Rose quilt

New Pillow

This is my latest crafty creation. I'm happy with it. It's kind of a mauve cord material with patchwork. The pink floral thing is a tablecloth that I decided to cut up. It was really too much pink to eat off of...

Square

Here is a square I made using one of the silk pieces (I found in the garbage) as the ''cabin" in the centre. It is actually hanging the wrong way. Turn your head sideways to the right and it will be perfect.

Another use for binder clips: displaying finished quilt pieces.

A more traditional way of doing this would be to put darker fabrics on one side of the piece, to represent the shadier side of the house. I am currently experimenting with this.

Sewing machine update: the old one has been returned to the store, and I am ready to buy.

Score!

Ladies and gentlemen, I found this amazing thing in the garbage: fabric swatches, and enough fabric in three gorgeous colours to make a set of cushions. I looked at the label, and this stuff is 100% silk and from a very expensive fabric store in Westmount. The swatches are PERFECT for log cabin quilting. My plan now is to make a log cabin quilt using the swatches as the 'cabin'. I will show you an example of what this will look like in a future posting. Then, I will make a set of cushions to go with the log cabin quilt from the larger pieces of fabric. And, as if this find weren't enough, they are all neatly on a hanger for easy storage! Score!!

Craft mentors

I decided if I am going to make this transition into craft world, I need a guide. So far, I have a superb craft mentor named Serah Marie, a talented and energetic young woman, who is both textile artist and editor of Worn. She is a brilliant and inspirational teacher. She is good at teaching the technical aspects of sewing. But, like every good art teacher, she has her eye on the higher vision of artistic expression. During my log cabin quilting course, she described - with tears in her eyes - her own journey into textile art which began after a visit to the Whitney Museum in New York where she saw the Gees Bend Quilters. Serah Marie is a true artist. She does not believe in measuring - or only where it matters. That works well for me. She also encourages her students to be instinctive when grabbing fabrics for a quilt. ''Don't worry about matching", she says. "Sometimes surprising and interesting things come out of putting together things that don't look like they match.''