A Garden of Possibilities

Jane is a gardener and loves surrounding her cottage with a riot of herbs and blooms every summer. Now she's got a textile project that reflects her passion. 

Recently, she was gifted this handmade and quilted jacket by a friend who had picked it up at a thrift shop and ultimately decided that it didn't do much for her. Seeing the potential to bring those mossy greens to life, she has set about making a garden of it, adding large blooms overtop of the greens.

She's undertaking her own version of broderie perse (French for Persian embroidery), the only difference being that her background is pieced rather than a single piece of fabric. Historically, this technique used Chintz fabrics which, in the early 1900s, were very expensive. To make the most of the Chintz, elements such as flowers and birds were cut from the it and arranged on another piece of fabric either as a central design or for borders and appliquéd in place.  

All of Jane's flowers were cut from a Kaffe Fassett print that's been in her stash for 20+ years; the scale is perfect.

And the butterflies that she sourced from a second fabric add an additional hint of whimsy.

Love how this posey is popping up out of a pocket!

She's attached them throughout the jacket with fusible interfacing and is now contemplating her next steps. The plan is to embellish the edges by hand with various colours of embroidery thread and, who knows, possibly the odd bead or bauble. 

It's going to be a beauty....M

My Reign Continues

These last few months I feel as though I have been crowned Queen of the Flip-and-Stitch Corner and, with my latest Quilts for Survivors flimsy, that reign continues. 

Those corners just seem to be prevalent in every project that I work on lately. First there were Scrappy Stars, then all of those delicate Snowballs, followed by Friendship Stars. Now I've started a quilt called Arkansas Crossroads. At least that's what I think its called. I've seen a version made with smaller blocks so I'm going with that.

The secondary pattern created by the white crosshatch blocks is really what captured my attention. Years ago I noticed a brightly coloured version of this pattern on the Missouri Star website and chalked it up to a 'some day' project; I guess 'some day' is now.

Mine is made using mostly delicate calicos that I'm very keen to try and move along to a good home - I've been looking at them for too long. Happily, my persistence is paying off as I'm getting to the end of a few pieces.

Just to keep things interesting, I've tossed in a bit of dark turquoise and deeper mauve, but the overall feel is still quite soft.

These are 16" blocks so I only need to make 12 of them to get me to a 48" x 64" flimsy and I'm half way there, but at times I get impatient with those grey corners. My kingdom for a batch of quick, straight seams! Just need to slow down and enjoy the process a little more....M

Simple Summer Stitching

I've been searching for an easy summer hand stitching project and finally decided to try and tame my supply of 2.5" squares and make scrappy Nine-Patch blocks.

Easy peasy, if you pay attention. Somehow I managed to fold this square back onto itself and stitch it down 😉.

Guess I was distracted by the view.

The squares seem to be multiplying in their storage container but surprisingly it's not always easy to find either four or five of the same print.

So I'm good with staying in the same colour family so that I don't end up cutting more squares. The idea is to use up as much of what's already cut. Works just fine....M

Friendship Stars and a Tiny Rabbit Hole

The opportunity to donate orphan blocks in addition to the larger 16" blocks, flimsies and quilts that we will send to Quilts for Survivors this year is proving to be a bit of a distraction, but a fun one. Enter my Friendship Stars.

Of course 'orphan' blocks' tend to be those leftovers from projects started and abandoned but after I culled my bags and boxes to see what I could find I've been using it as an excuse to try out blocks on my 'some day' list. And lately, my 2.5" scrappy squares have been my accomplice. 

It's been fun to dig and see if I can find enough squares of the same print to make a block.

Sometimes making the centre square different helps me squeak one, like this...

Or this.

Just love the bees and this chartreuse together.

When that fails, I settle for monochromatic. It's interesting to see their distinct personalities.

Because the HSTs are being made with two 2.5" squares using the stitch-and-flip method I'm ending up with a batch of even smaller HSTs from the trimming that I can't seem to ditch. You know where this is going, right?

Of course you do. Even tinier stars! The original is a 6" block and the smaller version will be just under 4". Borderline crazy making, as so many rabbit holes are, but oh so cute!...M