Month: July 2019

I have put off finishing this quilt back for several months because I was dreading matching all those paisleys. Then a friend suggested that I add strips of a different fabric for contrast and to avoid having to match prints.

So we dug through my stash and found this red Kaffe Fassett guinea flower. And I love it!!!

With this backing, the quilt will effectively be reversible.

I can’t tell you how much I love this paisley fabric. I’ve loved paisleys since I was a kid. I remember vividly a little paisley dress my mom made for me when I was in kindergarten. It had a little Peter Pan collar and cuffs.  But this is the most amazing paisley fabric ever!

This back is for my KFC hexagon quilt. Three quilts will go off to the long armer this week.

I got a lot done this last weekend. I told myself that I wanted to get three quilt backs done so that I could get them all off to the long arm quilter. And I did it!

The bottom blue and green quilt is made from batiks and is a disappearing nine patch pattern. I made this a couple of years ago anticipating that my nephew would be getting married and I wanted to give them this as a gift. Well, they’ve finally announced a date. I’ve got plenty of time to get it done, but I want to check it off my list.

The middle quilt is the scrappy batik wonky log cabin quilt that I talked about in this post. It’s also the cover photo on this blog. I bought the backing for $4 a yard last summer in Salt Lake City. It’s sort of a small cow print in black and white. It’s really bold and fun and it will make this a wild quilt! It makes me very happy!

The top quilt is my Kaffe Fassett Collective hexagon quilt that I made this spring. You can see it in this blog post. I used my favorite tangerine paisley jungle for the back, and added some red Guinea Flower. I was originally thinking I wanted to use all the paisley, but the thought of matching the pattern on two long seams made me want to cry.

I’ll share photos of these quilts when they’re done. I hope my long armer hasn’t retired!

I also cut out the batiks for 12 three-pouch sets — that’s 36 pouches! Now that they’re cut I can easily sew a set in an hour or two. I plan to take the finished sets on vacation with me as I’ve had people request some to buy for gifts.

I’ve already completed two sets and have two more partially done. I had to stop because I didn’t have the right zippers. 100 new zippers on the way!

I just love these batiks! they are so bright and colorful!

On Sunday my friend Helen came over to spend a few hours and get some lunch. Helen is a maker who deals with knitting, felting, and dyeing and occasional sewing. She brought some lovely cotton fabric with her and we twisted, knotted, rolled and banded it all in preparation of indigo dye. I told her a few months ago that I wanted to cut some of her indigo dyed pieces and make something fun. So she did the right thing and got me involved in the process. She will do the actual dyeing when she has enough pieces to fill the vat. It will be a couple of months before I see the results of my work.

On my trip to Canon Beach last week my friend Linda and I stopped at Center Diamond quilt store on the way into town, like we always do. I bought  a few nice batiks and a couple pieces of Kaffe fabric, and then as I was checking out I saw these adorable Mia Charro panels of dogs and wild animals.

I couldn’t wait to make them into pouches!

These are made with blue chambray and linen as the main body of the pouch, with a batik frame around the panel and batik linings.

I just LOVE working with the linen and chambray! I love the way it looks and I also LOVE the structure and the way it turns out so tailored. I can’t get enough of it.

The panels are adorable! Really not like anything I’ve ever seen. I bought a third yard of each and will be able to get a LOT of pouches out of them.

the facial expression of these dogs just kills me!

The colors in the wild animals are so vibrant. I’ll have fun putting together fabric combos. Lots of colorful options!

I couldn’t wait to dig in and make a pouch from the hippo! She is so adorable. So I started looking through my stash and landed on this muted brassica color way from Philip Jacobs. This pouch is lined with Kaffe’s mille fiore. The frame around the hippo is blue chambray. I love how this turned out!

It’s got a zipper pocket on the back. I made it big enough to hold my iPhone.

Here’s a larger view of the two dog pouches. I love these with the batiks. I’ve got a lot of batik scraps left over from my three-pouch sets that are big enough to do the lining and frames on these. I love the batiks with these panels! And I just love the linen. It’s so nice in person… such a lovely texture. I’m going to be sad when I run out of it.

And of course, I have a real soft spot for terriers and LOVE this one with the blue chambray. I just love that fabric!

I have a friend coming over today to talk about quilting and felting, and then we’re going to go to lunch. I hope to finish the quilt back for my Kaffe hexagon quilt this afternoon. Then I’ll have three quilts ready for the long arm quilter. I’m also cutting the pieces for 12 batik pouch sets