Old Crows

I just put some old crows in my Etsy shop.

Well, no...they're not really crows. I'm not sure what these black and white herringbone tweed birds are, but we'll call them crows anyways.

They're made from an upcycled tweed wool jacket with appliqued wings and glass seed beads eyes. The wings are also upcycled material, a polyester moleskin. I've gotten to where I prefer to use all natural materials in my work, but the moleskin is great for appliques and I'll use it up before throwing it away. And as usual, the birds are stuffed with leftover scraps of felted wool.

April Showers Quilt Top

Quilt in progress...

Crazy at Work, Part 2

I recently got Ally a Disney Princess book on being polite and using good manners. A devious maneuver on my part, as Ally's a sucker for anything Disney Princess. But truthfully, she's more likely to listen to Ariel telling her to not interrupt a conversation than Mom and Dad telling her the same thing.

So I'm reading the book to Ally and we get to this page with Snow White.

"Snow White always cleans up after herself."

Hey, I'm all for that! Ally's got toys all over the house and they rarely make it back to their home at the end of the day.

Then we look at the next page with Cinderella.

"Cinderella always puts away the materials for one project before she starts something new."

Uh oh. 'Cause Mommy sure doesn't do that. Mommy's got stuff stashed all over the house.

The dining room table.

Spare chairs.

At least Oscar doesn't mind the piles on the floor.

(I know, I know. I'm working on it.)

Crazy at Work

Steve found this on the stovetop last Sunday and wondered what the heck I was cooking. He posted a picture of this to Facebook, and a mutual friend of ours asked if I had gone crazy.

No crazier than usual. I was coffee staining some quilted ornaments. Mom had found me three panels at a garage sale that were apparently leftover from a quilting project that had gone awry. The piecing wasn't bad, but the quilting itself was a little crude. The colors in the panels were peach, natural, and a blue and peach patterned material very reminiscent of the 1980s and too bright for my liking. So I cut a Pennsylvania Dutch heart shape from the panels and soaked them in warm strong coffee for a while. You can see the difference in color between the dyed and undyed hearts in the picture below.

After the hearts dried, I finished the edges with a cranberry red embroidery floss in a blanket stitch. I added a simple hanging loop made with the same embroidery floss.

Now they look a little more 1880s instead of 1980s.

The coffee stain highlights the stitching on the backside of the hearts.

And yep, they smell like coffee. So much that I find myself wanting a cup and a cookie when I smell them. It's driving me crazy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

New River Quilt Works opened on Etsy last Friday. Opening a shop online is very exciting and a little scary as it's an entirely new venture for me. I want to thank everyone for their kind compliments and words of encouragement. I am humbled by the show of support my family, friends, and absolute strangers have given me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and now I'm off to the post office to ship my first sale!

-Tree

Modern Linen Charm, Spring Chickens, and Stars, Oh My!

Finally we had a nice day outside to finish taking photos of my Modern Linen Charm quilt.


This is truly an eco-friendly quilt! The top of the quilt is made from upcycled linen and linen-blend clothes. The backing is an upcycled organic cotton sheet and the batting is an upcycled flannel cotton sheet. I used a linen/linen-blend material purchased at a garage sale for the binding.





The top of the quilt features 6” squares of solids colors and floral prints. The prints are either a neutral tone on black or black on a khaki background. The solid colors include a range of natural browns, sage green, mushroom, black, rusty red, and a brighter red. Some of the blocks were cut to include seams from the original piece of clothing for added interest. Some of the solid squares have been appliquéd with smaller squares of neutral tan and black. These are raw edged appliqués, left to fray naturally for texture. The binding is also a natural tan color. The back of the quilt is a darker khaki brown cotton.





The quilt is approximately 48 by 60 inches, a good size to use as a sofa throw, a crib quilt, or for wrapping around yourself while rocking in the porch swing on a fall evening. The flannel batting provides warmth and a “blanket” weight to the quilt, but isn’t so heavy that you won’t reach for it on a summer night.


One of the things I like the most about this quilt is the grid pattern the quilting made at the intersection of the charm blocks.














And in other news...the spring chickens have come home to roost!





These ornaments are made from felted wool sweaters, scrap trim repurposed from clothes, and black glass bead eyes. They're firmly stuffed with felted wool scraps. Each one is approximately 5 inches long and about 3 inches tall.








As almost always with my felt crafts, no two are exactly alike.





Also new, I've begun making patriotic star ornaments for the Fourth of July.





They're made of cotton and cotton-blend fabric stuffed with elted wool scraps. One side is navy blue with stars and the other side is a white with red ticking stripes. I've sewn a pearly white button in the center of the blue side and made a hanger from a shimmery gold organdy ribbon. Each star measures approximately 5 inches wide by 5 inches tall.


PS-See that gadget window in the upper right corner? The empty white rectangle that's titled "New River Quilt Works on Etsy"? Check back on Friday afternoon, when my Etsy shop officially opens, to see more of my work!

Modern Linen Charm Sneak Peek!

It took me longer than I expected, but I finished my Modern Linen Charm quilt yesterday.

I used my new walking foot on this quilt.  I didn't have any problem with little tiny pinch pleats forming on the back while quilting, but finding the right tension for the thread with this foot took some effort.  In fact, I ripped out the stitching the first time I quilted it because I wasn't happy with the way it looked and I knew it would annoy me forever unless I did it right.  In retrospect I should have spent more time testing out the thread tension with scraps before rushing into the quilting.  

Anyhoo, it's quilted now and I'm pleased with the results.  I'll post more pictures soon when the wind dies down outside...it's pretty gusty out there today.