Moon and Stars Quilt

I have been very lax about posting lately but not much work is being done in the studio. We leave for Australia in two weeks so I have been spending quite a bit of time getting organized for that. I did manage to finish quilting this one today using silver thread again. I am binding it with a burgundy. I debated between that and the blue of the sashing. The decision was made for me when I measured the blue piece of fabric and found that there was not nearly enough of it to go all the way around the quilt. The quilt is now hanging over the railing in the house waiting to be hand sewn down. I'll have to find something good on TV.

Stars and Moons

Today I stenciled on some stars and moons. I think it softens the turquoise a bit. I have a large piece of snow dye that should fit the back. I will probably quilt this one with silver thread like the last one. I had thought I'd use gold but now that it's done I think silver will work better.

None of the Above

None of the borders really did it for me so I snow dyed another piece of fabric and used it. I like it better than any of the other choices. Also all the fabric is now hand dyed.
Now I want to do some stenciling on the blue sashing to soften the grid look. I will probably use the moon and stars stencils again. Another option would be some sort of Yoga images because this will probably be used for relaxing under at the end of Yoga classes. Any brilliant ideas out there?

Another Border?

I have assembled the top with the turquoise sashing and I like how it looks.
My question is, do I need another border? To me it looks a bit unfinished. I would have made the outside borders a bit wider but I didn't have enough of the turquoise fabric.


The blue with the dots is not exactly the same turquoise but it might work with a narrow white or pink border between it and the turquoise border. The purple has little sparkles in it that don't really show up in the pictures. The orange is a commercial fabric but it goes well with the hand dyes. I'll be thinking about this one for a day or two.

Which Sashing?

I cut squares for a third quilt using my hand dyed fabrics. I am debating about what color to use for the sashing. Right now I am leaning heavily toward the turquoise. I am thinking it would be fun to do some more stencils and the blue would be best for that.

Moon and Stars Quilt

I finished sewing down the binding on this quilt this morning. It is about 55 inches by 70 inches. Every block is cut from a piece of my hand dyed fabric. The sashing is also hand dyed. I thought the sashing looked too dark so I used paintsticks to stencil on some moons and stars. Then I quilted it with silver thread in a loose meander pattern.


The back is a large piece of fabric that is snow dyed. I have explained this process in previous blog posts. It is a perfect quilt for relaxing under at the end of a Yoga session.
I am entering it in this online contest over at Gen X Quilters. You can go to the contest by clicking on the Love Nest Quilt Contest icon on the side bar.
Drop over for a visit and vote on your favorite quilt.

Shopping

We went to the big city yesterday and I did end up in a fabric store. If you can imagine, I only got fabric to make tea towels. It's the right width so all I had to do was cut it in pieces and hem the ends.


We also went to a couple of ethnic grocery stores and I got papadams, teff flour, whole nutmegs and sumack. I'd better get out some cookbooks!

Crazy Crazy

Here are some more scrap blocks I have been working on. I seem to be wanting to use up scraps lately. The chicken and dog are embroideries. Each block is about 14 inches because that is the size of my biggest square ruler.

Warmer Weather

The -40 wind chills have gone for the moment so I enjoyed my walk a lot more.


The snow is very deep in places though. You can see that I'm in to the level of my parka which is mid-thigh. We packed a trail on Sunday so I didn't bother with the snowshoes. However, near the top of the hill, the trail was blown in and this was the result. It's hard walking because in some places the snow is hard enough to walk on and the next step could be thigh deep. It is great exercise!

Quilting Done

I finished quilting the hand dye with stars and moon. Here is where I ran out of bobbin thread. It usually happens when there are still a few inches to go. I have the binding on and now just have to sew it down. I guess it's time to start something new...

Roll of Batting

I picked this roll of Warm and Natural batting today. I ordered it from JoAnn Fabrics when they had it on sale so I got a great deal. Now I'll have batting when I need it.


I started quilting the hand dyed quilt. I'm using silver thread which is breaking quite regularly but I like the look of it so I'll keep re-threading the needle.

Bah Humbug

I have added a bug to Bah! Humbug! The idea was to have it look like one of the bugs on my bug fabric but it ended up looking like a six legged spider. Good thing realism is not something we unruly quilters strive for.


This is the latest snow dye up on the design wall. Some of the details are really interesting. I'd be happier if there weren't so many large white areas but quilting could change that.

Turkish Food

Today we made Turkish food. I got the pictures loaded in the wrong order so the desserts are first. We had semolina cake and Turkish carrot cake.


These are beets with balsamic vinegar and pine nuts. The side dish is yogurt with garlic and dill.

These are some of the pide, which are a Turkish version of pizza. Everything was totally delicious! But of course, as usual, I ate way too much.

Second Snow Dye of the Season

I snow dyed another piece of fabric yesterday. The first one wasn't big enough for the back of the quilt I meant it for. This one is very different. Now I have to decide if I'll use this one or add a piece to the other one.

Snow Dye

Here is the pile of fabric with the snow all melted.


Here it is dried and spread out on the table. I absolutely love it!


This detail really caught my eye. Along with about fifty other details. I'll probably be using it for the back of the quilt I stenciled the moons and stars on. (Picture on Jan 6th post) I'm sure I could never bear to cut into it!

My Morning Walk

I love the shadows on this one.


This was taken partway down our hill just as the sun was coming out from the clouds.

Border Time

This afternoon I put a border on the crazy block quilt. Now I'll have to shop for backing. I could piece something together but it's a big quilt (about 85x68) so I think it will be easier to just get some extra wide backing fabric. With this quilt it won't matter at all what color so I'll just grab whatever I can find.


This is a snow dye in progress, hopefully to use on the back of the moon and stars quilt that I did with paintsticks and hand dyed fabrics.

Bah Humbug

I made a couple of new letters and now I like it better. I may still try it again with lighter green in the background. I'm thinking of some bugs on either side of Bah. Humbug is about 20 inches long.

Bah Humbug

Tonya has challenged us to use her free pieced letters to write Bah! Humbug! This is my first attempt. I am going to redo the B and A in Bah. They are too small and too dark for the rest of the letters. It would be the B that I need to change. It's one of the more difficult letters along with M and W. Still, they are all fun and it's great to see what others do with the idea. You can see more at UnRuly Quilting.

Frosty Monday

Similar to a Frosty Friday but better (if you are retired!) These were taken on my early morning walk today.


Here is our studio where I work my magic (or try to at least). In the distance you can see the house so I get a bit of exercise walking back and forth.


Trees in the frost and you can see the caboose at the bottom of the hill.


Sometimes even weeds can be beautiful.