Lovebirds wedding quilt finish, books, happy new year!

 

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with all our kids and spouses and grand babies with us - 

And on Christmas day Tommy and Camille opened up their wedding quilt.  It was so fun (and challenging) to make and I hope they will enjoy it.  David literally laughed when he saw the finished top, so I feel a bit insecure about it, but, it truly was fun to make. 

Indigo for Tommy and the bright cheerful colors for Camille.  In the folky style they wanted. 

And not the last quilt I will ever make for them... 

Machine quilted very freely - 

Quick photo after church - 

Side note - look at the Carolina blue sky - one of the things I love about living here, even as I miss the beautiful quiet New England snow. 

And now I've eased into the new year by cleaning out, straightening up, rearranging,  putting away all the baby things (Kaela's family is moving to California - I'm still in shock).  I've started a new quilting process notebook, and a new bullet journal.  I love a fresh start. 

Here were my books in 2023 - I listened to many of them. 

Most memorable were Demon Copperhead, True Grit, Tom Lake (all on Audible).   Lessons in Chemistry, Our Missing Hearts.  

Happy New Year quilty friends!  

x

Cynthia 

Some progress on the Lovebirds Quilt

After posting my progress on Lovebirds (Tommy and Camille's wedding quilt) last week, I realized I wasn't happy with parts of it, so I chopped it up a little and eliminated a couple of things.  

I am really simplifying the design and making the appliqué center of the quilt a little smaller, still making sure I include the motifs Tommy and Camille want to see in the quilt.  

One motif they want is "glasses" so I created some glasses with pink variegated sashiko thread.  Not sure if it's obvious but that's meant to be a stack of books too. 

I also did their traced hands in sashiko, so fun.   There wasn't enough contrast so I simply wove red and dark blue thread through the sashiko stitches.

The next element would be "flowers" and so I piled up some fabrics to audition: 

I created this little flower arrangement yesterday, and machine appliquéd it.  The pot and stems are invisible machine appliquéd, and the flowers and leaves are raw edge appliqué, collage-style.  I really enjoy working in this improvisational way.  I see that it may need another element or two for balance, which I can easily do the next time I'm in the sewing room. 

I really had fun with this block and it reminded me how much I enjoyed making little collage quilts during the quiet covid years in Tokyo.  

It's a tiny detail but the yellow center below shows a figure reading a book.  Tiny fun detail. 

For now, I'm happy with how the center of the quilt is taking shape.   It will be a bit of a puzzle putting it together, and then on to some simple borders. 

Meanwhile, David has done a nice job with the front of our little townhouse, with only minimal input from me;).  The green birdhouse was my Mom's.  And, Happy Pride.

Big sis Charlotte turned three, what a love.  When asked what she wanted for her birthday she said "pink!" and when asked how old she would be, "three candles!"

That's all for now friends!

xo

Cynthia 

Progress on "A Soft Quilt for Hard Times"

I'm almost finished making these simple blocks.  Inspired by Fun with Barb's "soft quilt for hard times" concept.

Lots of rainy days lately....

I cut the logs to size.  It's easy piecing, four blocks at a time. 

This will be a "Spring/summer" version of a quilt I've made over and over, it seems.  I wrote about it here on my old blog.  Square in square,  raw edge appliquéd.   Combination of machine and hand quilting. 

Very improvisational, casual and scrappy, fall/winter.  The blocks are 8 or 9 inch square.  Over time, wabi sabi for sure.

The first one I made, in 2003,  has seen lots of very hard use.... and I've repaired it a lot through the years - just layering patches on very casually by machine.

This time, I'm going for a cool and smooth look.  That's why I'm piecing it in a traditional way, log cabin style, no raw edges. 

All the while, trying to keep positive.  Daily FaceTime with little Charlotte is a treat.  (When will Japan open its borders..... and when would I feel OK about traveling to the U.S.?)

What else these past couple weeks?  Masks masks and more masks...

A visit to the ever whimsical and refreshing Blue and White - limited hours these days:

My little needle books still on offer:

AND.... lastly.... I can recommend this breath-of-fresh-air animated musical series - Central Park - all star cast, a lot of heart, big laughs, catchy music. 

Quilters - "we gotta do it while we can"! 

xo

Cynthia