Little Stitches, Big Ideas

Hand quilting creates its own little oasis of calm and solitude.  I have been quietly quilting my red and white quilt, contemplating, amongst other things, a name for this baby. 

The straight lines are 1/2" apart.  Originally I intended cross hatching, but I think the quilting will be dense enough without that.  In fact there is so much quilting in the white squares that feathered circle isn't very clear. 

On my first circle (top right) I even did some 1/4" cross hatching in the centre.  I've left it in for your interest only and will now undo it.  Sometimes there can be too much quilting.  I never thought I'd say that since I am from the school of more-is-more in the quilting department.

On another front, quilterie has been the recipient of a couple of sweet and generous gifts.

In the foreground is a small magnetic case for pins and needles.  It was a surprise present from Jane for no particular reason.  Gifts like these are the best of all; unexpected and generous.  It means someone has been thinking of you.  Thanks Jane! 

Beneath and behind the needle case are 3 half yards of solids from Sharon and a lovely card.  Sharon wants to make sure my Year of the Solids is not stymied by lack of fabric!  Equally unexpected and equally generous.  Thank you so much Sharon.

Now the plan is to go off and cut some fabric for an Amish style quilt top.  I hope I have something to show you later.

Sidetracked

Cleaning up the workspace (again) I came across some blocks I made a few years ago.  I was trying to come up with a quick technique for making the tree blocks and made 9 before I gave up.  I love  tree blocks and I'm surprised they don't appear more in quilts.

After squaring them up at 9" I decided to sash the blocks.

Then they seem to need large setting triangles.  Some fabric originally bought as backing fitted the bill.  I don't even recall which top it was meant to back, so there are no regrets cutting into it.  Yellow green must be my current favourite colour.  Someone even heard me refer to it as a "neutral" the other day.

The idea for the border is still maturing.  Not a solid quilt, it's true.  But the blocks were made 3 years ago  and were found unloved in a UFO bag, so I am not bound by the challenge rules. 

 The item I was searching for is still missing, but at least I have cleaned up a small corner of my sewing world and made a fresh start on something that was gathering cobwebs.

On the red and white front I have drawn up my 5" stencil.    Since I was making my own I made sure I didn't put too many feathers, and I was able to draw a nicer shape of  feather as it attaches to its "rib".  The inside commercial feathers appear a bit stumpy to my eye.

Now for the nasty job of cutting the channels for marking the pattern.

Intermission

Quilterie has been  posting for 18 months.  Due to a slight hiatus in actual sewing activity I thought it might be time to slow release some older quilts. 

I really enjoyed making the specimen below.  I had to concentrate completely on placement or the courthouse steps would have resembled "Law and Disorder".   That eventually became its name.

Oops!.. Sorry about the wonky photo.

While I was making "Law and Disorder", I came to realise that the greatest interest lay with the large scale fabrics.  Although the colour palette was planned to be olive green for the centres and reds for the lanterns, I learned how to extend the idea of red.  There are  reds, pinks, oranges, burgundies, purples, tans and brown.  The original idea came from a picture from a Kaffe Fassett book.  Now there are so many of them, I can't remember which one, but it was one of his earliest.

It has been long-arm machined.  I wanted a wavy pattern because I thought there were too many straight lines in the piecing, so the surface looks like a topographic map.

 You may be able to see by the creases through the centre that this little baby (70" x 62") has been curled up in a dark cupboard, resting for some time.  It's time to bring it back out, don't you think?

If you have not noticed,  I have added a small piece to my left sidebar regarding Pinterest.  After reading a few blogposts  (thanks, Marianne)  regarding pinning photos I feel it may not be as innocuous as it appears.  If anyone knows the code to opt out of having your photos pinned it would be nice if you could share it.