Hopeful Homemaker

I am excited to share my Prairie Sweets Quilt today.  When I started it, I was so intimidated by needle turn applique!

The pattern intrigued me but it was definitely a stretch for my skills at the time.  Looking back, this quilt started my love of applique.

I made it with Anna Maria Horner’s Pretty Potent collection.  The background fabrics are a mixed selection of low volume Swiss dot from various manufacturers.  This was the first applique project that I started carrying with me in the car for on-the-go stitching.  I still remember my view at several soccer tournaments, stitching circles happily in the car while waiting for the game to begin.


I finished it years ago , and it sat because I had no idea how to quilt it, and no budget for the custom quilting I wanted.  When I finally got serious about quilting Prairie Sweets myself, I turned to my sketchbook and started doodling until something came together.  Although it’s flawed, and definitely NOT the work of a longarm professional, I am thrilled with how it turned out.  It’s one of my best quilting efforts on my little machine.

I had carefully preserved the centers of my rings when making the blocks, so I put them to use.  I appliqued them to smaller low volume background squares and used them for the backing.  That gorgeous strip of Amy Butler fabric at the top makes it look like a temple, or castle.  I framed the whole thing with more AMH fabric to complete the back.  It’s one  of my favorites to date.

I love the way the quilting looks in the next two photos.  I am proud of my work and glad to see progress in my skills.  And patience!  Courage, too, I suppose.  It’s so nice to have this one done so we can enjoy it.

Framing the rings with another ring of small circles let me join the blocks to each other without starting and stopping, and the corners as well.

This Prairie Sweets quilt is a really fun and versatile pattern.  It’s a lovely showcase for the beautiful prints.  Although it seems like yesterday that I was sewing with them, they’re about eight years old now – but I still love them.

So here we are, a finished quilt 8 years after it’s beginning.  I hope to push a lot of older projects across the finish line this summer.  It’s fun to bring them back and make them useful.  

Happy Sewing!

Jennifer

It’s no secret that I love Carolyn Friedlander’s applique quilt patterns.  I have made many of them, such as the Catenary , Botanics , Aerial Grove , Rin , and Collection quilts.  Quilting, however, is an obstacle for me, as I’m always wanting to quilt a masterpiece myself, but afraid of ruining them.  So I have several awaiting quilting.  It’s the bottleneck in my quilting process.  Today, however, I’m happy to share photos of my finished Everglade quilt!

I shared photos of this Everglade quilt top in November 2019 and had it quilted in 2020.  I am going through all my quilts and finding that I just didn’t photograph or blog about several of them during the pandemic.  Part of it was pandemic life and a desire to stay away from the internet.  But a bigger part was that my best quilt holder was away for two years and I just never seemed to ask anyone else to do it.  So this summer I intend to catch up on all the quilts I skipped!

My Everglade Quilt is a happy quilt, but difficult to photograph with all the pastels and blues.  Still, it went with us to our last trip to the beach house for a few snapshots there.  I had it quilted with a simple allover floral design which seemed appropriate for a trellis design.

These colors and fabrics feel beachy and summery to me.  They were a joy to sew with!  Jennifer Paganelli draws some gorgeous florals, that’s for sure!

The acidic yellow floral across the top became a favorite while I was sewing this.  I love all the pattern on pattern in this quilt.

I sure love this house, even with the old windows, fading paint, and Grandpa’s funny collection of shutters.  It has been a gift to be here every summer, all my life, and to bring my kids and my quilts as well.  These pictures in front of a place that means so much, is a lovely way to document my heart and my life.

I hope you take pictures of your quilts.  I hope you take them in front of places that are dear to you.  Know that what you create, what you care about, what you document, MATTERS.  It really does.

Happy Sewing!

Jennifer

I just finished my fastest ever hand sewing project – and I can’t wait to start another.  It was fun, fast, and 100% hand sewn.   This Indigo Siddi mini project features indigo fabrics from India, a collaborative offering from two quilters, one in the US and one in India.

Last year my sister and I took an online class to learn how to make a Siddi quilt.  The process is relaxing and rewarding, and a great use for scraps.

One thing I learned is that the tight weave of most of my fabrics makes them harder to sew through comfortably, but fabrics from India are a little lighter and easier to stitch through.  In this Indigo Siddi mini project, most of the fabrics I used are from India, available in this gorgeous indigo bundle :

They are dreamy to sew through – soft and buttery and beautiful.  My stitches are uneven and need a lot of work, but the texture is still great.  I love running my hand over it.  It’s really fun that you can put all the layers together in a particular way, and have no need for quilting or binding when the top is done.

I let the indigo bundle dictate the color scheme and pulled other blue scraps to round it out.  I included a blue striped woven fabric for the back.

I’ve enjoyed this small quilt on my table all week, along with fresh cut peonies from my yard.  It’s a wonderful thing to fill our homes with things we made.

This crystal vase is a favorite of mine.  It was a wedding gift from an elderly lady who was kind to me in my teen-aged and young adult years.  Looking back, I really don’t know why, but she believed in me.  I love remembering her as I use her gift.

I see more of these Siddi projects in my future, because one was definitely not enough.  I’m eager to improve my stitches, use more scraps, and find useful purpose for them.  Plus, I still have some of those gorgeous fabrics from India that are begging to be used!

Happy Sewing!

Jennifer