A Gathering of the Clans

This all-plaid scrap quilt was fun to make.

Each block has it's own character.

Obviously, I had been collecting plaid fabric for a very long time. Some came from our clothing, so there are a few 'rogue' blocks with polyester in the blend.

I usually do not use polyester at all in quilts because it is a weaker fabric and will wear out quicker than cotton. Besides, if you use polyester batting, it has a tendency to migrate through the poly-cotton pieces and fuzz up. But for this quilt, an exception was made.

When I was making the blocks, they seemed to be very busy and bright-colored, but once assembled into the whole quilt, they seemed to tone each other down. I really like the random setting of colors and the un-rigid arrangements or off-centered-ness of the plads....much more interesting than a rigidly made block.

The whole thing is set in a Black Watch patterned background.

I wash this quilt very carefully and always use a gentle soap and a reduced agitation cycle.

A Wedding Quilt

The theme for this wedding quilt was based on the bride's love of tulips.

Two of the fabric prints included tulips. A cabbage rose print picks up all the colors in the tulip print and freehand embroidery of a heart, the bride and groom's names and the date are in the center panel.

The quilting design incorporates tulips as well.

I wish I had a better set of slides for this quilt. It is much brighter than it appears. Since it was a king size, it had to be folded under to hang on the quilt show frame.

The center square is embroidered with the bride and groom's names as well as the date. The idea is that when the quilt wears out, the center square can be cut out and framed as a memento.

House Dreams

The quilt challenge was, "Make a small wall hanging with House as the theme."

We were in the planning stages of our addition, so what could be more apropos?

The backing cloth has a print of building facades.

The dark blue fabric (which doesn't show up in the slide) is printed as if it were blueprints. And the end of the piece is rolled around a paper towel tube like a rolled-up set of blueprints.

The bird's-eye view of the coffee cup is a dish pattern scrap from my "Broken Dishes" quilt fabric.

The yellow notepad is yellow fabric with a 'To Do' list written in permanent ink.

Same with the "Acme Tile" sample label; the tile samples are checked fabric. There is a fragment of key chain holding them together.

Tiny wood-printed fabric squares are 'floor tile samples' and terry cloth squares are 'carpet' samples.

The pencil, tape measure and coffee spoons are real.

Christmas Colors, well Sorta

I'm not one for making "holiday quilts". They don't seem practical to me since they only look 'right' for a short time. I did make a Christmas House design wall hanging once, but I sold it.

This quilt is the closest thing I can get to a Christmas one.

The red-orange and yellow fabric is a remnant from Liberty in London. And a finer, softer cotton you can't imagine. Almost feels like silk. I hoarded this piece for a very long time. I would get it out and look at it and then, put it back in the pile. Couldn't think of a thing to do with it. Finding the right yellow to go with it was also a problem.

Then I started experimenting with designing quilts on the computer and came up with this design. The quilt is a riot on the bed.

I had fun with the outer border of the blocks, snipping colors from the body of the quilt and sewing them in.

So, in honor of the season, here's a quilt with Christmas colors."Christmas Gone Wild with Yellow and Purple" might be a good name for it.

Broken Dishes

Broken Dishes is a quilt I made several years ago.

The print blocks are duplications of antique plates. I couldn't resist the pun.

Blue Willow and Tobacco Leaf are two patterns as is a Tree of Life variation, among other designs I'm not familiar with.

I found another print with large and small teapots that I used for the border and corner blocks.

I chose the deep blue background because it reminded me of the linoleum in the old Navy Housing on Yokosuka Base. They had floored the bathroom and kitchen with the same linoleum that was used on the ships. My kitchen and bath were dark blue and a grey/beige tile. Tough? That was the densest, thickest tile you could imagine.

A check with Wikipedia yielded this:

"The heavier gauges of linoleum are known as "battleship linoleum", and are mainly used in high-traffic situations like offices and public buildings. It was originally manufactured to meet the specifications of the U.S. Navy for warship deck covering on enclosed decks instead of wood, hence the name. Most U.S. Navy warships in fact removed their linoleum deck coverings following the attack on Pearl Harbor, as they were considered too flammable."

I'm not too sure about this last sentence. I seem to recall ubiquitous linoleum in ships--even modern ones. but my husband tells me they changed some floors to the Flecto type solid poured acrylic flooring. Just as flammable as the previous, I'm thinking.

I was surprised to find the early linoleum was made of solidified linseed oil. Very strange indeed.

Anyway, I enjoyed quilting this quilt because of all the variation in the plate patterns and large areas afforded by the design. Since making it, during one washing of many previous, the blue decided to migrate. (I never wash my quilts with anything else--always warm water; gentle cycle.) So the change was and is a total mystery to me. It is not unpleasing, but certainly different.

I wish I had taken a good close up of this quilt before the blue.

The Agate Necklace

I finally finished my Mexican agate bead necklace.

I decided to put the big clasp on, at least temporarily because in all the time since I bought the beads last year,

I have not been able to find another that I liked.

I still feel this isn't the final clasp but it will do until I find the right one.

The beads are threaded onto a very fine silver chain. The spacers are African clay beads (black and white) and antique black glass beads.

I wound up making the jump rings out of pieces of regular dress pins. Anything larger in diameter wouldn't fit into the fine links of the chain.

It works well, actually, since I have this nifty pliers tool for making links.

Moravian Christmas Stars

It's time to start unloading the box of Christmas ornaments and think about decorating the house for the holidays.

I ran across boxes brimming with folded paper stars.

A few years ago, I got the Martha Stewart kit for folding Moravian stars and went totally mad making basic forms and then inventing variations.

I made them in three different sizes and three colors.

A video with instructions and examples of stars and star May baskets (which I had never seen before) is available on: http://www.highhopes.com/3dstar.html

Wonder if you could make them out of gift ribbon?