Strawberry Quilt; or a Suzani for Susannah

The challenge of having a creative blog is that, well, one has to be creative! And while I have hundreds of ideas swirling around and documented in a notebook, the reality of my job and children limits my physical creativity.

Take this quilt, for instance: I began it last spring and only now have it ready for binding. But even that took some short cuts. If you've read this blog before, you might recognize the middle of this quilt--I made it from the tiny bags that I posted in an early spring entry. My grand idea was to make up a hundred or so tiny bags and test their sell-a-bility at a benefit for pediatric cancer. But after making about five of them, I realized that I don't like making things in bulk--I guess I prefer designing and producing one-offs. Sooo . . . I dismantled all bags except one and turned the resulting squares into the above quilt. The fabric includes Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, Heather Bailey, and some "unknowns." The border is a batik and I decided to punctuate the quilt with appliqued tiny and large circles cut from Liberty fabric.

Although I usually take a firm stance on hand sewing and quilting everything, I've relaxed my impossible standards. If I were to hand quilt this piece, it would be completed when my now two-year-old lad is in college. And I don't want to wait that long. So I knotted the three layers together with cotton yarn and buried the ends. I hope that the result looks like French knots!

The back uses a large piece of Amy Butler fabric, the same batik border, and more Liberty circles to tie the front and back together thematically. I'm calling this a "strawberry quilt" because the batik reminds me of strawberry plants. But the circles remind me of Suzani designs, so I'm also calling this a "Suzani for Susannah," my middle lassie.

I've been mulling over the binding, and wanted to use something sensual, so I've ordered some rosy silk dupioni to try. Perhaps I should have selected a lavender. but we'll see. I guess that one can't have too much dupioni in different colors on hand?! Let me know what you think--if anyone chances to read this after my too-long hiatus.

Give Me Liberty (fabric) or Give Me (more) Liberty Fabric

I am madly in love with Liberty of London fabrics. I've been to London twice, and during each visit, went to the beautiful Liberty store every day, spending an hour or two in the different, wonderfully bohemian departments.

This quilt, a WIP, represents much of my cache of Liberty. Every day I'd buy a little bit--usually quarter metre cuts--and gaze at them til the next morning when I'd set out again. I simply couldn't buy everything during one visit--it would have been like a sugar overdose and I would have collapsed in a pile of fabric. So: I purchased in installments, which kept me returning day after day after day. And happy.

I find it tremendously difficult to cut into Liberty fabric but really wanted to create a fabric collage, so I decided on largeish squares and rectangles, so as to keep the integrity of the floral patterns intact. I began this quilt when I had only one child and found it difficult enough then to do all the hand piecing and quilting (I designed a maze pattern for the squares, a simple grid for the rectangles).

And so, and so, my quilt is about 1-2-3/4 quilted, five years and two more children later. If I complete the Bento Box quilt top (below), I think I'll tie it, because I would love to finish a project during this decade. I have more unfinished quilts too, these begun when I was a graduate student, sans children, and still needed more time for the intricate quilting I had started. I'll show them soon.

Sister Embroidery

A few months ago I made this embroidery of my two daughters, inspired by an 1818 oil painting by Jacob Eichholtz of the Ragan sisters, housed at the National Gallery of Art in DC and collected in a lovely book, Young America: Childhood in 19th-Century Art and Culture.

I just LOVE nineteenth-century formal and folk portraits of children and have been embroidering some for my own three wee ones. The girls have a couple in cross-stitch and now this one, with Liberty of London edging. The boy's is yet to come, but perhaps this summer I'll have some time.

I'll probably frame this one day, a pillow being too fragile for our rambunctious household.

Bento Box quilt

I've never been a matchy-matchy person. The very idea of an "outfit"--you know, something that's meant to go together, or something that's carefully thought out--makes me squirm. I think I fall into more of the English Eccentric mode, happy to wear mismatching patterns, content to be put together in a non-put-together way.

So I was very happy to dig into my stash of fabric and begin a completely unplanned quilt. I just don't like going to the fabric shop and choosing fabrics that will complement each other--too matchy-matchy for me. Rather, I like "found" fabrics, things I've had in my cupboard for awhile that engage in various conversations with other fabrics.

Here too, I'd rather not use groupings from one fabric designer. When I see quilts in shop windows, and they are supposed to have a bohemian flair but all fabrics come from the same designer, then all of a sudden it doesn't seem so radical to mix the plaid with the flowers because--they're from the same color chart.

For this Bento Box quilt top, I've used my three favs--Anna Maria, Heather, and Amy (see links in an earlier post) and am adding bits from other, nameless collections too. I love how all the fabrics work together, especially because they aren't supposed to do so . . .

Tiny Cakes

Inspired by Bella Dia's sumptous new spring pincushions, I decided to try my hand at a couple last night. Et voila! Two tiny felted cakes. The little pink cake is about 1.5 inches by 1 inch and the larger purple cake is 2.5 inches by 2.5. Were I to make some more (and I think I shall), I'd add flowers to the side of the large cake. You can also see my miss cavendish label peeking out from the folds.

I found these cakes surprisingly easy to make--they just take sharp embroidery scissors, colored floss, wool felt, some lentils for stuffing, and your imagination. The purple cake shows french knots at the center of flat flowers; the pink cake has gathered flowers with both french knots and a mini rosebud center made of rolled felt. If I can dream up different kinds of flowers, I'll be sure to plant them in future cakes. So what's for dessert?

Jewel Bags

Here are some tiny jewel bags I made this weekend, using fabric from Heather Bailey, Anna Maria Horner, and Amy Butler. The "tree" photo is supposed to give you a peek inside, to see the contrasting lining.

These tiny bags would be terrific for holding some special jewelry or, as a stylish friend pointed out, your cell phone (which actually fits inside nicely!).

I've also included a "before" photos of all the fabric (enough for 19 bags) all stitched and ironed flat. Then with more careful stitching, lots of turning inside out and back, a little hand embroidery, and beribboning, they're ready!

Patchwork Scarves

Today is a particularly frigid day-- school for the girls is delayed yet again--so naturally I thought of bringing scarves outside to style them on the picket fence! Last weekend the girls thought they might like a new scarf each, so we looked through my stash of fabric and they picked out three colors to use.

I've always sewed by hand--pieced quilts, stitched my other bags on this blog--but I recently decided that using a machine is not a creative crime. In fact, it can make the pieces more durable! And I can certainly make them more quickly.

The result is two new scarves in an evening! I lined both of them in soft nursery rhyme flannel. I think I'll add an extra flannel layer to future scarves to increase their coziness. And I like to put a little tab on the scarf to slide one end through.

The girls have been putting them to good use in this snow.