Be Beautiful Mini Quilt

Quilting and Sewing



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.

One comment

Let the Living Begin!

Musings on Life and Beauty

It’s 2017, and while the year is young, it doesn’t feel “new” anymore.  That shiny, untarnished thing we welcomed is now well broken in and we’re the same people we were in December.  And you know, that’s just fine.  Of course we’re all working on new habits and taming old ones, and I’m certain that when 2018 rolls around (much sooner than I think it will) we will be better people.  But we are who we are, and there’s nothing magical about January 1st.

I well remember the first real dent we put in our hardwood floor after building our home.  My son ran into a cabinet that held a large platter and it went flying to the floor.  The boy and the platter were fine but the floor was definitely different.  Broken in.  We shrugged and said “let the living begin!”

I guess that’s how I feel about 2017 right now.  Already we’ve logged some pretty great memories and some hilarious mistakes and plenty of worries.  It’s going to last 12 months just like all the other years do.  We’re trying but imperfect.  So let the living begin!

peonies
I have a tendency to feel overwhelmed by a blank canvas.  It’s blank and boring but it’s also perfect, no mistakes in it.  I think I felt that way as December drew to a close and I felt like I had to set the perfect goals, and set them in the right way and with the right intent and….   it never really happened.  Things slow down during the holidays but with ten of us in the house life is always flowing faster than I can swim and so I started the year behind.  As usual.

But THIS is what it’s all about!  Day to day life, lived happily and with the best effort we can summon, is the whole point.  Would I wish for the flower to stay forever a bud to avoid the risk of an imperfect petal? Life has to bloom just like flowers do, and bring the beauty as well as the dirt.

The longer I live the more aware I become of all the things that could have happened, but haven’t.  It’s become a second gratitude list, the backside of counting my blessings.  We’ve had our challenges, to be sure, but there are so many challenges we haven’t had.  My heart is full of gratitude for the chance to live this particular life, the one that was hand picked just for ME.

The living of 2017 is well underway here, and I hope it’s the same for you!

Love, Jennifer

One comment

Rosewater + Gingham Quilt

Quilting and Sewing


rosewaterginghamquilt1
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.

rosewaterginghamquilt3
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!

rosewaterginghamquilt4
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.

rosewaterginghamquilt2
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

One comment
1 … 93 94 95 96 97 … 509