Sunday, August 15, 2010

Quilt to complete the kitchen makeover

Buddy & I painted the kitchen over a year ago. At that time, I made some temporary window treatments. Then, about a month ago, I made some new valances for the kitchen. Next, I decided to recreate a quilt from a book that I checked out from the library called Color harmony for quilts : a quiltmaker's guide to exploring color / Weeks Ringle, Bill Kerr.
Author: Ringle, Weeks. Imprint:Gloucester, MA : Rockport Publishers, 2002. (Buddy's been doing a good job of seeing that I make it to the library to check out books instead of going to Barnes & Noble.) One of the quilts featured in the book is called Raindrops. I recalled really liking the quilt and its color scheme from when I checked the book out in the past. I decided to make a similar quilt for the kitchen wall which had a large empty space above the chest of drawers that I refinished a few years ago.

I began by ordering a selection solid cottons from e-quilter.com. I began by trying to arrange 12" squares and quickly determined that there must be a better approach. I then cut out small 3"x3" squares and quarter circles and arranged them until I was relatively satisfied with the color scheme. It seems that this should be rather simple given that I had a book to follow but I found that wasn't necessarily the case. Here's my 9"x12" mini quilt.

Next, I made the quilt top out of 12"x12" squares and 6"quarter circles. At this point, I'm still second guessing the color choices.


Then, I prepared the quilt sandwich and began machine quilting. All of the quarters, halves and circles were quilted first. These are supposed to resemble the ripples caused by raindrops falling on water.


I then free-motioned quilted the remainder of the quilt using a stippled design. I began liking the color choice more once some texture was added.

After sewing on the binding, I washed and dryed the quilt. This is the point at which the textures really emerge.

The quilt is displayed in my kitchen on a decorative drapery rod (thanks to Buddy's help). I think it illustrates my kitchen's color scheme very clearly. It reminds me of sea glass & good times on and near the water.
In this photo, you can see the aloe vera plant on the left that Karen gave me a few years ago. It seems quite happy because I have followed her directions and have given it little water. The plant on the right grew from a cutting that I got from the Christmas Cactus that belonged to Buddy's Mom.

Guess this means that the kitchen makeover that began over a year ago is somewhat complete.




Monday, April 26, 2010

Quilting

I spent some time over the weekend playing with some fabrics that I purchased at the AQS Quilt Show that Mom and I went to in 2004 in Paducah, Kentucky. The fabrics are a bright combination of pinks, yellows, and oranges. I'm concerned that the quilt will be too "peachy" especially with the slashing that I've chosen. I may have to make a trip to the fabric store to find something that will provide some contrast. (The camera really helps drive this point home!)

I also gathered fabrics to create a pickle dish quilt that is featured on the cover of Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance, a book that I found at my local library. This quilt will feature some of the batiks that I've collected over time.


Although the pattern looked difficult, I decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.




Here is 1/2 of a "pickle dish."




Only 71 to go!




This one may take a while. The dishes are the easy part. Stitching in the corners and the center will be more time consuming and challenging.


Let the fun begin.



























Friday, January 1, 2010

Let It Snow!


Here are the snowmen that I made using recycled bottles that Carolyn found at an estate sale and some old earrings that I got from Mom. They are probably as close as I'll get to seeing real snowmen at my house this year...even though I know some folks that would like to share some of the snow that they've already endured with me.
These little guys were based upon directions from a magazine called Cloth Paper Scissors that can be accessed via http://www.beadingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2009/11/30/is-there-life-beyond-jewelry.aspx