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“Nana, I really like this design, do you think you could make me a quilt like this?”  grandson

Is there a grandmother out there that could resist a request like that?  I certainly couldn’t.  He even went with me to the fabric store to select the colors.  It all started because the last quilt that I made for him wasn’t long enough to cover his feet anymore.

Here, the blocks are laid out and ready to put together.  It was strip pieced, cut into triangles, sewn into long strips and then joined together.

Here’s what we came up with.  I think that it will cover him for at least a couple of years!

The quilt is about 72×84, machine pieced and machine quilted

Vines all around

Every flower about a house certifies to the refinement of somebody. Every vine climbing and blossoming tells of love and joy.
Robert G. Ingersoll

There are a few crocuses coming up and yesterday I saw a few daffodils. The season for flowers is just around the corner.Through the last wintry months I’ve been working on a few flowers to brighten up the room.

There were lots of good sized pieces left after completing the top.  So they went into the back.

Here are details of two of the flowers.  The background of the applique was one single piece of fabric that was variegated from light yellow to dark purple.

The piece was machine pieced and hand appliqued and hand quilted.

The quilt is 60×60.

Happy almost spring!

Qilin – Shanghai to Salt Lake

The qilin (Chinese: 麒麟; pinyin: qílín) is a mythical hooved chimerical creature known in Chinese and other East Asian cultures, said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a sage or illustrious ruler.[1] It is a good omen thought to occasion prosperity or serenity. Wikipedia

A couple of years ago friends brought me a beautiful length of batik that was purchased from and batik artisan in China. It sat on my table patiently waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I decided to surround it by pieced squares made of other indigo batiks. Purchased all the fabric, made the squares and I didn’t like the look of it at all. So decided instead to use two simple borders and leave it as a panel.

Here is a closeup of the qilin.

I decided to use the other squares for the back.

Borders are hand quilted. Central portion is quilted by machine.
38X60 inches
completed 2015

Fire and Ice / Right Brain Left Brain

“A woman’s life is nine parts mess to one part magic.  You’ll learn that soon enough….and the parts that look like magic turn out to be the messiest of all.” – George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

This is the outcome of “Right Brain Left Brain” seen previously here.

 

Today brings looking back on the past year.  Lots of changes, messiness and magic”  This quilt incorporates them all.  Don’t ask what my plan for it is, it’s just the magic of creation.

Hand quilted, machine pieced, hand appliqued

 

 

 

 

 

Right Brain, Left Brain, Frontal, Temporal?

During my long walk this morning I listened to a podcast that talked about the right brain and drawing, and more generally just how the brain sections interact to spark creativity.  It’s such an interesting topic to think about how neurons and chemicals interacting can cause such wonderful things to happen.  So I’ve decided to look a little at my latest creative process.

I’m fascinated with tesselating shapes.  I think of it kind of the same way as neurons and neurotransmitters interacting.  I’ve been studying Jinny Beyer’s quilts and her book about tesselations.

This is a quarter of the square and the templates created from that square.

The next job was fabric selection, cutting and sewing together.  Then the magic starts!

Next come uneven borders in the eggplant color that will be enhanced with applique.

The pattern was transferred on to the dark fabric by using a lightbox and going over the design on the reverse side of the fabric with chalk.  The applique fabric is then basted on to the right side of the fabric from the design on the wrong side ( now that takes some brain power!)

The applique design begins to emerge as the fabric is cut away and hand appliqued on to the front of the border.  Voila!

So that’s what my brain has been doing this week!  The exercises have been great!  Happy Brain exercising to you too!

 

Sensing spring in the air

The sun is shining, the icicles are melting, you can actually see some grass coming out from under the snow. It makes me think that spring may actually be a possibility this year.

This is a pattern by Laura Heine called Flowers and Flies. It is a wonderful whimsical design that let’s you use all those delicious batik scraps! It looks like she is now offering this as a block of the month on her website.

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Size: 65×100
Machine appliqué, hand quilting

Study in Triangles

This quilt started out as a study in triangles. I had this beautiful polka dot fabric that had been hanging around the edges of my consciousness for awhile waiting for inspiration. Having been playing with French Braid patterns recently, I decided to fold 5 1/2 in squares in half when attaching the french braid together. That left one side of the triangle open, giving some texture to the braid.

I made four of these sections and put them together.

Then I added a plain black border to which I had added some prairie points, also free floating. Looking at the bright center, I was reminded of the story of the dryads. Druids taught that tree dryads were created when the first rays of the Sun reached the earth. With their help, it was taught that people were created. So I added dryads to the center of the quilts. These were inspired by the art of Courtney Davis. I put celtic symbols in the corners.

The borders are on, it is layered and the quilting is started. I am using a Superior King Tut thread ( Obsidian) the is variegated black, tan and blue which helps the quilting to stand out a bit from the plain black. Superior King Tut thread

Here’s close to the finished project! A little quilting left to be done. The basting pins are visible! Hand quilting is completed with Superior – King Tut – Ramses Red thread. Superior Threads Ramses red and Shekels, a variegated yellow shekels

So now I think it needs a different title. . .

Size: 56×56

Finished: 2012

Machine applique, hand quilted