Tag Archives: quilting

Summer home decorations

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As soon as I saw August Wren’s “Chasing the Sun” fabric collection for Dear Stella, especially the panel print, I knew I had to make a quilt with it. The flower prints were also perfect for some nice summer themed table runners and other home decorations. I continued my habit of making a table runner for the dining room table and also buffet. I also made coordinating pillows for my living room and a front door hanger. All of this matches the wonderful throw blanket with the gorgeous panel.

Summer themed table runner for my dining room table

Summer themed table runner for my buffet

Summer themed front door hanger

Summer themed pillow covers for my living room

Quilt made from “Chasing the Sun” panel and coordinating fabric

Bargello Quilt

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I made my first bargello quilt. I have been exploring the different patterns that can be formed using a bargello technique. For my first, I decided to so something simple, and I designed it to look like a parabola. I also quilted it by connecting the corners of the pieces to emphasize the parabolic shape. I like parabolic shapes. Also I love fluid dynamics, and the velocity profile of laminar flow forms a parabola. While I named this quilt Parabola. I could have named it laminar flow. Also, I am a nerd.

All the fabric is from Island Batik, Gemstones and Rainbow Days series.

Parabola quilt, a bargello quilt

Parabola quilt, a bargello quilt

Parabola quilt, a bargello quilt

Winter decorations

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I’ve been enjoying making holiday decorations, mainly in the form of table runners, pillow covers, and a front door hanger. While it is currently carnival season, I was not quite ready to put up my Mardi Gras decorations, so I decided to make some season decorations for winter. Essentially the decorations are snow themed. For the dining room table runner, I designed a pattern that is supposed to look like three snowflakes. I am not sure if that is clear, but I like how it turned out.

Front door hanger with machine embroidery

Dining room table runner, it is supposed to look like three snowflakes

Dining room table runner

Buffet table runner

Buffet table runner

Pillow covers with machine embroidery

Kaffe Fassett: The Power of Pattern

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I’m in London, and before traveling here, I heard about a great exhibit that I put on the top of my to do list. London’s Fashion and Textile Museum has a temporary exhibit called Kaffe Fassett: The Power of Pattern. The exhibit explores Fassett’s world, with original artworks from invited makers as well as Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably and Philip Jacobs. It also has textiles works, photographs and archival material to further educate on his work. I love many of his fabrics, and the first quilt I created was with his fabric. Thus, I knew I would like this exhibit.

The exhibit is wonderful. I spent the most time studying the works of art by artists using Kaffe Fassett textiles. They are wonderful, and some of them are just breathtaking. I spent quite a bit of time studying them trying to understand how they were created. They inspired me to want to create my own art although I am not skilled enough yet to create works like the ones I saw. Below are some photos of some of the works that most captivated me.

Haze Kilim; designed by Liza Prior Lucy and Kaffe Fassett, made by Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

Tickled Pink by Susan Carlson (designed, maker, quilter)

Tickled Pink by Susan Carlson (designed, maker, quilter) [close up]

Garden Reflections by Vicky Wozniak (designer and maker) and quilted by Jamie Wallen

Levitate by Danny Amazonas (designer, maker, quilter)

Levitate by Danny Amazonas (designer, maker, quilter) [close up]

Levitate by Danny Amazonas (designer, maker, quilter) [close up]

Grevy’s Zebra by Sophie Standing (designer, maker)

Grevy’s Zebra by Sophie Standing (designer, maker) [close up]

Grevy’s Zebra by Sophie Standing (designer, maker) [close up]

Tusker Bull by Sophie Standing (designer, maker)

Gypsy Dancer by Danny Amazonas (designer, maker, quilter)

Christmas decorations

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I am thoroughly getting into decorating my house for various holiday by sewing decorations. Similar to other holidays, I sewed a table runner for the dining room table and for the buffet. For the buffet table runner, I quilted it with a snowflake stitch that came with my sewing machine. I free-motion quilted the dining room table runner. For the dining room table runner, I used all the triangle fabric pieces left over from sewing the Christmas trees on the top to make part of the back. I also sewed pillow covers for a pair of pillows that I switch out the covers for each season. Finally, I sewed a door decoration hanger for my front door. Most of the fabrics are from Dear Stella.

