Twins

I am almost done with that other quilt I shared in previous post. I am going to have to wait to bind it until I get home again.

I basted two quilts before leaving for San Diego. Small quilts don't really take that long to quilt, especially when you have lot of time on your hands.

I am really glad these are small quilts too. After moving to California, I have missed seeing my quilts on the walls. This door in our apartment has become quite the feature lately. I have taken pictures of different quilts. You may have seen a couple of them on instagram. The light is always perfect here!
I will have to bring this quilt back here in the apartment once it is bound and labeled.

Once I started quilting, it progressed organically. It started to look like steam rising on a hot day.

Then I decided to change it up a bit and stitched with red thread. Quilts made with used clothing are so soft, the needle runs through it like butter.

You never know what tomorrow might bring.  I may add few more stitches to it to I will start on the second quilt.

This second quilt is made of an old shirt, a dress and few scraps of my husband's shirt.

Both these quilts were made at the same time. I can call them twins. Funny how they got basted at the same time and on the same backing too!

When I have smaller quilts, I layer them together. It makes it easier to quilt on the edges without having to use larger piece of batting or backing.

Do you ever do that?

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!

He said... She said...

"That's my shirt!" My husband said when he looked at this little quilt. He was referring to the stripe fabric in the quilt.

I smiled and responded, "That's just a bit of your shirt. Rest of it is another quilt and yet another quilt."  I was a little surprised that he even remembered the fact that he owned this shirt. It was so old! And, amused at how quickly he reacted when he saw it.

I just picked up sewing after almost three weeks of break from sewing. Bad virus, missed the AQS show, missed seeing my friends and most of all missed sewing all these last few weeks. After three long weeks none of the 'old' ongoing projects seemed appealing. 

Now, I am stitching memories of past few weeks in this tiny piece.

"Don't you think your shirt is in a good place?" I asked.

He agreed with a smile.