26 March 2015

Kyoto Flea Market quilt

Kyoto Flea Market quilt, on display.

Just finished two quilts, one of which is shown above, in DH's home office. The pattern was inspired by Kathy Adams pattern Japanese Story.

Kathy Adams, Japanese Story.

The geometry is fairly basic, so I didn't purchase the pattern, but worked out the dimensions and construction on my own. However, the pattern gives yardage requirements, cutting instructions and assembly diagrams, so would be useful for someone just beginning in quilting.

Rolls of narrow width woven fabric.

I named the quilt Kyoto Flea Market as I purchased the patterned fabrics at a temple market in Kyoto in 2012. To my dismay, when I returned home I found most of the fabrics had holes and other areas of damage (the fabrics were tied in tight, unscrutinizable bundles at the market). However, there was enough usable material for two nearly identical quilts (a limited edition, if you will). Buyer beware, indeed!

Items at the temple flea market.

This pattern is a useful way to "corral" a collection of large-, medium- and small- scale fabrics and show them to advantage.  Below is a "blankie" for a child assembled from shibori samples made in an Elin Noble workshop.

Shibori sampler quilt.

Detail, Kyoto Flea Market quilt.





The sashing is black Kona cotton, and while most of the hand-quilting is done with black thread, I hand-quilted the sashing using red thread - subtle, but a little zingy.

03 March 2015

Cat Gallery quilt

Note the screen saver - we like cats of all types.

Just finished a quilt begun in 2013....talk about the Slow Fiber movement... but now the work has a binding, hanging sleeve, and a good place in DH's home office. We are a family of ailurophiles.

The impetus for this quilt was an old fabric, featuring stylized cat face designs in red and gray, found on ebay.  This fabric can be seen in the large blocks bordered in black in the quilt.  Also used is a recent Michael Miller fabric based on the designs of 1950's artist Tammis Keefe.  I had enough of the old fabric to make three of these quilts, sort of a limited edition; the other two quilts were given to veterinarians.

Quilt on display at animal hospital.

Vintage cat fabric, before quilting.

Red, white and black is a timeless quilt color scheme. The quilt was fun to work on, although I went a bit overboard with the hand-quilting.

Detail showing pieced border.