog, I'll hold off using her name.

This was a truly improv quilt. The recipient loves black and white, and so I made stripes here and there. Also, her home decor includes this pale blue and yellow. It is nap/lap size. I picture her knitting or watching a movie under it this winter.

The backing is a Dear Stella fabric called Mist Birds Paloma. It coordinates with the floral on the front of the quilt. They were the first fabric purchase I made after I returned to quilting in the new improv era. I've been saving them for a special quilt.

finished size: 41" x 55 1/2"

UPDATE: She loves it!

Photo bomb by Peter and Olive!