Window into Chakra Energy

I went to a quilter's retreat a few months ago, for the Seattle guild, Quilters Anonymous. There were probably 50 or 60 of us there, with our many fabulous projects and fabric. There were yard sale tables with good bargains, a large vendor display by Island Batiks, free boxes of fabrics and threads, and even garbage cans full of amazing scraps. Since I don't have nearly enough pieces of fabric in my collection, I was on the look out for treasures. I found pieces of Kaffe Fassett and Tula Pink projects and was thrilled. After the holidays I wanted to make a new quilt, and pulled out the bag of fabric. I trimmed the strips into 3 inch squares and made 4 square blocks. I auditioned sashing with complementary color in mind. Nothing was right. So I decided on a Freddy Moran idea, and used black polka dot strips, also Kaffe with scattered flowers amongst the dots. The outside sash was narrow, and it needed a border. I draped it over the loft rail on top of a January quilt I love for it's black and white, and soft pastels, Hashtag, gifted from my pal Cathy P of gefiltequilt.blogspot.com .

I loved the striped diagonal borders on hashtag. So I worked to recreate that with strips I already had. I sewed the strips, pressed, then cut into 5 inch blocks. To achieve the diagonal lines I cut the blocks in half diagonally and then sewed the triangles together. Cathy's idea was evolving into my new border. I liked the look. It still needed a frame, so I used more of the Kaffe and Tula scraps and made a striped border in the wild colors.

The title came from recent journaling and affirmations about creativity, which is a quality of the throat chakra along with self expression and communication. The throat chakra is pictured blue. I have no idea what will happen with this quilt. It is 28" x 53" the size of a table runner or bed runner. The purpose is irrelevant at this point, it just asked to be created.

A Raft of Otters

Babies are an exciting gift of a new generation. My life-long dear cousin MAJ, has two daughters, and the elder is expecting a baby any time now. A darling baby quilt was called for. Quilts are my best way to show love and supply stories and hugs. I was gifted the Elizabeth Hartman quilt pattern, North Star, from my sister PJC. The pattern suggests a small quilt, 48" square, with four blocks of otters, each block having a pair of otters holding paws as they drift on their backs. Collective nouns for otters include A bevy of otters, A family of otters, A kennel of otters, A lodge of otters, A raft of otters, A ramp of otters, and A romp of otters. I used colored crayons to add contrast to the pale green otters. Just color the fabric, then lay paper towels over the fabric front and back and iron to set the wax. The last photo shows the bias stripe binding, my thimble and name label, and the lime dotted back. Best Wishes for peaceful nights and happy days.

A Quilt is a Hug you can Keep

When someone you thought you had lost shows up, you are in for a rollercoaster of emotions. The years somehow fall away when you connect. I recently was contacted by a young woman who I knew as a baby and little girl. She reached out like a magic wand and splashed stars and sparkles with her wise words and glorious smile. We are all delighted and relieved to have her in our lives once again. She had a birthday last week. Over the years when we had lost touch, her birthday was a whistful time of hoping she was happy and felt loved. Now we could celebrate with her. The best gift I can give is a quilt I've made. I sewed up a most Cheerful quilt out of summer batiks, nine different colors. The pattern is slices of citrus fruits in oranges, yellows, and greens, with a blue gradient background. Because the batiks are tightly woven I did raw edge machine applique. For the back of the quilt, the part that touches you, I used three different shades of minky in green and blue. I used a technique that makes the backing fold over to the front and slef-bind.

My other recent project for a family I've known many years, was a handfasting sash for a wedding. The groom wanted a combination of Viking runes for his part, and hebrew letters and a yoga hamsa symbol for the bride. The center was a tree of life symbol. He wanted the sash made from black handkerchief weight linen. The symbols were embroidered in gold metallic thread, red and purple embroidery thread, and the tree of life silver metallic. I used black fusible interfacing to stabilize the soft fabric. It turned out magical and sweet. 55 inches long tapered at the ends, 2 3/4 inches wide. May their union be full of love and thrive like a garden well tended.

Embrace the Suck

I recently read a book that had a big influence on my creativity. It is "It's Great to Suck at Something," by Karen Rinaldi. I highly recommend it. The title might be off-puting, because of the word suck. The author's proviso is that we ought not suck at important things, such as our jobs. But hobbies, that is different. Her main hobby is surfing, which she started at age 40. She loves to surf, and invests a lot of time and money into her hobby. By starting in mid life, she doubts she'll be a great surfer, but she is mostly ok with that. The book goes on to share Buddist philosophies, and to talk about not being a perfectionist. Perfectionists are annoying. As one of my friends said, the only thing I'm perfect at is annoying myself. hahaha. Two of m daughters are involved in SCA events. SCA is a historical reenacting group. They are very involved, making their own historically accurate garments, camping out and having festivals, and teaching each other historical skills. Diane has been chosen as the barroness for the upcoming year, starting the end of August. Her emblem is a bear, with a group of garlic flowers over it's head.