Buffet Christmas table runner

Fabric in buffet Christmas table runner

Christmas dining room table runner

Back of Christmas dining room table runner

Christmas pillow covers

Christmas front door hanger

Thanksgiving decorations

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I found some fabric that I loved from Dear Stella that is Thanksgiving and fall themed. I used it to make table runners, pillows, and a front door hanger for Thanksgiving. I created just a simple design for the table runners. I used machine fabric appliqué for the pillows and the front door hanger. The appliqué pattern is from OESD.

Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Close up of Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Thanksgiving table runner for buffet

Thanksgiving pillows

Thanksgiving front door hanger

Late Summer Door Hanger

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I have really liked decorating my front door for various holidays such as Mardi Gras and Easter. Last month I used some fabric from my Independence Day table runners and the Thanksgiving table runners I have started making to create a door decoration for later summer. No holiday to celebrate. Just a celebration of the season and flowers. I found a nice sunflower appliqué, and I added a button to the center, and it created a perfect focus for the hanger.

Late summer door hanger

Sunflower applique on late summer door hanger

Independence Day Table Runners

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Once again, I made table runners for a holiday. The main reason I made them for the 4th of July is simply, as is often the case, I found wonderful fabric with which I wanted to do something.

The narrow table runner is like the Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter table runners I made and is for the buffet. I just used strips of various red, white, and blue fabrics. I used a straight stitch alternating with a star stitch that came preprogrammed on my sewing machine for the quilting. The stars did not exactly space correctly. I am going to buy a dual-feed foot for my machine that can do a wide stitch, as I think that may be (part of) the problem.

The larger, wider table runner is an original design and is for the dining room table. It is obviously inspired by the U.S.A. flag. The proportions are similar but not exactly the same as the flag, as I altered the proportions a bit to make it easier to use 2.5 inch strips. I used a straight stitch to quilt the stripe portion of the flag. I originally wanted to buy an embroidery quilting pattern that I could use for the star field, but I could not find one that was just plain stars, and I don’t know how to design an embroidery pattern, so I ultimately just free-motion quilted stars on the blue field. I kind of like the way it turned out, but I also kind of wish it were a little more uniform. I made a duplicate flag table runner that hasn’t been quilted yet, and I am going to wait to quilt it until I can decide how to make it a little bit more uniform. [I made a duplicate as well as some extra of the more narrow table runner because I have excess fabric. My plan is to eventually try to sell them once I figure out how to do that.]

USA flag table runner

USA flag table runner closeup

Independence Day table runner

Independence Day table runner

Independence Day table runner closeup

Fabric Landscapes

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I have started to just experiment and play with fabric for the purposes of not creating something practical, like a table runner, but art. I have bought fabric, a lot fo fabric really, that I love because the fabric itself is beautiful, but I did not exactly buy it for the purpose of creating something specific. I bought a book “Intuitive Color & Design” by Jean Wells that among other topics discusses cutting fabric without measuring it and just creating.

I wanted to try that a bit with some of the beautiful fabrics I have bought. I started first with a bunch of green and blue batik fabrics. I cut and sewed them in unmeasured strips to sort of resemble a landscape or perhaps something else. I just sort of cut and sewed them in a manner I liked. I then glued the whole piece to a pre-stretched 10 inch by 10 inch canvas.

Blue and green free cut landscape

I rather liked the way it looked, so then I tried something a bit less abstract. I own several paintings by amazing artists whose paintings are quite literally three dimensional. I have both a pointillism and floralism painting by Sara O’Connor. I love her use of color and the way she literally gets the paint to stand up off the canvas. I also have a painting by Diego Lukezic, which he calls floral sculptural paintings. I think the term is appropriate as the paint stands off the canvas. I used their paintings, or at least the ones hanging on my walls, as inspiration for an experimentation with fabric. I cut and sewed a bit more of a simple landscape as before. Although I used a beautiful pattered batik fabric for the foreground that resembles greenery with leaves and flowers. I then cut, sewed, and sculpted fabric strips to somewhat resemble flowers. I hand stitched them to the landscape fabric, and I also sewed a glass bead for the center of each flower. I then glued it to a 10 inch by 10 inch pre-stretched canvas as before, but for this particular piece, and I glued a piece a batting between the fabric and the caves, and I thought that would help soften any issues with the fabric from the flowers sewed onto the landscape. I am rather happy with the way it came out. I want to play some more with this type of art, but it was enjoyable to create.

Blue and green landscape with roses

Up close view of roses on landscape