I’m still in a red mode with Valentine’s Day on the horizon.
Lately I’ve been finishing some projects that have been in progress for a while…I miss playing with art quilts and story quilts, but finishing some of these has been satisfying.
The one that I finished yesterday is Yoko’s Garden. Several years ago I was inspired by some deliberately irregular polygons that Yoko Saito had appliquéd in one of her quilt books.
I cut some freehand hexagons from a collection of Japanese woven fabrics I had in shades of taupe and appliquéd them to a remnant of an old linen sheet. I love the soft neutral palette, but felt it needed a zinger, so I added a flower using a bit of a red cashmere coat I had felted. For several years, this piece has been spilling out of baskets here and there when I needed a touch of red.
This year in December I needed something to stitch with red in it. I picked up this piece, layered it on a bit of wool (not wool batting, but a piece of felted wool) and began hand quilting. I enjoyed that process through lots of tv time in December and January, added a binding and label, and I have a finished piece. The final piece measures 15” x 20”.
Progress on red hearts is going well. Here, on the 8th day of February, you see the first 8 hearts. These are scattered over the linen tablecloth. I’ll fill in with more small hearts and add some embellishments, too.
And let me just say, stitching on linen is so delicious!
I love the one with the red cashmere coat flower. If you are looking for any particular “odd ball” fabrics, let me know At Putnam Christian Outreach we usually have bins of scraps and end pieces. I love how you use them up.
Thank you, Susan. I have a surplus of donated fabrics on hand right now…but I’ll remember your offer and let you know when I need some!
Your work is always so beautiful! You wrote that stitching on linen is “delicious “. Have you hand quilted on linen? If so, how does it needle?
Thank you, Elizabeth. Yes, actually, the background of Yoko’s Garden is linen. I quilted that with Aurifil #12 thread and it was wonderful! There are different weights of linen, though, so I would test a swatch first before committing to a big piece.
Love your work!
Thank you, Elaine.
the beige and red work exceptionally well together … and that linen (?) gimp is wondrous
love that your freehand cutting yielded such consistent results … just enough variation to keep it all interesting to the eye
last, your kantha-style quilting variations take such good advantage of the edges, echoing and enhancing them at the same time
Ah, you like what I like….kindred spirits!