Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Cleaning Away

We work so hard in our sewing rooms. The mess is as constant as the quilts coming out of it.

This past week, I spent many hours cleaning and reorganizing my fabrics. It's overwhelming, distracting and rewarding at the same time. Found many old projects. mostly tops that need to be turned into quilts and few UFOs. I did find a long lost block from 1998 I was looking for a while back. I was a new quilter trying to teach myself how to applique. I drafted my own pattern looking at pictures of old quilts and followed the instructions in some book on applique.

 Oak Leaf and  Reel.


You can tell from the wrinkles how neglected this poor block has been.


And the back..

I didn't know I was supposed to tuck those ends of the thread in between the layers.


I am certain I used the freezer paper for this block. Why else would I have cut the back of the applique?

Nothing like the rhythm of the stitching in hand work. Now the question is, what to do with this block? I might just put it on the back of some quilt as a label.

Here is what's happening in the sewing room.. Fabric, machine, vacuum cleaner, scraps, containers... everything everywhere. And, I am not done just yet.



My friend Christine and Kelly went through major cleaning of their studios. I do this heavy cleaning only once a year and every year I have come out on the other side with a fun scrap quilt.

This is one UFO that was easy to finish.  
Half of it was pieced together so I took a break from cleaning and finished the top. It was probably an ugly fabric swap challenge. Why else would I have fabrics like these in my quilt?


I actually had bought some of these fabrics!!! 

There were some pretty scraps given to me.

Like this blue batik.


and this golden-rust print.


I like the way this quilt turned out in spite of all the uglies in there. It's twin size quilt, good for a chair by the window.

The Green Belt 60'' x 84''

There were few kaffe fabrics added to the pile as pick me up and I think they served well doing just that. 

This distraction from cleaning was pretty nice. 

I see a bit of machine quilting in near future. I named this quilt, The Greenbelt. More about it when I finish the quilt.

Back to cleaning!



Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Sunday Paper Done!

A finish!
It's about time!
Back in Feb. 2012, I never thought it would take this long to finish this quilt.These past few months, many times I wished I had heard my friends' suggestions of machine quilting it. It was difficult to see where my stitches were headed at times with all busy prints but now that it's all done, I am glad I hand quilted it.

Got little carried away with pictures today too.


 They match with my quilt books.



I just quilted in the ditch around the hexagons. In certain light they look embossed.


This was a fun quilt to make. I definitely will consider making another version in future.

Today's forecast was for the first snow of the season and it arrived as promised with wind blowing it everywhere. Well, it was more like flurries! It was gone before I could say, "First snow of the season" 
so no snow in the picture but it's stitched in this quilt for sure :0

Glad it's done and near the couch.. I will be using it while going through my books for inspirations for next quilt. 
  

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