Yes, there is more Amber Glass from L.E. Smith Glass. Never one to maintain a skimpy collection, there are still a few more in the pipeline. This one is a charming little squirrel on top of a large acorn. Isn't he cute? The placemat is rather ancient piece of Heritage Lace. (from the days of the Lace Abundance Decorating Phase. I even have replicas of Queen Victoria's Bedroom lace panels, made on the same looms, now at rest. I have been on a Lace hiatus for some time now, but now that I look at this little placemat, I'm feeling a bit of a twinge. I digress, back to the glass.)
Of course it is a dish, considering the theme it would probably serve well as a nut dish. I set these about, usually near a window so that the glass can capture the light. With the sun lower in the sky it hits my windows in such a charming way. Very Autumn, very comforting, Queen Victoria would approve.
Not to dismiss other Autumn colors, Linda Sue was back in town yesterday with most recent projects. Now remember, she has only been quilting for a couple years and her skills are noteworthy. Look at what she has accomplished with the
really so orange that the rest of us did not know what to do with it fabric!
Our group project, Fall 2011, was the 9 patch if you remember. We all donated multiple fabrics and added our own to come up with these quilts. There was a couple yard piece of really. really, orange fabric that made the rounds but there was a lot left. Linda Sue just figured out how to use it, balance that
very orange fabric with complimentary pieces that neutralized the color and created a charming little fall quilt!
Smile for your close up little one~
Now, here's the fun part. Linda Sue did not quilt this piece from the front, you know stitch in the ditch or cross-hatch grids or feathers, noooooooooo, she quilted from the back, Sashiko-style.
The dark fabrics really tone down the orange but do not overwhelm it. I see some of my donated fabrics in here too! I started using a large paper shopping bag to collect everyone's strips and scraps and we pass it around so that anyone can you what ever they find in there to work on their project. A two fold benefit, we get to clean out the stash and others get a more diverse collection of fabrics for scrap quilts. We all really seem to like the scrap quilt.
Can you see this? I hope so. She marked the back of the piece, and hand-quilted the pattern. Her stitches are beautiful, precise, and lovely. This application works so well on any fabrics that read as solid. It is also perfect for garment application. Wow, do I need another idea for a project?
Perfecting our hand-quilting is an exercise of patience. Susan has been working on this very intricate piece. Her stitches are very fine and well executed. This is a practice piece for her. I see a pillow top in the future, just saying! I learned a long time ago to work on practice pieces to
retrain my hand when ever I change from one stitching medium to another. Now that I am knitting again, that is the most comfortable, but I will be back to the little wooly pillow this week too, I need to finish the hand embroidery part on that.
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| Red blocks top row, second block and 3rd row, number 5. They sort of dominate in my eye. |
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| by moving them out of the mid-field of the quilt, they seem to frame the corners rather than compete, well, to me anyway. |
This is another new hand-pieced quilt from Linda Sue. Lots of colors, lots of pattern. I think this was another block-of-the-week class from a local quilt shop. Linda uses a flannel backed vinyl table cloth as a design wall and rolls it up for travel. Works pretty good too. She tried black sashings and then changed to this brown which we all felt worked better. The top photo was her original arrangement. She requested
fresh eyes to examine the block placement. I think this happens to all of us, after you work on something like this for a while, everything gets rather jumbled. The second photo shows the predominately red blocks at the top left and bottom right corners where we think they accent rather than pop out in the field.
Looks like a beautiful and cool fall day for us here today. I have noticed some leaves starting to turn. The colors of fall, my favorite.
Gratuity Moment: opportunities to express ourselves, in fabric and thread. What a great way to make new friends.
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