One down

I've finished the first Nicey Jane quilt.  After trying lots of different things I decided it worked best without borders just bound with Amy Butler solid blue broadcloth .  I quilted this on the longarm using a butterfly pantograph (angel wings).  It doesn't show up very well in the photo but it really pulled it together and made it sweet.  It ended up being crib sized so if I can pry it away from my daughter it will be a gift for a friend's new baby. 

Incomplete

Well my goal for Thanksgiving was to make 8 napkins and a table topper to match my Rouenneries quilt.  It seemed like a reasonable goal but I only managed to get 4 napkins made.  I guess there's always next year: )  For these I used Essex Linen fat quarters with wide french-fold binding around the edges.  They're awfuly fiddly to make and each one took about an hour which seems like a lot of work for a napkin.  I think I'll prep the rest and sew them when I'm stuck on other projects.  No telling when I'll get the table topper quilted.

Domesticated

I generally have a hard-fast rule against what I refer to as domestic sewing.  Despite the fact that I rarely go 24 hours without sewing something I don't do practical things like replacing buttons or hemming pants.  At the risk of sounding pretentious, I'm an artist, I have to follow my vision.  So it's OK for me to create quilts for the beach house I don't have, not so much the house I live in.  In general, the less practical the product the more compelling the project.  Recently I had a change of heart.  Since we moved in to this house 5 years ago my husband has been begging me to hang a curtain in the bathroom.  Nothing fancy, just something to hide the ugly blinds.  Let's just say I was less than motivated.  Sure it was ugly but I don't use that bathroom.  And I tried a couple of times but I could never quite find the "right" fabric to go with the fishies on the shower curtain.  But sometimes things just come together and suddenly I was inspired... it started when I first saw the Robert Kauffman was coming out with Dr. Seuss fabric.  We LOVE Dr. Seuss, it's my kids' favorite and I can recite The Lorax from memory when necessary.  But I was still dreaming of the quilts I could make... until I saw Pottery Barn had come out with the shower curtain.  Suddenly I had a plan.  Of course like all my plans there were stumbling blocks.  First I had to wait, like forever, for the fabric to actually be released.  Then I thought I was going to use this but after ordering 2 yards of it and draping it on my window frame I decided the scale was off and I didn't like it for a valance after all.  Fortunately I had also ordered fat quarter packs of both Celebrate Seuss and The Cat in the Hat so I could sample to my heart's content.  Once I finally made the decision and tracked down the appropriate fabrics the construction was a breeze.  Here's the final result... the new valance and shower curtain.

Every quilt needs a pillow

I really love this fabric collection so once I finished this quilt I decided it needed a matching pillow.  I used Heather's tutorial over at House of a la Mode.  It really was easy!  The worst part was burned fingers from all the folding and pressing: )  There's still more of this floating around my studio and I found some of the matching chenille so I think there's at least one more Martinique quilt to come.

Making Progress

Well I'd meant to show work in progress on Wednesdays but this week my camera went missing and it's hard to show your work with no pictures.  Thankfully the camera finally turned up so I can get back to picture taking.  So, I've got all my Whirlygiggles made and just need to sew the rows together.  I threw in a couple extra blocks made with Heather Bailey's Bijoux.  I'm trying to decide if I want to add any borders to this or leave it as is.  I'd like to add a pink inner border to make it float a bit more but I'm out of pink so that would require more shopping: )

I've also pieced together all the strips I cut for my second Nicey Jane quilt but now I'm stuck.  This is busier than I'd imagined, I wish I'd dropped in a few solids.  Perhaps a solid border would make it calmer.  I also was imagining it as a picnic blanket but it's not big enough for that so I'd either have to add more or leave it as it is and go for a baby quilt.  I've lost my vision for this one but hopefully it'll come back to me.