Square in a Square

Square in a Square
12" x 12"

This is my little donation quilt for SAQA.  Still deciding if I want to go around the edge a few more times with floss.  It is another in a series of small art quilts made from my batiks.  In this one I also dyed the batting.  It shows through the circles in the center and around the edges of the blocks.  I love the color and the texture!  The 100% cotton batting really dyes bright!  Such fun!  One thing that I really liked about working on this small piece (aside from the relatively quick completion!), was that the dyed batting was so easy to stitch through, soft as butter!

In selecting a name for this little quilt, it references a traditional pattern, called square in a square, but that pattern has each successive layer of a square turned on point (a 45 degree angle).  I made one of these during my early quilt making days for my son.  I need to get a photo of it before it is completely worn out!

Group projects

Group projects
I never thought I would make a worm.  But, here it is.

I am working on another group project and my panel is loaded with birds and fish and little houses and a big tree.  Photos will come later.  It's funny because I never would have thought to make something like this without the invitation to participate.  One of the many values of working on group projects!  Thanks Frances!

ps.  Love the bird, wish I had made it!  I just cut it out of some fabric that I already had, very cute!

Brown Chair and New Pillows

Brown Chair and New Pillows

It was a brown chair with beautiful wood and a gorgeous tapestry fabric for the chair and the pillows.  Though I loved the chair, even with the cat damage on the back, it doesn't go with my turquoise floors and Ikea spiral rug.  I would really like to reupholster it, but I was cleaning out my closet and found this kid size play parachute.  LOVE the colors, so I tossed it over the chair.  And then I made these two little quilted samples (here and here) into pillows.  Love, love, love it!  And, it goes perfectly with our casual and often messy lifestyle!

Fun buttons for the backs!

Blue Circles

Blue Circles
I was just playing with different tools to easily stamp out big circles in batik.  This is one piece that I did as an experiment, and I was looking for something to practice quilting to get back into the swing of things.  I had already done this one.  And since I showed the beginning of this project on this post, I thought I would update it's progress. The first was completed so quickly that I thought it would be fun to do another one (and it was!).  So many of my projects are rather big and intricate.  Sometimes, it is nice to do something quick and simple.
Here is the initial layout of fabrics:  I like the way it looks so natural with several of my Urban Landscapes fabrics!

 And then I layered it, and machine quilted.  Then added some hand stitching.

Not today, and probably not tomorrow, but some day I will either put a binding on it, or make it into a nice big pillow.  I just can't decide!  I do love the texture of the hand quilting with embroidery floss though!