alphabet embroidery + weekend reading

For the past few months, I've been stitching my way through the alphabet, using the pretty patterns I receive every week as a member of Polka and Bloom's Alphabet Motif Club. I started in September (my first two letters are above) and I'm currently working on K. The letters up through U have been released though, so this weekend I'm hoping to set aside some time to stitch and get caught up. In the meantime, here are a few links to take you into the weekend:

Apartment Therapy did a nice round-up showing quilts in modern interiors.

Target has teamed up with Faribault Woolen Mills in MN to produce a line of products featuring their US-woven wools.

A quilt made from wetsuits.

Rennes makes my favorite leather bags, and I love this honest interview Rennes' owner Julia Okun did on the real costs of producing and selling domestically produced, high-quality goods.

This vintage quilt pin is the perfect way to incorporate a bit of patchwork into your wardrobe, and is going onto my Christmas wish list.

I just discovered Griswold Textile Print, a mill in Rhode Island that produces hand screen-printed fabrics for lots of great makers, including a new favorite, Fayce Textiles.

This Joy embroidery pattern I designed is easy to stitch and a perfect last-minute holiday gift.

There are so many exciting events and workshops coming up in 2015 that I want to attend, travel budget permitting: The Makers Summit in Greenville, SC; a sewing weekend with Anna Graham in Burlington, VT; and Improv Patchwork with Denyse Schmidt in Bridgeport, CT. Will you be at any of them?

Happy weekend, friends!

flying geese + feathers

This quilt has been a long time coming. Back when my husband and I got married, my dearest friend from my high school days gifted us with a beautiful, bed-size quilt. So when she got married in New York City last summer, I knew it was my chance to return the favor and make her and her new husband a quilt.

My friend loves purple (this wall quilt was for her), so I looked around on Design Seeds for purple inspiration. I wound up using this color palette to inspire my fabric pull. My friend had mentioned her love of Anna Maria Horner's feathers, so I knew I wanted to use those in the quilt. When I discovered how long it took to make each feather, and knew that I needed to wind up with a queen-size quilt, I decided to revise my plan a bit. I made stacks of feathers, flying geese, and half-square triangles, and then began piecing improvisationally, adding blocks of fabric as I went along to fill space.

The results were admittedly chaotic---so much randomness!---but completely different than anything I've done before.

Since it was so large, and I'd already done so much piecing, I decided to use a purple sheet for a seamless backing. I was pleasantly surprised with how soft it was! Lindsay of Eileen Quilts quilted it for me and I bound it with one of Carolyn Friedlander's cross-hatch prints. I added a hand-embroidered label with the couple's wedding date, along with a new leather Salty Oat tag.

I gifted it to my friend the weekend before last (over a year after her wedding---oops!), while visiting my parents in New Hampshire. The timing worked out well, since the changing fall foliage provided the perfect backdrop for photos.

triangle scraps + a finished quilt

I'm so excited to share today's quilt with you! I started this quilt earlier this year, on a quest to clear out my scrap bins---at least enough to fit the lids back on top.  While I didn't manage to do that---my scrap pile keeps growing!---I did fall in love with this scrappy quilt.

The quilt pattern is "Up, Up, and Away," by Amanda Jean Nyberg, and is found in the book Sunday Morning Quilts. I paired white, cream, and khaki squares with little triangles of color, ranging from vintage to modern fabrics. Piecing took forever---lots of trimming and experimenting with the layout---but I think it was well worth the effort.

I used a saturated and bold blue Marimekko print for the back and a coordinating cobalt-blue-and-white stripe for the binding. I stuck with my favorite cross-hatch quilting, which added a nice texture to the quilt.

 

This quilt is now listed for sale in the Salty Oat Etsy shop, and I'd love to know, what are your favorite scrap-busting projects?

All photos by Caroline Okun. 

keeping it simple

Though I finished this quilt last year (and am only getting around to blogging about it now!), I actually started it back in 2010, not long after we moved to Maryland. I made the blocks as part of the Stitch DC Mystery Quilt Along, and stashed them away until last year.

I stuck with a lime green and periwinkle color palette, using prints from Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, and Cloud9 Fabrics. Though I played around with numerous layouts and considered incorporating borders and sashing, I wound up laying out the blocks in a simple grid pattern, which I think suits it perfectly!

I selected a fun, bright Amy Butler print from my stash for the back and love how it coordinates with the front. For the binding, I used a light blue and white seersucker stripe for a pop of texture. After quilting and washing, the quilt came out so soft and squishy---perfect for snuggling.

It's so nice to finally have this quilt done! It's now for sale in the Salty Oat Etsy shop.

UPDATE 11/21/14: This quilt is now available for purchase at Cary Quilting Company, in downtown Cary, North Carolina.

All photos by Caroline Okun. 

LMP+QG january challenge: colored pencil roll

A few weeks ago, my friend Kait and I came up with a challenge for ourselves: each month, we would select a project from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, make it, and blog about it. [I've already done one project from this book and loved it: Luna's Puzzle Ball.] This month, for the first project, we decided to make the colored pencil roll:

I was happy with how my roll turned out, and amazed that I had enough of a range of colors in my scrap bin to create a rainbow. I've been using color more and more in my quilt sketches these days, so I think this will be a very handy accessory to have.

See Kait's pretty roll (and sketchbook!) here.

Coming up next month: Stacked Coins quilt