Eastern Inspired Orchid Wallhanging

I happened to see this earth-tone orchid panel while doing some online fabric shopping (not an infrequent occurrence!), and decided to make it for a thank-you gift in January (2013). I cut up the panel to fit into a "Window To China" pattern that had been a freebie a few years back during a quilt shop hop in Honolulu, HI. The sashing is a batik that I also purchased online, to go with the panel. Part of the reason that it took SO long to finish this wallhanging is that I was undecided for a long time about what I wanted for the quilting and embellishing. To keep the wallhanging having clean lines, I ended up just doing simple stitch-in-the ditch for the quilting. And, after looking around for many months for embellishments, nothing "spoke to me". And, I decided that loading the wallhanging up with embellishments would detract from the minimalist feel that I wanted for the piece. So, I just ordered some dried willow branches (you truly can get anything online!), for use as a decorative hanger.

Eastern Inspired Orchid Wallhanging

Little Purses

My "once removed first cousins", Kaitlyn & Bailey (ages 11 & 4), came from Montatna to California for a visit in August -- and I made these little purses for them:

Purse for Kaitlyn -- A Hawaiian hibiscus flower button closure, and some bling beading.

Interior of Kaitlyn's purse: "Made with love and kisses" label, and cell phone pocket with hearts.

Purse for Bailey -- A butterfly button and rickrack embleshment on front.

Interior of Bailey's purse: "Made with love & kisses" label, and velcro closure.

Starting small: New potholders project

We have been in desperate need of new potholders, and I think they also make great gifts. I happened to see some cute patterns on Pinterest, and decided this would make a good small project for returning to doing some sewing/quilting. I used Stash Happy Patchwork's pattern for a Retro Potholder as inspiration for the first ones that I made, and then later I tried Sew4Home's Kitchen Confections pattern for Patchwork Oven Mitts for the last pair that I made (which is the style that I think we'll end up preferring, so I may make some more of this kind). This was a great project for using up small-ish pieces of fabric and left-over batting. For each potholder I used one layer of Insul-Bright, with a layer of Warm&Natural above and below (for a total of three layers of batting); the over-hand pieces just have one layer of Warm&Natural.

I struggled and experimented with different bindings ... first I tried doing zig-zag machine stitches on the binding, which came out OK on a set of lime-green fishy-themed potholders that I made as a housewarming gift for Kim of A Peach In Stitches:

Lime-green fishy-themed potholders, with zig-zag machine stitched binding.

Other side of the lime-green fishy-themed potholders.

Some kitchen towels that I added decorative fabric to, to go with the potholders.

Potholders and towels all bundled up for a housewarming gift.

My Mom's kitchen theme is strawberries, so this meant digging into the stash of strawberry fabrics! I then tried to do the binding using purchased double-fold tape (potholder in lower right corner, below) ... which worked OK, but was really difficult (and not very neat looking) because the potholders are so thick. So, for the remainder I reverted to my usual double-fold binding with hand stitching on the back for the finish. I had hoped to avoid doing any hand stitching, but this oldie-but-a-goodie produced the best final product. I didn't put any hanging loops on ours because we keep our potholders in a drawer and I find the loops sometimes get in the way when you're actually using the potholder.

A bunch of new strawberry potholders for our kitchen -- fronts. The Sew4Home Patchwork Oven Mitts are the pair in the lower middle.

A bunch of new strawberry potholders for our kitchen -- backs.

Phoenix rising, with a belated happy July 4th

I've been mostly away from quilting for quite awhile, but am starting to return. My new mascot?: A phoenix rising!

At the Foothill Quilters Guild Show in Auburn, CA last April (2012), I had picked up this cute little July 4th wallhanging in their home store (for $4!). I endeavored to make and finish it this year, for the month of July. I didn't quite make my deadline, but it's finished now. The fabrics in the kit were very nice, and I just did stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. We'll enjoy it for a few days and then put it away for next year.

Patriotic wallhanging, finished August 2013.

Happy Hollydays

Last year my Mom and I made "funky trees", and for this year's holiday season I made a 12"x12" decorative piece to go with the metalwork display that I introduced in the Welcome Fall blog. Again, I used a pattern from Amber Fenton Designs:

We have two full bins of miscellaneous holiday fabrics in "the stash", so I drew my choices from that. I used the blanket stitch for some of the red and green leaf applique. But, because this is a very small piece just for displaying, I didn't think it really needed a lot of quilting or securing of the raw-edge applique pieces. I also experimented with some free-motion quilting -- and unfortunately was not very happy with either the experience or the results. I have a number of other applique quilts that are nearing completion ... and I'm starting to think that I'm just going to have to save them until there's a long-arm quilting machine in my life!

12"x12" decorative holiday quilt

Decorative holiday quilt in metalwork display.

Happy Hollydays!!

Mumbo Gumbo

In 2004 we went to Disneyland for my 35th birthday, and while in the Los Angeles area in January we also attended the Road To California Quilt Show -- where I bought one of my first quilt patterns, called Mumbo Gumbo from Pie In The Sky Quilts. It's another project that's perfect for using fabric scraps. Since I've recently been rather obsessed with trying to "put a dent in" our scrap baskets (introduced in 'Got Scraps?'), I finally started -- and finished(!) -- this pattern.

Mumbo Gumbo quilt top

My version is slightly different from the pattern, in that each "log" is of a different fabric -- this allowed for strip piecing, which was much speedier. I had started out matching logs (see the set of two blocks framing the center), but the remainder of the quilt is from randomly selected fabrics. I remember many of these fabrics from previous projects, all the way back to when my Mom was sewing during my childhood. So, this quilt is also kind of a memory quilt.

And no, our scrap baskets are still not empty! In fact, they're as full as ever, sigh. I need to keep a Mumbo Gumbo project continuously going!

Update, June 2013: I decided to get the Mumbo Gumbo quilt finished -- so I chose a marbled yellow wide backing fabric and sent it to B&B Machine Quilting in Oroville, CA for just a simple all-over large stipple. It came out great (the quilting doesn't detract from the pieced design, which is what I wanted), and I decided to just fold over the backing with a machine zig-zag stitch for the binding (very quick!).

Mumbo Gumbo quilt finished! June 2013.

The Eyes Have It

Last month, my Mom and I enjoyed two very full and fun days at the Pacific International Quilt Show in Santa Clara, CA: One day for viewing all of the show quilts, and a second day for shopping the 300 vendors. Of course before the shopping day, we had surveyed our massive collection of un-finished objects (UFOs) and promised ourselves that we wouldn't buy any new projects. Well, you know that promise is a difficult one to keep, especially when you find something that's "just TOooOO CuuuUUUuute!!! That was the case with the "Eleven Owls and One Moon" small wallhanging quilt by Morning Glory Productions at the Quiltin' Cousins booth; it was love at first sight! The sample -- of small 3" blocks of winking and peeking owls in 1930s fabrics -- reminded me of my Aerie Parrot (he often peeks out at me from behind his toys).

My Mom bought the pre-cut iron-ons for me, which are of 1930s fabrics, and I then used scraps of polka-dot fabrics for the background and miscellaneous 1930s fabrics for the sashing and prairie points. The finished wallhanging is about 12.5"x16.5". This was the first time I'd done prairie points or any hand embroidery (the eyelashes), so the small scale of the project was ideal.

Here's a pic of the wallhanging before adding the eyes:

And, here's a pic of the wallhanging after adding the eyes:

I think the eyes have it!!