A love for Calicos.

It's a flash back Friday. Seeing the cover of an old American Patchwork & Quilting magazine yesterday reminded me of an old wall hanging I did about 18 years ago. I had to just hit the back button because I typed 8 years ago. Yes, the 90's still feels like 10 years ago to me. Ha!

Sorry for the blurry pictures. Red seems to be hard to capture today and my other camera just broke! I happened to save the quilt magazine I used for the pattern, February 1995. How's that for matching the green fabric on the cover?

I sure have learned a lot since then! And I don't like calicos as much as I used to. But with Liberty of London cranking them out, I'm sure we'll see more of them. I just bought my second sweatshirt in the last few months. Yes, the 80's and 90's are back again. :)

So I learned that pre washing fabrics keeps your quilt from being all cattywampus and skinny in the middle like this one. Especially if you use cheap muslin on the back. I don't always prewash, but I am trying to do it with all of the fabric that I buy. Live and learn. Learn and love it anyway. 

I learned what machine stitches look like when you're tension needs adjusting. See those threads showing from the front! 

I learned I really don't like to appliqué, but this pattern used a very easy technique. (The hearts are two layers, right sides together & sewn completely around, slit in the center of the back, and then turned right side out. Clever.) 

I learned I really like a little hand quilting and machine quilting on almost every quilt I make. Happy stitches. xo xo 

Fan-tastic!

Fan-tastic, it's a word I've heard quite often in our house. And usually pretty dramatically! So here's a fan quilt I started last summer. Hope you find it as fantastic as I do. With all those beautiful fabrics out there to pick from, it sure keeps my creativity in motion. 

I've been hanging on to some Kaffe Fassett Paper Fans in Ochre for years. I wanted to keep it simple design of repeating diamond shaped fans with the fan fabric as a base for each diamond. I remember playing with old paper folding fans as a little girl. So much fun!

The succulents in our garden were looking very pink and a beautiful range of warm and cool green tones. Even a touch of gold. This was the start of my color story. 

I also had some of Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi Summer Totem in Grapefruit that I had been wanting to use. The colors and the scale were perfect for a wide border!

I wanted to use some Peony fabric from Kaffe Fassett. I used the golden colorway for some of the fans and the deep red in the scrappy back. Sure wish Peony would get reprinted!

I brought this quilt along with us on Thanksgiving vacation. Love how we were surrounded by saw palmetto plants. Fits right in I think! You can also see how I started to quilt the fans. I ended up with only one diamond embellished with a fanfold zig zag at the top. The rest was quilted with a two step, two colored running stitch. I hand tied the whole quilt. A first for me. Just a little nod to the silky tassels that hang from so many antique fans. 

Points don't meet here. But that's not the point. Not always. Not for my anyway.

I wanted to do some widely spaced large quilt stitching across the border. As if somebody was looking out large plantation shutters into the garden. Fanning themselves in the heat of course! Thank goodness we have ceiling fans these days.

Took me what felt like FOREVER to find a voile to use for the binding. There's only hand quilting on this one. That creates a wonderful drape. And a heavy binding would take away from that. I love to use voile in our hot Louisiana climate, especially on a binding. I had a long date with a seam ripper before I finally settled on using some of Anna Maria Horner's Forest Hills voile. Fussy cutting it of course! That first choice of Sinister Swarm in Vivacious was just too dark. Changed the whole look of the quilt.

Finally had a sunny day to take a few more pictures. 

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look. :) 

Mornin' Sunshine

Half Square Triangles, otherwise known as hst's, are one of the best quilt blocks out there to work with. So much you can to do with them! Use precuts and it's an even quicker project.

I finished another hst quilt with mostly charm squares of Fandango, by Kate Spain. I think the white is Kona Snow. I added lots of 5" charms from my stash to get a more scrappy quilt. Even found some of Kaffe Fassett Peony from many years ago in my stash! :)

More big stitches with perle cotton thread. I ran the threads along the ditch and about 3/8" from the seam. I just eyeball it. My stitches aren't perfect and I like it that way.

I arranged it a little bit off center, just like me. I like to try and add a little yellow to most of the quilts I make. Yellow is very much a neutral to me. But it's a happy neutral and can bring a little life to the party. Chartreuse is another fun color to slip in there for an accent. 

I don't think I'll ever get tired of sewing with hst's or waking up with a beautiful sunrise.