Fabric Crushes

 I have had four distinct fabric crushes, and I’m always surprised when I find something I love so much.  The first was from a Bonnie .Christine AGF line, “Hello, Bear.”  

The second was fabrics from Marcia Derse.

And then I discovered Janet Clare and her Wordsmith line.  Like the other two so far, these fabrics are now out of print.  

And now I’ve discovered Seth Apter and his line Storyteller.  His fabrics have a collage-ish look with muted colors.  (Note:  I almost included e bond  in this post.  Her first line was Glyphs with the most interesting mostly black and white prints.  But now she’s gone waaay too colorful). Let’s see how long this crush lasts! 

Houston, we have a problem…

 These are all recently-finished quilt tops.  And I want to hand quilt each of them.  But it’s getting warm - not the time of the year to be sitting under quilts as I stitch.  

This old yellow and black top is odd.  I like it, but I’m not sure who else will.  I’m thinking grandson Sam is ready for a new quilt.  Maybe he’ll like it.

This quilt features a lot of Seth Apter fabrics.  And i love this pattern.  There’s enough of the background fabric to back it with.  But I’m not sure.  Tbd…

I’m actually thinking of machine-quilting this one - it lends itself to straight-line quilting,  With the imminent arrival of the double brood of cicadas combined with where we live - in the middle of an established tree haven - I think it’s going to be an indoor summer.    Maybe I can quilt these after all! 

Hexagons, Grief, and Jazz

We went on a jazz cruise in January, obviously John’s.  I would like points for not taking my sewing machine.  However, I did take along a stack of big hexagons, some left from previous projects and some cut expressly for this project.  I’m not a great hand piecer, but these hexagons, since they require y-seams, are really ideal for hand piecing.  So every day I pieced away, watching the jazz shows on the closed circuit television.  Of course I came out for meals!  We were both happy for the week.  

 

This jazz cruise quilt is a duplicate, of sorts, of the quilt I was working in as my brother Doug was dying.  The last two weeks of his life were difficult.  I didn’t sit with him that much, but when I was there, this quilt below is what I was working on.  And after his death every quilted stitch was one of grief and loss.  We all grieve in different ways.  For me it is stitching - that started with my mom’s death in 2014.  

On the year anniversary of Doug’s death, I wondered if perhaps his daughter, my niece Laura, might want this quilt.  It represented my grief but would it mean anything to her?  So I offered it to her.  And she accepted it.  I’m happy this quilt has found its owner and that she cherishes it.