Stitching Hands Studio

Autumn in New York

My latest slow cloth is finished with a couple of weeks to spare.  Autumn in New York is inspired by Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, as part of the QuiltWorks Novel Idea book club.  This cloth is completely hand stitched with silk applique on a hand dyed indigo vintage linen napkin.  There's a lot of hand stitched embellishment that you can see better in the detail photos below.  I backed the whole thing with a single piece of medium weight grey shot cotton and turned the edges under the edge of the napkin to hand sew down.  The edges peek out and allowed me to square up the napkin.  It's about 22" x 22".  This quilt will be hanging in the QuiltWorks gallery for the month of April along with 35-40 others.  I can't wait to see the whole exhibit.  The few that I've seen so far are really wonderful.

The only building I wanted to be recognizable is the Empire State Building.  To make things easier I decided to stitch the topmost part as you see above.  Lots of little split backstitches make that up.  All of these techniques were learned from Jude Hill.  Please check out her website for all sorts of wonderful online video classes.

Meanwhile I've already started on a couple of other projects, my Undercover Quilter book club project has a great start and my Small Wonder Challenge project is looking really good.  More on those later.  I'm still trying to figure out what book to use as inspiration for my guild Children's Literature challenge.  There are so many wonderful books to choose from!  We are heading out for a little spring break in a few days, I can't wait!

Tea is done!

I just finished this piece and it's off to QuiltWorks for the gallery show today. Tea is No Minor Beverage is inspired by The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It measures approximately 20" x 20". Here's my quilt description:

Tea is No Minor Beverage

Renée, a Paris apartment building concierge, has one true friend named Manuela.  They meet for tea and pastry on a regular basis.  Renée tries to hide her talents and interests from the people who live in her building.  As the book progresses, Renée’s true character emerges and she develops deep friendships with Monsieur Ozu, a wealthy and cultured Japanese businessman, and Paloma, a precocious 12 year old girl, both of whom live in the building.  Tea brings these characters together and seemed to me a fitting symbol of them all.

p. 91:  “So, let us drink a cup of tea… I know that tea is no minor beverage.  When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things.”

This piece is created with hand appliqué; hand embroidery; hand dyed fabrics and threads; and cotton, linen and silk fabrics.

This is what it looked like last night.  One of the things I did was to couch down a sample of handspun mohair that I made a couple of years ago.

In the past couple of days I added a bunch of quilting stitches.

Today I was adding the glass beads and buttons.  I just ordered these blue glass buttons from Etsy and got them the other day.  I had no plans for them, but they seemed just right here.

I think the back is always interesting to see.  The heavier lines are created by quilting with a back stitch.

Finally a tiny hedgehog had to be on the back and my signature.  This is what I finally came up with and I like it a lot.  My signature post should be coming up soon. 

***Lastly, I haven't heard from Val yet. Please email me soon, Val.  I don't have your contact info in your comment. **

Last night

Made a design decision last night and even got to execute it.  More stitching today- hurray!

Thinking

Thinking and making plans regarding Tea is No Minor Beverage.  This photo is a little messy, not my usual composed photos.  I feel a little like this right now.  It's just been too busy lately and I need time to sew, but I seem to get only a few minutes during the day to execute my ideas.  I hope there will be more to show soon.

Indeed

Tea is no minor beverage continues.  In the book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, tea is what brings people together and is important to the development of the characters.  Indeed, in her comment on my post at SEW, stickyfingers pointed out the institution that tea is in the UK (one of my favorite things about the UK!).  There are many who think that there's nothing that a cup of tea can't fix.  

I am nearly ready to add a backing to this and I think it will just be a backing behind the harem cloth foundation.  This thing will be light as a feather.

My studio is really coming along.  I got much of the furniture sorted out last week, put away some things still in boxes, and organized the closet.  Now I need to finish the design walls, put up a pinboard and hang some artwork on the walls.  In the meantime, my view from the studio:

Leaky Con 2011

My first big trip of the summer was just after Quilt Week.  Chloe and I headed down to Orlando, FL for her birthday/graduation gift- a trip to Leaky Con 2011.  This conference dedicated to all things Harry Potter took place just outside of the Universal Studios theme park (home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter).

