i love quilting

Behold my Hercules beetle! I took a huge chunk of time away from piecing and sewing in general due to work insanity, but I finally got around to finishing this boy.

The fabric is all second hand: the background fabric came from a local craft thrift store, and the green/orange and brown/gold speckled fabrics are twice reused kimono silks. The kimono fabric was gifted to me by the wonderful Madame Button, who used the original garments to make these gorgeous corsets.

She got the kimono because they were either new dead stock, or in such bad condition that they couldn't be worn. She can't use the fabric once it's cut up smaller than a corset panel, so she's been chucking the scraps at me for a while, and I've finally gotten over my fear of cutting up such beautiful silks. Go check out The Bad Button on Instagram and Facebook and drool over her other gorgeous pieces.

I decided to forgo sandwiching and quilting this because I wanted the piecing lines to be the highlight. For now it's tacked to a plain cotton bed sheet until I can find a nicer frame for it.

heron+fish (18"x12")

Pineberry quilt, 60" x 68", pattern by Pen and Paper Quilting

My favorite!!! I finished this at the end of the summer last year but never posted bc i put it up for display as soon as it was done. This is definitely the most complicated block I'd done up to then, and sat on this pattern and cherry-picked solids for about a year before feeling confident enough to start (in the end, there's still one stinker block I didn't place properly orz) I'm really happy with the free motion too! All came together really lovely, wip under cut!

Quilted Portraits No. 4 of Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester

17” x 17” cotton fabric

If there was ever such a thing as an emergency baby quilt, this was it. A beloved coworker announced her pregnancy a week before her last day. I didn’t have time to work on it over the weekend so this was made over just two evenings after work (with the last of the binding hand sewn down at work where I knew she wouldn’t see me). I love how it turned out and it’s a good reminder that simple classic patterns can still be stunning.

Several years ago, a friend of my mom's GAVE me her old Subaru, saying she'd received it as a gift and wanted to continue the favor. At the time I was dead broke and unable to find a job within biking distance, so her gift really changed my life. I didn't know how to repay a gift of this magnitude, so I decided making my first quilt might be a start.

This friend regularly taught kids in my hometown how to identify microorganisms in pond water, so that was my inspiration for the quilt. The colors... Are not my favorite but they were what fit my vision and my budget.

There is not a single straight line or right angle in this quilt. I made many many mistakes and learned how to fix a lot of them. I am so enchanted by the little guys tho and I think they really make up for the wonkiness.

The recipient loves it and immediately sent me pictures and ID's for all the species shown. She also told me her recently deceased mother would have loved it (I wanted to give her the quilt at the celebration of life, but alas scheduling did not allow).

This was my first time working with Kaffe Fassett fabrics and wow, are they dreamy. The prints are so bold and the fabric is incredibly soft. I worked it up using the free Diamonds pattern from Jordan Fabrics and I just love how the lavender pulls it together - especially since it is also the binding color.

My scraps quilt jacket is finally done!

The stars are fab. The blue could have been lighter, and I might trim the long sides down a little to match the thinner sashing, but over all I like it.