Rainbows

I took a wonderful course with Jo Avery at QuiltCon on needle-turned applique rainbows - read about the class. My class project is now done and finishes at 17" x 17".

All steps of this project have been enjoyable. The applique finished up quickly and since then I've been slow stitching the hand quilting on my piece. It has been my go-to handwork project for guild meetings and coffee meetups. 

While I could certainly keep adding more quilting texture, I decided to call it done and shift my attention to a new version, done in colors of the trans flag.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

On My Cutting Table

Warning! This post is filled with beautiful fabric. 😉

I've been playing with some beautiful fabric in my sewing room. First up is the QuiltCon fabric challenge using Ruby & Bee solids in colorways slate, rain cloud, stormy, unicorn, turmeric, and poppy. These fabrics are so soft and wonderful to work with. My quilt top is in the works - here is a sneak peak of one of the blocks I was experimenting with.

I drew up a design for the quilt and then deviated from the specifics quite a bit. Its been a fun make and I look forward to sharing.

Next up is this beautiful rainbow of rich color - Speckled from Ruby Star. I'm working on a quilt for a Fat Quarter Shop pattern launch coming in August. 

The blocks have been fun to put together and I'll be donating the finished quilt to my guild's community giving project.

Since I'll have lots of scraps leftover, I've decided to pair them with this Ruby Star Ten Years of Magic panel and make lots of economy blocks.

These will be a really fun sew and I can't wait to get started.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Layered Legacies - NC Museum of Art Exhibit

I spent a delightful afternoon yesterday visiting the Layered Legacy exhibit at the NC Museum of Art. (The show closes later this month so check it out soon if you are local!) The quilts on exhibit, the majority of which were created in the early to mid-1800s, were on loan from Old Salem. 

The quilt above was the oldest in the exhibit and was dated as 1796 and from the household of Elizabeth Webster. The word household was used multiple times throughout the exhibit and there were posters on the wall to acknowledged that some of the family of some of these quilt holders owned slaves which may have contributed to the quilts but most certainly freed the quilt maker from daily domestic duties so they had time to create.

My favorite quilt in the exhibit is this blue and white quilt, created by a girl who died young and was preserved and treasured by her sister. Although hard to see in the photo, there was wonderful hand quilted motifs in the white areas.

I was most intrigued by all the hand quilting and the resulting texture. 

Outside the exhibit were 4 pieces of textile art from 3 different makers. The quilt is the work of my friend Michelle Wilke. The exhibit store had some of Michelle's work for sale plus books from my friend Frances Dowell. I have such talented friends!

In the main gift store, they had a repurposed cigarette machine which dispensed mini works of art for $5. So fun! I treated my daughter to a token and several people came up while we were having fun choosing and then went to buy their own tokens!

Have a wonderful day! Patty