Her new gown will be purple silk, made in a historical middle ages design. It will be embellished with amethysts. I decided to make her a banner like her emblem, in flag size out of rip stop nylon. I had left over supplies from a recent garden flag, and as synchronicity would have it, her bear became purple. I printed off the emblem, and drew graph lines to hep me enlarge it with free hand drawing. This is where the suck came in. I nearly froze when I started to draw a bear on a 3 foot scale. But I told myself, it's great to suck ata drawing, and went for it. After feeling discouraged at my bear, I googled line drawings of bears. They are a wide range, and really anything goes. The nose and the narrow eyes are the key. The next tricky part was then cutting into the purple rip stop nylon. I didn't have extra to spare. But I laid the paper on the fabric and got brave. Once I let go of trying to make it good, it got fun and it turned out great. Diane's bear looks fierce. My bear looks like she is ready to tear into a log for bugs and honey. Even with the eyebrow she is more cuddly than fierce. That is ok.

I foundAnd, here is my some fancy fringe for the bottom of the banner. I did some thread painting to add details.

Sew it and a Baby Will Need It

I started this new year with a challenge to myself. I saw a Quilt Along (QAL) on social media and thought it might give me some prompts for block ideas. It is headed by Molli Sparkles The draw was to use the top shelf fabric that is "too good to cut up." It is the paradox of most quilters, buying luscious fabric to cut up and sew back together, then thinking it is too nice to cut. Saving it for later.I am not yet committed to the QAL, at this point I'm a voyeur. The first block is Scrappy Cross Patchwork Block by Bonjour Quilts This is an easy block that uses up litte scraps. It can be matchy or completely scrapped out. I've seen this block in quilts both small and large. It is eye catching. I decided to start with a color that I seldom use: pink. I made a block using some fun Tula Pink and Kaffe Fassett florals. The cross is a purple plaid by Jason Yenter. I liked the block although it doesn't have musch value contrast.So I sewed a few more pink blockks adding some value variety. Pretty quickly I had 9 blocks, enough for a baby quilt. I decided to go ahead and make the quilt, and then put it up for sale in my etsy shop.

I chose a pretty Kaffe triangle print for the back. It has pinks and greens in soft pastel tones.The binding is a violet Moda gradient. It frames the quilt and draws your eyes toward the blocks

What challenges or resoutions have you set for the year?

Banana Company to the Rescue!

I needed a fabric fix. The problem is, I live in a small town and the nearest fabric dealer is an hour drive or an internet wait. There is a great antique consignment shop in town, the Banana Company. In the back room there is a corner for fabric and notions, placed in a vintage hardware rack. For $10 I found a pretty, vintage, hand pieced quilt. Who doesn't love a bargain? It is a variation on a Singe Wedding Ring. It looks to be from the 1940's by the prints and colors. The fabrics are in very good shape, the piecing thread is still strong, and except for a few tiny rends, it was in perfect shape. I added a soft buttery yellow 3 inch border. The measurements are 68" x 82". I was ready to sandwich it for basting but I kept dragging my heels. It just kept nagging at me, "what are you going to do with this quilt?" As if that really matters. I intend to hand quilt it to go with the hand piecing. What was this quilt trying to tell me? "Feed Me, Seymour." Finally I used my morning writing to figure out the silent messages this flimsy was sending. I read a blog that is a treasure trove of primitive style and hand applique and hand quilting, It inspired me to add my own style of applique design. Previously I have done a humongous amount of circle applique, on a quilt designed by Karen Mcleen, 'Lollipop Trees.' I used acrylic templates called 'Perfect Circles,' designed by Karen Kay Buckley. I highly recommend them for ease of use and quality of results. I am not affiliated with these products in any way. I had a bunch of left over circles, made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics, ready to sew down. They were left over from the Karen Mcleen project (which I named 'Magnum XL.') So I laid them on the quilt and yessss it was just what the flimsy needed. So I began making more circles for the quilt top in earnest. I am enjoying this hand sewing so much. Even watching TV in the evening with DH Mr. Thimblepie is tolerable with this yummy project. Here it is, in progress. I am swooning.

Yes, I Can Make Quilts Bigger

I am back at the keyboard. I spent several years mending and finishing vintage quilts for my etsy business. It may sound strange, but I got an ego boost from the compliments I received for my work. I have always struggled with the inner critic and lack of self esteem for my work. When I repaired old quilts and was told how I had made them cry with joy, or worked miracles, I felt good about myself. Some of the quilts were fabulous. But some were really bad, and needed to be tossed. After some struggles I decided to retire from that work and spend all my time creating my own epic stuff. I had to turn one person away since then, and turns out saying NO isn't so hard after all. A year ago I did a job that seemed impossible. I made a nice quilt bigger. Here is the before:

I was sent a nice full sized quilt, well made with quality fabrics. Nicely machine quilted, well bound. She wanted it to be about 12 inches bigger on each side. So. First I took the binding off. I bought some lovely batik to quilt and attach. I did Free Motion Quilting (FMQ)which I found tedious. My cat helped.

Then I used home made batik bias tape to attach the layers. I sewed the back layers together first. I used a coordinating color.I used quilt as you go techniques.

I continued to get help from my cat.

Then I pressed the bias strips and sewed them down on the front. I chose pink because that was an accent on the main quilt.

Here is the front after I finished. I chose to do machine binding.

And here is the after, cat included. The review was glowing and I think you can see why my ego was fed. "Jane’s work was perfect. She took the quilt my friend made and extended it so it would fit on my bed. It now looks like it was designed that way from the start. I attach a photo from the day it arrived when I immediately threw it on my bed, replaced my cat’s bed, and the cat approved the change. I think you can see the quality of Jane’s work."