Be*mused

Roses are red...

Roses are red, violets are blue



I stitched all week



Making this valentine for you!

Taking a cue from Barb, I found the perfect fun backing in my stash...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good intentions

These clever little gadgets arrived earlier in week and have been calling to me every day ~ 'Come in and play!' 

The sun is shining through the windows and it's the perfect day to be crossing things off of my long list.  How could a little time in the sewing room hurt?  It will put me in a good mood to get everything else done.  A full day of happy accomplishments!  Sounds like a plan.



Valentine's week!



Trimmings are piling up!  It's already 1:30 and I'm still in my pajamas.  This could be trouble.

Abundance

Abundance, 12¼" x 12¼"

I've finished my little quilt from Lori D.'s Abundance quiltalong.  My experience is that remaking a vintage quilt from the stash is a good exercise.  What guides fabric choices?  Colors?  Visual pattern?  Historical print accurancy?  For me, this time, I decided to just try to visually replicate the original as close as I could from the stash.  So you'll find some 19th century repros as well as pink toile and a light blue 30s print.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.

When I try to lighten up my photos a bit, that blue seems to electrify, so here's a close-up of the prints which is pretty true to color.  That corner pink print is an Ely & Walker calico which was one of the very first fabrics I ever had in my stash.  In fact, I guess you could say that it and several companion prints were the start of my quilting stash, in 1975. 

I've never incorporated corner pockets onto a small quilt before so I tried them out on this.  What a great idea ~ so quick and neat!  I had a small piece of tiny dowel rod in with my craft supplies, so thin it's almost a skewer.  How convenient to have it immediately ready to hang when the last binding stitch is finished.

I've been fooling around with some quirky lettering recently and decided to incorporate some into my label for the back.  I think it fits the style of the patchwork nicely! 

While working on it, I was thinking how, since it's so small, it would be fun to make several versions at the same time ~ perhaps sticking to the color theme, but making one in all repro prints, one as a 30's version and one in contemporary fabrics.  Maybe next challenge.  Too many ideas, not enough time!

If you've never participated in any of these projects, I'd encourage you to try one.  Lori's, especially, are clearly explained, well-paced and easy enough for most quilters.  You've probably seen a number of 'Abundance' quilts popping up over the last week or two on the blogs and Lori will be hosting a link page sometime this week on Humble Quilts.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's versions!

The way-back machine

I've finished appliquéing the last of my rose wreath blocks so I've been thinking now about what I'll do for borders.  I have several quilt tops at this stage but since I really would like this quilt to hang at Christmas, I'd like to design and prepare the border sections as my pick-up work between other projects.  Remembering that I had once worked on such a self-designed border, I dug deep into the UFO container to see if it could provide a starting point.

This is what I had finished of it, almost one section, before abandoning the project.  It definitely gives me some ideas!  I still love this project, but I had put it aside because the mauve plaid that I had used proved to be a definite early fader on friends' quilts.  I couldn't see investing so much more time once that was apparent.  (Is the word 'mauve' even used anymore?)

These blocks are a bit more refined that my usual preference, but they really came alive when I sewed the four together.  They were a summer project, mostly stitched while sitting outside at the Cleveland Art Museum cafe, sipping iced tea on hot, lazy afternoons while Molly & K were taking art lessons there.  Funny how just looking at an old project can bring you immediately back to where and when you made it.

It was my first foray into red & green applique, using what fabrics were available from the paltry selection at the time.  Examining the blocks, I can see my younger self experimenting with techniques.  One of the blocks' background fabrics is whole, intact, while three have been cut away underneath the plaid, before the center applique, to reduce the layers through which I'd have to quilt.



Look, I even left a threaded needle in my in-progress work, ready to pick up and go when I got back to it.  Little did I suspect that I would be pulling it out like this more than 25 years later!


Molly's favorite CMA art project ever ~ a personalized chair,
assembled from cartons & embellished with paint and cutouts

I found the original paper draft of the design and it's reminded me of how I approached this so that will be helpful. I'm thinking about these pieces, so long buried in the back of the closet.  Although I won't ever use that center section, I've always wanted to make an 'orphan block' quilt and I think the border would be perfect for that.  Add another project to the list!