Owls and a Fox and Stars—Oh, My!

Have you ever started a project, and then somehow got so involved with other things that you forgot all about it? About five or six years ago, I was at Quilt Festival in Cincinnati and picked up a sample of Paper Pieces to make a hexie flower. By the end of the show, I had purchased the diamond shapes and a jelly roll of Moda's Kansas Troubles. I basted and stitched on every car trip we took for the next few months. My husband even took me to a quilt shop on one of our trips, so I could get the neutral setting fabric. I got this far and was pretty tickled, and then I looked at it, loving the secondary design, and couldn't decide how to proceed. Should I make a group of blocks like this and think of a setting for them, or should I just keep adding stars until I run out of fabric? A jelly roll would make a lot of stars, I discovered.

Now I can't wait to get back to this!

I made a few more stars, but didn't put them together, thinking I'd wait until some inspiration struck me. Before I was inspired, however, I forgot all about these fun little stars. 

Until we went to Houston in the fall, and I rediscovered the fun of English paper piecing. Kara and I thought it might be fun to do some fussy-cutting, and then embellish the design with embroidery. It seemed like a great reason to search for fun fabric, and we were, after all, at the International Quilt Festival, so there was no shortage of fabulous choices! We, of course, bought WAY more than we needed, but one can never have too much in one's fabric palette, right?! 

For our first hexie design, we chose a fabric line from Blend Fabrics, with adorable woodland creatures and fun patterns to mix and match. We had fabric spread out everywhere, trying to decide which to use and how we wanted to fussy-cut the designs. I chose owls, and Kara opted for a fox. And then the fun began. It didn't take us long to finish our hexies, which measured about a foot in size. For us, the fun part is usually the embroidery, and we were eager to start embellishing. That, naturally, meant shopping for thread, which we found at the WonderFil Specialty Threads booth. We stocked up on threads in the Sue Spargo Collection: various weights of pearl cotton, rayon, rayon/metallic, and wool threads, to match our fabric design. Oh, what fun!

Kara is working on her fox hexie and is nearly finished. Here are a few shots of her work thus far.

The block is basted on a ground fabric, which offers stability while embroidering.

Such sweet flowers!

Kara used embroidery stitches to accentuate the flower designs in the fabric.

The stitching adds lovely texture.

How adorable is this furry fox?! Turkey work with wool thread creates his furry chest and ears.

I raced to finish my hexie, because I wanted to stitch it to a bag for my granddaughter and fill it with books for Christmas. She seems to love her bag!

Stitching knots

I attached the hexie to the bag using a fly stitch.

The finished book bag, with her name stitched on the top.

 

  A couple detail shots

The lazy daisies in the leaves were stitched with variegated green pearl cotton (Eleganza™), gray rayon (Razzle™), and gold wool (Ellana™)—all from the Sue Spargo Collection from WonderFil Specialty Threads.

The center star and surrounding knots are stitched with Dazzle™ thread,
which has one strand of metallic with the rayon, adding a bit of sparkle.

Wise owls are embellished with lazy daisy stitches, knots, and turkey work.

The different kinds of threads add interest with the variety of textures and sheen.

    

Ella loves the texture added by the stitching on the bag. And she loves reaching in for her books!

  

Kara has jumped on the star bandwagon, and she is creating a border for the Secret Garden block that we will be teaching at the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg at the end of the month. I can't wait to see it! Stay tuned for the big reveal. As for me, I am looking forward to getting back to my own rediscovered stars. So many projects, so little time!

What about you? Have you tried English paper piecing? What are you stitching on now?

The Beauty of New York Via Denver

As we had mentioned in previous posts, Teri and I have been traipsing around various parts of the country over the last six to eight months--sometimes together and sometimes not. This October, I had a chance to visit my daughter in Denver, Colorado. Denver in the fall is absolutely amazing, and we had wonderful weather to enjoy as we spent time together.

Sampling some of Denver's great beers

A gorgeous day at the downtown farmers market

When Kaitlin had to work, I planned a field trip for myself, doing some of my favorite things: looking at antique quilts, shopping in an antique mall, and visiting a new quilt shop. How convenient that I was able to do all three things within 30 miles of Denver. 

My first stop was the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. The day I stopped by was the last day of the New York Beauty quilt exhibit, and it did not disappoint. The collection is owned by Bill Volckening, who began collecting quilts in 1989 and hasn't stopped yet. You can read more about Bill on his blog, Wonky World, and on his website, here.

Golden, Colorado, has a quaint little downtown, and the museum is situated right in the midst. I was warmly greeted at the door and paid my admission fee. While the museum is not very large, the $6 admission fee was reasonable, as they are able to beautifully display many quilts. 

The volunteer docent was kind, helpful, and a wealth of information about the current exhibit. I am not a very good piecer of quilts, so the tiny pieces used to make these quilts was impressive. It is amazing how one pattern can be interpreted in so many different ways. I will let these lovely quilts—and their makers' interpretations—speak for themselves.

This was my favorite

I could write more about the origin of the New York Beauty pattern, but this blog post has such great information, I thought I would direct you there. If you would like to see more of this collection and find out more information about each quilt, you can purchase the book New York Beauty Quilts from the Volckening Collection from Quiltmania here.

The next stop was the Brass Armadillo Antique Mall. This is a vast antique mall with so many aisles! I walked away with some vintage trim, but I really should have purchased these two gems.

Someone had quite the sense of humor when they stitched this.

A whole new look for trapunto

An interesting take on Grandmother's Flower Garden

A sweet doll quilt

This would not have fit in the overhead compartment

These would be beautiful additions to someone's chatelaine

The Victorians sure loved beautiful sewing tools!

The last stop on my field trip was Harriet's Treadle Arts in Wheatfield, Colorado. This is an amazing quilt shop, and should be a must-stop if you are in the area. They have a huge selection of reproduction fabrics, and that is just in one section!

The reproduction section

Some of these went home with me

The book section

A spacious classroom

I hope you have enjoyed this little field trip, and that someday you will be able to stop in to some of these places and enjoy them as much as I did. Have you been on a fun quilting field trip? Let us know, so that we and our readers can visit too!