Birthday Beatitude

This amazing piece was given to me by Teri Lucas, who blogs here: http://terificreations.wordpress.com/. It is the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time! I am speechless with amazement! I'm thrilled to own it and certainly it makes my birthday week complete!

Speaking of which, I finished this one for myself: on my birthday, hand dyed fabric, black thread. I'm pleased with it, but after seeing Teri's quilting, I have lots more ideas for the next one!

And my cat joined in the celebration:

Here I am dressed to go out with my dear husband Peter for birthday dinner. Lots of rayon chenille, hand painted and made by Judy Zemel, whose work I adore.

It always amazes me how fast the birthdays come. Every year is fizzing by faster than the year before. I'm so lucky to have a group of marvelous friends who manage to make me feel so special and blessed! This year, I had a surprise celebration, complete with gluten-free cupcakes and presents, with my dear Knitting group friends, who gave me lovely gifts:

Square needles, hand-made stitch markers and a book on thread sculpture! What fun!

As time whizzes by, it is always good to stop and be thankful for the connections and joys I've had through the fiber world and the amazingly beautiful things people make. I am really lucky to be alive at a time when Ravelry ( http://www.ravelry.com/ ) has hit a Million members! and so much good is here on earth. Thank you to all of my wonderful friends and family!

Blue is not the only color

Sometimes I get carried away by my passion for blue, and I forget there are other, equally luscious and willing colors out there. After finishing "Leafy Wells", I wondered if I could make the same design using oranges and olivey greens. Sure enough, my stash yielded a lovely array of various fabrics which seemed to work well together, so I got busy and sewed myself into a fabric frenzy. The resulting top is finished, but needs to be layered, quilted,bound, etc. I'm pleased, and wonder what my next color combination should be. Purple and yellow? Orange and blue? The possibilities are limited only by my available stash. ANd time, of course..."Leafy Nights" is still tapping its fingers wanting to be done...

Leafy Wells

The versitility of quilting makes it the ideal medium for exploring color, shape, size, line, pattern, all without getting your hands wet!
But sometimes things just get to be overwhelming and too large to handle. Thus it goes with "Leafy Nights" which is now around 90 inches square. It is really big, compared with my usual size quilt, which is why that one is hibernating for a while while I decide if I want to quilt it myself or let someone else ( with a longarm machine) have that pleasure.

So, as a form of procrastination , and also due to the myriad leftover half-square triangles, bits of strips of fabric, and the gorgeousness of all of these colors, which I can't bear to put away yet, I made another quilt. This one is considerably smaller ( 37 1/2 inches by 62 1/2 inches ), and is meant as a wall hanging. I used the "Hidden Wells" pattern by Mary Ellen Hopkins, which I have loved since the first piece I made with this design in 1994, for the center strip.
I wanted something quick, interesting and not too fussy, to showcase the fabrics, and this pattern fit the bill. Adding leftover triangles, strips and such to the sides made it have an Art Deco feel, and gave me the shape I wanted. The quilting was a challenge, and I used Contact paper templates to quilt around. The side strips I quilted freehand in leafy designs. On the whole I love this quilt, although it is really uncomplicated and peaceful.


And in the end, Leafy Wells is the best revenge. Now I guess I'll have to quit procrastinating. Maybe later....

Pie Love

About 10 days ago a client came to my studio and wanted to commission a small quilt for a friend's graduation gift. The recipient loved to bake, especially Lemon Meringue pies. Could I make a quilt about that? I drew up some sketches, and we settled on one:

We chose some fabrics that spoke to us of lemons and pies and blue skies, and meringues, and looked at some images on the internet to get the colors right. The top of the pies brown especially at the peaks, but when you cut a slice, the underneath meringue stays white. We liked the idea of the lemon slice overlaying the pie and the words "Pie" and "Love" on it.

I converted the drawing to a pattern on Freezer paper, cut out some pieces and started assembling the quilt.It struck me that I could manipulate the meringue fabric to provide texture, and I loved the result, but then it would be difficult to find a pleasing way to overlay the lemon slice. The bumpy texture of the meringue might make threadpainting bumpy, and fusing fabric over it would also result in lumps. In the end I added a lemon, and used the slice idea in the quilting, as I did with the words, and also some eggs and wheat.

I used fusible batting, so I could hold the texture of the meringue in place while I quilted it. The binding fabric was used on the back as well, and has silver stars in it, so it ties the spoon together with the pie in the sky.When you get lemons, make lemon pie!

The silver spoon added a bit of invitation to enjoy, and the whole thing has a folk arty feel. Yum!

I hope the client likes it, too! I'm not sure of the title yet, but call it "Pie Love" in my mind!

Size: 19 inches X 19 inches.

"Making Mathematics with Needlework"

The summer before last, I had the great fortune to send my son to the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics program( www.yp17.org ) for the second time. He had a wonderful time learning and playing with mathematics, and I got to hang out with sarah-marie belcastro ( www.toroidalsnark.net) , a Math professor at Smith College, who is co-director of the program. She was knitting a magical toroidal object with teeny tiny double pointed needles! We got to talking, and I mentioned my interest in knitting and quilting. She was writing a book about Math and needlework, and I enthusiastically offered to be a pattern tester. Well, several months later, she sent me the patterns for two mobius quilt designs. I had a blast constructing these, and for good measure, made a quilt of a "squashed dodecahedron"...I sent them to sarah-marie, and now, I'm thrilled to hold the book in my hand! My quilts are on the hard cover, and you can read the directions to make these in the book! it is available from Amazon, or directly from the publisher, AK Peters ( www.akpeters.com ). The directions for making your own knitted torus are there, plus fascinating papers on mathematics as it relates to needlepoint,blackwork embroidery, quilting, knitting and crochet. Truly a feast for those of us who love mathematics and needlework.