See Susan Quilt

I have a lot of rosettes ready to be organized so I thought I would do a photo show in my post today!  Right now, there is only one large rosette with three smaller pieces attached: The other three large rosettes are ready as well. Then there are some smaller rosettes awaiting placement. I have several more smaller rosettes that are partially finished as I wait to see what I need where. Such a fun project! Susan

It has been a long summer of feeling under the weather and not sewing as much as I would like.  However, things are improving and I am starting to once again work on the rosettes for my La Passacaglia quilt made from Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics. The four large rosettes are complete and I am sewing my way through the numerous smaller rosettes that will surround them in the finished quilt. Here are two completed and very different small rosettes from the past few weeks: With luck I will have enough of the Cranford fabric to complete all of the centers.  I am out of the grey and the brown Cranford now, but have hot pink, dark purple and light pink fabric remaining. There is something about those little faces that delights me.  They look like little ghosts in strange bonnets making faces at you, don’t you think?  Or is it a “Queen Victoria” thing? Happy quilting! Susan

Roses are the theme for the fourth and final large rosette in my La Passacaglia quilt, what fun! Liberty Tana Lawn has some gorgeous rose fabrics to choose from. I went with classics in red, blue, purple and hot pink this time around. What do you think? I still need to finish the last half row of stars so stay tuned...

This is a time-consuming but fun project.  I am a slow quilter using my sewing machine, which means that I move at a snail’s pace sewing by hand. Here is my third of the four large rosettes for La Passacaglia.  I wanted to make flowers in the outer border at least once, and this is the result. Liberty Tana Lawn is a dream to hand piece with and the range of fabric colors and patterns is awesome indeed. Happy Quilting! Susan

My goodness, are my fingertips sore from all of the hand stitching.  I have not found a device that works for me to protect my fingertips while sewing by hand, although I seem to be getting a bit more coordinated over time.  I have finished my first large rosette, woo hoo! There is one small rosette (see my previous post for a photo), a second small partial rosette that is pretty cute and this big beauty. My next Tana Lawn rosette is going to be mainly navy and red, which is quite a color change from the rosettes I have done so far.  We shall see where those new colors lead me. Happy quilting! Susan

Hooray, all of  my unfinished quilts have been completed and are back in my possession.  The last two quilts were my mother’s koi kaleidoscope quilt and the Japanese double start quilt.  I also snuck in finishing three pillows to match the grey Tana Lawn strip quilt that lives on our bed.  Here are the pillows: Here are the front and back views of the koi kaleidoscope quilt that will be getting shipped to my mother in West Virginia later today. Thank-you, Jennet, the quilting (as always) is great. Here is the double star quilt that I made from some fabulous Japanese fabrics I purchased several years ago from Michelle at Kallisti Quilts.  Sometimes you just have to wait until the right pattern comes along, don’t you? Wow, this means it is time to actually start planning, selecting fabrics and cutting the pieces for some new quilts… too fun. Susan

Here is a peek at my second quilt top using the blocks I made early on. That was way back when I was using the "Honey" pattern then but just could not make it work out the way I wanted. However, I figured it out and here is my modified result... And here is a close up so you can see all the little fishes lined up and happily swimming!

Well, it took me a while with the holidays taking me away from the sewing machine, but my first of two Heather Ross Mendocino quilts is finished.  Thank-yous go to Jennet at Icepurplepenguin for again providing the long-arm quilting services to make this patchwork quilt complete.  As mentioned in previous posts, I ended up using the Chain Reaction pattern with the long OOP Mendocino fabric.  This quilt is a very loud but satisfying end product.  The finished quilt measures out at about 90 inches square so it should fit a queen size bed with ease. I also had a lot of fun using scraps for the back of the quilt, check it out.       Amazingly enough, I still have a lot of Mendocino fabric left after this project so I am using the original “Honey” pattern triangles that I made early on to make a second, much “calmer” quilt top.  More details about that project in a later post!    Happy quilting and three cheers for th...

Well, the Mendocino quilt has undergone a tremendous transformation from what I planned to do and what I am finally implementing.  Alas - I really, really like the pattern I started out with for these precious fabrics, but I just could not come up with a way to organize the Mendocino blocks and show them off the way I envisioned. The good news is that I have many other fabrics for that pattern project, so a Honey quilt is still in my project queue. Enter the Chain Reaction quilt pattern by Jen Kingwell.  I really was set upon showcasing the Mendocino fabrics and this pattern certainly provides me the opportunity to show off the fabrics.  Well, the Mendocino version of this pattern certainly is a different colorway, but I am very happy with the progress so far.  I decided to use all of the "major" prints such as the mermaid pairs, the swimming mermaids and the wonderful giant octopus fabrics in the hexagons for maximum visibility.  I think I can have eac...

Well. my Mendocino quilt took a left turn and is nor headed down "hexagon way"!  Here is a teaser photo of some of the fabrics ... stay tuned for the details!  Happy quilting! Susan