2023/12/07
How many of your projects begin with a trip down the dark hole that is Pinterest? That’s where I got the inspiration for my most recent quilt. Several years ago I saw this photo on Pinterest and above all, loved the design and texture of the quilting. There was no pattern but I did the math and created and quilted a test block and decided it had to go on my ‘must make’ list. Well, a few years and more than a few quilts got in the way but this year I finally made it and it’s on our bed!
I didn’t even know there was a name for this style of quilt pattern until one of our most knowledgeable Guild members enlightened me; it’s called tessellations. According to Christine Porter, who literally wrote the book on the subject (“Tessellation Quilts”), “a tessellated pattern is one that interlocks, creating identical positive and negative spaces that can go on indefinitely. It is of particular interest to the quilter because once pieced together the design often looks like a quilting impossibility and it takes time to work out how it was done.” Her book is available on Amazon, by the way.
But that’s not all I’ve been working on since gardening time transitioned to quilting time this fall. There are at least as many appealing embroidery designs as there are appealing quilt patterns so I have to make time for both. Recently a sweet little great-niece (to us) was born on hubby’s side of the family and I’d seen the cutest little stuffie project on the Sweet Pea Machine embroidery Facebook site just begging to be made; Patch the dog. All components are stitched in the hoop and then sewn together after. And as usual, I far underestimated the time it would take me to complete it! I was sewing it together into the wee hours the day before it was to be delivered lol. It’s soft & squishy & cuddly & I might have to make one for myself.
At our Guild’s Christmas party, we raffle off gift baskets every year with the proceeds going to local charities. Either individuals or groups can contribute a basket to the raffle and we’ve raised considerable sums from our efforts. Most baskets will have a theme and this year our Tuesday stitching group is making one with a gnome theme. So of course my contribution is the wine bag with a machine embroidered gnome. And yes, of course, there’s a bottle of wine to go with it lol. And then there’s the embroidered Christmas cards….I even found black card stock this year. The design is from OESD.
I’ve also been catching up on the backlog of Community Quilts that were sitting here waiting for me to return from our three month cross Canada trip. I got those quilted too (I did not piece them, only quilted)! I had the most fun with the first one I did called Intertwined; I graffiti quilted it. The other three I used an all over design inspired by Stitched by Susan, a free motion long arm quilter whose YouTube videos I enjoy watching. It’s both quick and easy to do and now the quilts are all ready to go out to those in need in our community.
myrtBquilting 