A recently completed quilt has been on a photo shoot. We took this big baby (it measures 80″ square) with us to Zebulon last week when we went to see Slow Exposures (the photo exhibit described in my last post). The quilt posed on a bench, in a gazebo, and in front of a brick wall.
I called this one Jewel Boxes. The traditional tumbling block pattern, one of my favorites, has been surrounded by a vine of colorful foliage.
Inspired by a magazine cover with a similar quilt many years ago, I cut many rhombuses with a 60º angle and hand stitched them together to make the tumbling block. Then I assembled the blocks into rows and added a black border.
Here, I’m having a Vivian Maier moment including my reflection in the photo. I’ll share my love of Vivian Maier in an upcoming post.
I planned the applique on the border in a free-form manner. After positioning the border vines, I cut leaves and flowers from assorted fabrics, laid them in place until I liked the color placement, and began stitching.
Dewey Godwin did the longarm quilting. He did a great job!
Dewey used a dark gray thread for the quilting on the border, prompting me to select a little gray dot on black for the binding.
In the last couple of years, I’ve been obsessed with circles.
One of my explorations dealt with blue and white circles appliquéd to a brown linen tablecloth. For all these projects, I didn’t count the circles…just made them until I thought I had enough. I laid the blue circles on the brown linen until I liked their distribution, pinned them in place, and started appliqueing them.
I wanted to hand quilt this larger piece using the seed stitch. I love the texture that stitch gives. I’ve used it on smaller pieces a lot, but wanted to see it on a big piece. I used Aurifil #12 thread, stitched a double seed stitch overall though only the top and batting. Then I added a backing layer (a piece of an indigo overdyed linen sheet) and stitched through all three layers with the same thread around the circles.
I never had a title in mind for this as I worked – I presumed one would come to me. My working title was “blue circles on brown”. That could have worked for a final title. But as I neared the end of the stitching, I decided to count the circles. 107. That could work..it’s a prime number and I like those. But, I needed a label on the back. If that label was a circle, I’d have a total of 108. 108 has meaning in my life and I love for the quilt title to have meaning.
I grew up in Turner County. During the years I was learning to drive, our county’s number was 108. So, the title of this quilt was born.
Between 1957 and 1970, county codes were used as part of an auto’s car tag. The first numbers on the tag were based on the respective population of the county. Out of 159 counties in Georgia, my home was 108th in population those years.
Notice that on the label, I used some of the trims I’ve recently dyed with black walnuts. It’s tempting to “save” those precious bits we made or altered, but I’m in the business of using them. Here the tatting that took the dye so well borders the 108th circle. Oh, and the fabric circle is cut from the center of the napkin with the embellished corner.
I made Dots and Vines, which you’ve already seen, stitched some circles on a bit of linen for a scarf, and made these blue circles and appliquéd them to a remnant of a brown linen tablecloth. I have lots of prepared circles waiting to become part of another quilt, too. The post on Dots and Vines is here.
I guess this little brown linen pillow with buttons attached fits the circle category, too.
I’ve referenced my love of the blue and brown connection before. One post describing a rolled up quilt exploration is here. And a sweet little case I found that’s blue and brown and toile and bows is here.
This finished quilt measures 40″ x 60″, a lap quilt for reading or watching tv. And, yes, for napping.
This is the month to see hearts everywhere, and I LOVE it!
Hearts have long been one of my favorite motifs and they often show up in my quilts. My quilt guild, (Heart of Georgia is its name – coincidence you think?) has themes for some of our Show and Tell sessions this year.
We always bring new quilts we’ve recently finished, but the themes let us revisit favorite old quilts that we haven’t shared in a while. Show and Tell is always inspiring and this variation allows new members to our group to see some past works they missed.
So I’ve been thinking about hearts in older quilts of mine, looking around the house at older pieces.
One I found was this one Hearts and Ribbons– a project I made in the first appliqué class I took. Anita Shackelford was the teacher. An excellent designer and teacher, she guided me through the intricacies of needle turn appliqué. Though some of my work is more casual these days, I owe her all the credit for my beginning stitches in this technique.
This piece features hearts that were made and stuffed, then hand quilted. Later, they were attached to the background including other appliquéd elements.
The stuffed berries and delicate embroidery just add to the rich details of the piece.
This was one of my first efforts at free motion machine quilting, too. I think I used an invisible thread and cotton batting.
I don’t suppose anyone is surprised that the featured color here is blue.