The conference went for 4 days, with an additional Lit Day at the start.  Lit Day programming involved talks by authors who were influenced by the Harry Potter series.  Let me say first thing that I don't pretend to understand the whole Harry Potter fandom.  There were many activities that didn't appeal to me, but Chloe loved it all.  I enjoyed seeing her delight in meeting authors, musicians and actors.  I attended the more academic lectures and otherwise went around with my camera capturing moments from the conference.

The opening festivities were full of Harry Potter fandom music (Wizard Rock), entertainment and a tribute to JK Rowling.  Then we all headed off to Wizarding World for a private party- all rides and food included.

The following day there were all sorts of activities from those of a more academic nature, to the purely fun.  We ended the day with an early evening showing of the final Harry Potter movie.

The next day we were delighted to have a chance to hear from some of the actors from the series.  The most famous of these were Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley), and Scarlett Byrne (Pansy Parkinson).

Some of the younger actors from the last movie were also there and they were quite delightful, being younger and a little more open to questions.  All of these actors except for Chris Rankin were available to meet at a signing, so we did that as well.  

The Esther Earl Rocking Charity Ball was a great way to spend the final evening.  The crowd got to dance the night away.  The young actors and Evanna and Scarlett joined the ball by dancing on the stage.  At the Goodbye Brunch it was announced that $120,000 was raised and donated to several charities.  

While all this was going on, Mark was hard at work at home starting the move to our new house.  We arrived home with two days to finish moving before leaving for Europe.  It was a very hectic time, as you might imagine.  More to come as the summer saga continues!

Look who I got to meet!

Finally, Lazy Gal Tonya and I are in the same place!  It was so great to meet her- like old friends.  We had a nice dinner at Los Agaves Mexican Restaurant and then attended the Gee's Bend quilter presentation.  While waiting in line I did a mini show and tell and of course, we had to get a photo of this quilt, Love Always, our collaboration.  Tonya made the letters and sent them to me and I made the rest.  

I've got more to share, but it will have to wait.  Two more long days ahead.  See ya! 

Cover to Cover Quilters at QuiltWorks

The Cover to Cover Book Club is a group of quilters based in Portland, OR creating quilts inspired by books.  My kind of group!  My pictures here don't do the quilts justice, so please do click on the link to see better photos and more quilts.  

The first group of quilts are based on the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Pat Busby made this first one again.   I love her style!

This quilt is made by Victoria Jones and includes many unique embellishments.

The envelope quilt by Dianne Kane has hand written notes on the outside- very clever!

Pat Busby created the idyllic village scene above.

Joanne MacNaughton created the quilt, above on left, on right is the quilt by Beth Wells.

Above, Linda Reinert on the left and Carolanne Olson on the right.

The last two quilts are inspired by The People of the Book.  The artistry is simply amazing!

Above by Beth Wells, below by Judy Eselius.

That's not all from my evening at QuiltWorks.  More next time!

Alice in Wonderland

QuiltWorks' June exhibit is something wonderful as usual!  The gallery reception last Friday was amazing as always, but my favorites were these quilts which were not part of the show.  These Alice in Wonderland quilts were made by Pat Busby, one of the members of the Cover to Cover Quilters.  These were just there for the evening as a special treat.  The whole Alice exhibit will be displayed at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show this summer.  It will really be something as I've been told there will be a live Mad Hatter's tea party with the Hatter himself, to accompany the quilts.  I can't wait to see that!  Meanwhile, enjoy these!

Sunflowers Moon Stars

Today's musing over at SunMoonStars was about this method of creating a sun/moon/star burst.  I found myself so intrigued I dropped everything and started making.  The star below was the first one, the pieces above came afterwards and need to be finished.  I do need some sunflowers for my Second Chances quilt, so I made several of them to give it a try.  The version top left is a little what-iffing with a square center and I may add more points.

I've already added the first star made with this method to the top right (above).

The center was created with an off cut from the moon.  The points are made with the backside of this great Kaffe Fassett print.

I really like it!