Category: Projects

Colors, flowers, a little vintage, a little modern, simplicity and elegance, bold but delicate.  All of these are things I love.  I also love to make things.  Last week all of them came together in this little project and I still feel giddy about it.


I’m a member of the Utah County Modern Quilt Group (ucmqg) and I’d known for months that I wanted to make a hoop for their hoop challenge.  I even had a plan but when sewing time came I had no desire to make what I’d planned.  I decided to start with something I felt excited about and see where it led.


I’ve been doing a lot of hand sewing lately, specifically, hand applique.  Once upon a time I had a lot of sewing time during the winter but as my children have grown the winter is really busy and for the most part I’m only sewing on the go.  I’ve started several patterns by Carolyn Friedlander and am loving the process of making them, so I decided to try her Trudy block which is available on Creativebug .

I knew the block was too small for my 12″ hoop so that led me to look at my fabric differently.  I wondered if I could find something that would do the work of filling the space with interest, and would also showcase the applique.  I tried to remember everything I learned last year from Australian designers like Kathy Doughty and Jen Kingwell, how they mix modern and vintage and use unexpected fabrics to make heroes of the combination.  My thoughts immediately went to this vintage fabric I’ve been “saving.”  The perfect blue, I decided to center it carefully in the hoop and see how the circular block would look with it.  The yellow was an easy choice for the outer circle and I decided a floral would fit nicely in the center.  The fabulous Jennifer Paganelli print was the first that came to mind; I’ve been saving it too.


It worked.  And I love it.  And it’s so ME.  It’s what I’ve always loved mixed with where my tastes are moving, who I’ve always been and who I’m becoming and where I’m trying to go.  Perhaps that’s all a little much for something as simple as two circles in a wood embroidery hoop, but it’s how I feel.  Making this block made me hungry to make!  The very best creative harvest, if you ask me.

Meet my first project of 2017!  This mini quilt was made for an annual swap held by a friend and I had a wonderful time making it.


I started with a piece of Amy Butler’s fabulous Celestial bird print from her Hapi collection.  This fabric is a treasured favorite of mine and I wanted to show it off.


Improv piecing is something I’m working at becoming more comfortable with so naturally this project was a great exercise.  I love straight line quilting and chose a peachy orange thread, and when I had quilted it I took a deep breath and decided to add some extra details, the kind I always admire in others’ work but struggle to add to my own.  I want to push myself creatively this year, so this felt like an appropriate start.


I chose coordinating perle cotton and hand stitched the quilting in several small solid areas and stitched a tiny piece of selvedge I’d saved from my 100 blocks project to the bird square.


My sister sent me some really cool tags for Christmas, the kind of detail I usually store carefully to save for the “perfect project” that never gets made.  Not this time.  I decided to add the “be your own kind of beautiful” tag and I love it so much!


A bit of Kate Spain fabric for the back and orange scallop for the binding finished this off beautifully.


I have to admit that when I finished I half wished I could keep it.  It’s true that we stitch little pieces of ourselves into our work and giving it away can be bittersweet.  That’s the beauty of creating, and I loved creating this piece.  It left me with a smile on my face and a feeling of fulfillment in my heart.

My Rosewater + Gingham quilt is finished and in use around our house.  I quilted it very simply with straight lines in the ditch around all the seams.  It’s  a quilting style I haven’t used much, simple, but also needing great attention to detail to maintain straight lines.  To be honest, I’m not sure yet how much I like it, and yet I don’t dislike it either.


I chose a second gingham for the backing and it makes my heart sing.  It’s a lovely bright blue diagonal plaid print from Jane Sassaman, and I added a strip of my favorite Jennifer Paganelli floral.  I’ll be so sad when I run out of scraps of that print!


I used my scraps from the quilt top to make a scrappy binding that continues the theme of the quilt.  This was such a fun project, made entirely from stash by combining fabrics I already had in a way I never planned to do.  This was a fun but simple creative exercise for me.


It makes me wonder what other awesome fabric combinations are hiding in my sewing room because I simply haven’t taken the time to discover them yet.  I hope to devote more time to this sort of sewing in the future.

Jennifer Relevant Post:

Rosewater + Gingham quilt top