heARTS Creations

In January, I finished a special quilt top for a very special person. In March it made its way to the long arm quilter then back home to be bound. It was an absolute delight to finally gift this quilt in April for its intended recipient. This gentleman has an extensive book collection is why I chose the bookshelf quilt.

He does have a cat, so one sits on one of the shelves. The coffee mug has the first initial of his name, and the brass nameplate says “Chef”, which is his profession. A scattering of books has a “title.” For some, I used a selvedge, others just a narrow strip of print fabric.

The backing is an Anna Maria Horner fabric that I just happened to have in my stash – Score! It could not have been more perfect!

And here he is with his personal quilt! My hope is that this quilt gives him as much joy as it has given me.

Spring is in hyper overdrive here in the Piedmont, yet here I am continuing to work on Christmas ornaments! I’ve done several more of the Twelve Days of Christmas ornaments and am still very much enjoying the process.

The Goose-A-Laying and her egg. The “nest” design was so clever and the egg was a fun simple one to make.

The pattern suggests several color choices for each ornament. I loved how dramatic the black for the swan is.

Maid-a-Milking. I “cheated” a bit and ordered the prepainted beads for the heads. They were so reasonable and I just knew I would frustrate myself to no end trying to paint them myself! The people ornaments are definitely more challenging than the birds and less intuitive. Fortunately, the directions are excellent and I read and reread them.

The Drummer! He was the most challenging to date, but still fun. I continue to be in awe of the designer’s attention to detail like the cuffs on the sleeves and although not seen in this picture, there is a pom pom on the top of the hat!

Just a few more to go! I have all the pieces traced and have also chosen all the felt. I’m also still committed to doing a second set. Looks like I’ll have the first set ready for this Christmas!

Some time ago I saw a posting for a quilt called “Arboretum” by Springleaf Studios. I really loved it and having a ridiculous bin full of Kaffe scraps, I decided to do it. Here it is about two years later and I am finally tackling this project. I pulled out all my pretty flowery Kaffe prints. For the trunks and branches I chose Aboriginal Dots and Millefore prints.

Pairing the fabrics was not as easy as it might seem. I auditioned more than one trunk fabric with each print and looked at it through my camera with the mono filter. It’s amazing that to the naked eye it looks as though a pairing might work, but with the mono filter, you can see the contrast vs. blending.

To the naked eye, the fabric on the right looked fine, but above you can see that it blends. The pairings took quite a while and then there was all the cutting. I now have a project box full of seedlings.

There are about 10 blocks completed. They are not a quick sew – it’s not like they can be chain pieced. Before squaring them up, I threw a few up on the design wall and have decided I like them. The trunk on one is a bit off so I’ll have to fix that but at least it’s an easy fix.

And now that spring has truly marched into the Piedmont, there is so much to rejoice about in the yard. The daffodils are now gone, but we have a red bud in bloom and so much is sprouting out of the ground. Below is a Hosta which I think if I had stayed up all night I would have been able to see it grow. And the post of Hosta? Ha! That’s what one has to do when the outdoor cats love to sun bathe in the large flower pots!