Mug-rugs for Cindy and a new block of the week

We had a birthday party for Cindy on Friday. It was suggested we could bring gag gifts, but I'm not good at those so I made her a pair of mug rugs in her black bird theme that go with the black and tan accents in her house -

The bird was an image labeled for non-commercial reuse with modifications. I printed it on a treated organza and used a low-contrast tan and white Japanese tree print to back it. The mug rugs are about 6x8 with minimal straight line quilting and a single fold binding to finish them off.

I started a new block of the week program by Barbara Brackman today that I won't be blogging about in detail. The theme of the weekly stories is Jane Austen. I'm not really an Austen fan - I read some of the books because they were available in recorded book format from the library but otherwise I probably would never have read them.

The block was called "Bright Star" on the blog, but I've always seen it as "Rosebud" - a block I don't care for. The two contrasting small triangles always just look awkward to me, so I disguised them with my choice of floral prints. The stripe doesn't go with the flower theme but I think gives the pinwheel a little energy.

Interlocked

Soon after Joyce's daughter Tanya announced her engagement, I started working on ideas for a quilt for her wedding, now less than two weeks away. Since Tanya's generation doesn't really read blogs - especially not blogs written by aunts, I think I can post photos of the quilt, almost ready for giving.

I put it on a clean sheet on the driveway to take the photos - the leaves kept blowing around and getting on the quilt, so I had to make my photo session quick.

The blocks are a traditional one called "Interlocked Squares" that I thought was appropriate for a wedding.  I did them in two colors and alternated their placement in crossing lines. It should remind you of the quilt I worked on with Alice and Ann to support the Shindig on the Green this past summer.

I kept the quilting pretty simple overall, in keeping with the Modern Quilting look I wanted for the quilt: lots of negative space and geometric themes keeps it in the basic idea of a Modern Quilt - though the Interlocked Squares block with its Y-seams is not one they would normally gravitate to. The quilted motif in the middle of the blocks also interlocks.  The fabrics in the center of the blocks are both music-theme prints.

I wanted all the negative space to feature some special quilting. I used a silhouette photo of Tanya when she was a dancer that Joyce sent me a few years ago.  My best friend from high school Ginger Gebka is a graphics artist - she turned it into a simple line drawing for me to quilt.

 The backing is a green and white floral - I like it when I can see the quilting on the back and it shows nicely in this photo I took after going back in the house, away from the leaves.

 

The label text is printed over the photo I used for the quilted silhouettes, turned green and artistically mellowed. I photographed the label laying on the front of the quilt - I'll sew it on the back during TV time this evening. 

Tanya's quilt will be ready to wrap by tomorrow!

Not-a-shower gift

My niece Tanya is getting married in less than two months!  Her sister Niki is Maid of Honor and hosted a luncheon for her last weekend.  When Joyce was here, she shopped my stash for a couple of fabrics that I could make a gift from. I managed to whip these up and sent them to Joyce to bring to the occasion for Tanya.  There are six placemats, with napkins that match the backing/binding.

Joyce picked the green and magenta stylized floral of the wide stripe in the center.  Dorry will recognize the two most outstanding leaf prints I used next to the magenta bits nearer the edges.  She sent the light one peaking out from under the napkins to use in Dana's quilt (which I did to good effect!) and the one on the right is from the cutoffs of the backing she gave us with the  Welcome to Chestnut Ridge, quilt top she designed and made for us as a housewarming present in 2007.  (The quilt, though not the backing, is visible at the link.) I also got to include two of Vicki Welsh's shibori hand-dyes that I also used in Dana's quilt.

Multi-tasking

When I was still working, I pretty much stuck to one quilt project at a time.  I can't say that these days.  Here's my design wall today.

Across the top is my Grandmother's Choice  with the smaller Dixie Diaries block just stuck up there.  The blue and white columns are for four small quilts, and the red and tan squares off to the lower right are my share of the piecing for the next Shindig Raffle quilt.  Add to that:  the design wall doesn't contain anything of the Round Robin I'm working on. I've put almost as much time into that this week as these other four projects.  I had the parts for that one up on the wall, but had to take it down to make room for the blue and white quilts. But I'm not sewing anything on the Round Robin yet. 

I have a lot more space to organize these projects in this house - perhaps that is why I am enjoying them all so much.

The Knitting Group Holiday Party Gift Exchange

One member of our Monday knitting group is the party instigator, and she decided to host a December gathering at her home. She also decided that we would have a gift exchange, and the gifts should be items either that we made ourselves, or they could be "recycled" items.  That was easy for me - none of the ones who were coming are quilters.  The dollar value was small, so I made mug rugs.  When knittters and weavers make mug rugs, they are usually coaster sized.  But for some reason, quilters always make them much larger - well, they will say that provides room for a cookie.  These are about 6x8.

Some of the members don't celebrate Christmas, so I picked a winter theme and named the set "Appalachian Winter Sky."

The colors go with the mugs we've been collecting, so I also took a shot of each one modeled by a different mug.

A contemporary mat with a leaf-mug

An Ohio Star with a drip glaze pattern mug

 

A Christmas Star with more leaves

And the last rug is string pieced and has the mug from our local Mangum pottery on Main Street.

 

These are so small, I quilted them on my DSM.  If you don't think about longarm quilting machines, you probably never called yours a "domestic sewing machine" - but among industrial machine owners, we just use the abbreviation, DSM.

We drew numbers and picked our packages.  Ann from Wales who lives in the neighborhood knew which package was mine and chose it.  She seems delighted with the little "rugs".  The back side is a dark blue print with silver snowflakes - I forgot to take a photo!