Border Conflict

Choosing borders for a commissioned quilt top is causing a big mess in my studio. It looks like a fabric fight. When I leave lids off of my fabric totes, my cat loves to dig in and make a nest, but she doesn't hold a candle to me when it comes to making a big mess. I searched through browns, yellows, blues, greens, and what a disaster!

Chai loves to nest in the fabric.

I am NOT posting a photo of my mess. I just crammed everything back in the various totes and promised to refold the contents later.    I cut up all of the focus fabric, intending to have an extra set of pieces for a kit for my etsy shop.  I sewed the blocks, set them on point in a pattern, sewed them together, and then realized I was on the horns of a dilemma. I knew I'd need borders, but finding just the right framing fabric was tougher than I had imagined.   I did finally find a suitable fabric for the border. It will be the brown pebble side propeller fabric, pieced.

Vintage airplanes, rick rack, and Amy Butler "eyelash" fabric. I think it looks like angel wings.

Airship propellers, before the borders. 

Last week I finished a commissioned quilt for a little girl who is having a birthday. She loves horses and pink, so I made her a soft and dreamy snuggle quilt.Sweet dreams.

Valorie Wells border fabric.

Robert Kaufman paisley flannel on the back.

Collecting Trolls

  This UFO (unfinished object) has been in time out, or as they say in the Netherlands, collecting trolls, for way too long. I started this lovely quilt in 2009. It was inspired by trips to the Owyhee desert and the storm cloud sunsets that were surprisingly intense. I used Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, and a pattern called Zen, first made by Blue Underground. I also included some dupioni silk, and some oxford cloth, which is another type of shot cotton; that is, the warp is one color and the weft is another. I used a lovely Kaffe print for the border. The back is a fun sea weed purple batik. I started quilting it in 2011. Then it got put away and has been languishing in a tote ever since. Time to get 'er done. So, this is my goal for March, to finish quilting and bind my Desert Storm.

The picture was taken last May. Silly dog, she had to be in the picture but looks like she is waiting for her whipping.