for the love of nani IRO

Finished the quilt I started earlier this summer. A selection of Nani IRO prints and muslin hand quilted with embroidery thread.

Red & White Quilt

This quilt top had been sitting some time up in the attic and once in a while I think about how many things I've left undone (eek!) and decided this one would be an easy enough one to finish so a few weeks back I did. I've had very little time this summer to work on projects but this one was just quilt and bind and it's a strip quilt so really easy.

It's is a lap size and it's stitched in the ditch with a Nani Iro binding which I just love.

wip- quilt

nani iro hot pads

Beautiful, gorgeous Nani Iro prints. I feel so at ease looking at these designs. They are so soft to the eye and painterly.

Some simple household items, hot pads, 8 (2 of each print).

liberty of london patchwork quilt

I'm slowly moving through my to do list and happy to have this lovely Liberty of London patchwork quilt finished. As you can see, I have many small pieces of Liberty and this pattern on pattern is quite stunning combined like this. I feel quite attached to these small pieces thinking of all the things that I've sewn with them. Clothes for me and for my daughter, my shop, other quilts and accessories. I think maybe some doll clothes will be made with some of these as well.

The squares are each 5" squares simply cut and sewn together in strips. 9 squares across and 11 squares long making it 45" x 55".

liberty patchwork

All the Liberty!

quilted pouches

Another project I saw at Purl Soho was these gorgeous quilted pouches. I have been needing some so this was a great purposeful project and surprisingly easy to sew. I love the fresh summer colors of the Robert Kaufman fabric and the diagonal quilting. The quilting is done at a 60 degree angle. I set to making these up yesterday and am so happy with the way they turned out.

star quilt

Thought I'd pop in to show you something that's been keeping my hands busy in the sewing room.This quilt sewn with unbleached muslin and natural dyed fabric. The size is 40"x 52"
It needs some kinks worked out and a good iron. I am looking forward to quilting this one up.

quilt projects with natural dyes #1

I'm working on a few quilts with natural dyed muslin. Here is one that I photographed recently on my lap which I am almost finished hand quilting.

bright spots in the snow quilt

I am finished with this quilt using the snowball block and all solids. The quilting took some time for me because my machine is not cut out for quilts this size and it was a pain to get it through but I did it and it's bound.

The specifics of this quilt: it measures 60" x 78". The blocks are 10" square and there are 20 of them. The sashing in between and on the border are 4 1/2" wide. The fabric is Robert Kaufman in Snow and the colors pieces are a mix of Purl Soho's Spectrum Bundles

This was a fun quilt to make... choosing the color combinations and seeing it all pop against the white. I think it will be very cheerful on cold days.

durand hedden herb garden and a quilt project

On Tuesdays the children and I water and play over at an herb garden behind a historical home in my town. We like to volunteer here in the summer and it is a special place for them to learn, play in the creek, walk over a tiny bridge and make little bouquets. The beds are really beautiful here and I will be sure to take more photos of it over the coming weeks and perhaps introduce you to some new herbs.

Believe me, I know I owe you a post about my garden this year and I promise to get to it soon.

I am close to finishing this quilt top using the snowball block and all solids. This quilt is more modern and graphic then I normally make and I liked pairing up the colors and seeing how bright it pops against the white.

flying geese mini quilt

This is a mini quilt (24"x24") using the flying geese block. The theme was red white and blue and I used a mix of cotton, muslin, feedback, chambray and linen.  There are 72 'geese' sewn into 9 blocks. I think my favorite fabric in here has got to be the blue with white daisies which is the one made out of the vintage feedsack material. Though Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope is so vibrant and fun to use as well.

primary dot duvet

Polka Dots in Primary Colors!

I was happy to find that I still had enough of this print to make something with it that would not be outgrown. Not that I don't love the dresses I have made with it, I do. The Nani Iro double gauze is really a beautiful fabric and one I particularly like to use again and again.

As a bonus this is a quick project that can easily go from start to finish in a few hours. The instructions can be found here.

*This week I have spent a great deal of time in the garden. It's slow this year but, things are starting to improve and come to life. My garden club is having their annual plant sale this week so I have also been helping out with that.

Have a good weekend. x

broken dishes quilt

I had this quilt top done in October and just got around to finishing it last week. It is machine quilted and I used the same linen blend fabric for the binding.

The pattern is from the Purl Bee though I changed it up a bit and made mine larger.
Some more details can be found here.

Sewing the blocks is always the fun part for me and I also like hand sewing the binding to the back at the end. It's the middle stages of quilting I am not overally fond of. Unless, I am handquilting with sashiko stitches and thread because that is my favorite type of hand quilting. Perhaps I would feel differently about machine quilting if I had another sewing machine that handles it better then mine does.

I have so many in the works projects so finishing up something big feels extra nice and is one way to make more space both in my craft room and in my mind.

It's all ready to take a spin in the washing machine to get fluffed up a bit..

It may be Spring on the calendar but I'm still piling the quilts at night.

sashiko mat

I took inspiration from one of my pins to make up a freehand design with interlocking circles and embroidered a little quilted mat to rest my mug on or to use as a potholder. I embroidered on Kiyohara linen blend fabric and used turquoise sashiko thread and then bound it with the same material. It is nice and thick since it is three layers of fabric with batting in between. I have some more fabric cut out for another one. It would be nice to have a set of these.

friday patchwork

Playing around with the simple 9 patch and trying to decide if I want a whole quilt of it. I'm not sure. I've always wanted to make a red and white quilt. If you know me it's probably pretty obvious that red is my favorite color.

I often look back at my photos from this exhibit which was and is still so inspiring.

Have a good weekend. Tomorrow we celebrate Matthew's 8th birthday!

broken dishes

Broken Dishes is the name of this quilt pattern and it has been my sewing project the past few weeks. The project idea hails from the Purl Bee and I have followed it except I omitted one step making my quilt top larger.

Here is a diagram of the step I skipped

This shows the 5 1/4 " square and instructs you to cut both ways diagonally. For my quilt I only cut one way yielding bigger squares. So, instead of 4" squares you would get 6" squares and instead of the quilt being 40" x40" it is 48" x 48". The amount of squares in the original is 100 and mine is 48.

I fell in love with this quilt on the Purl Bee because I adore the color scheme of the Kiyohara Linen Blend solids and have enjoyed working with this fabric previously. While cutting and piecing this top I imagined a whole children's line in this beautiful fabric. It has such a soft hand and would make gorgeous spring/summer clothing.

Well, now that the quilt top is finished I will soon begin the process of hand quilting it.