This weekend was our monthly quilting weekend, and I'm happy with all that I accomplished. Here's a little piece that just needed to be layered and quilted. It's now on the top of my quilt rack along with a mini pumpkin quilt and a little toy sewing machine.
During the summer some friends and I had visited various quilt shops to collect their "Row by Row Experience" patterns. Here's my second completed row; this pattern was from Quilters Common in Wakefield, MA.
After the row was completed, I was able to work on the blocks for my crazy quilt project. I'm taking a class at a local quilt shop, and the class project is to create a crazy quilt book. I was eager to sign up for this class because I wanted to incorporate some cigarette silks that I had. (Cigarette silks were premiums given in cigarette packages around 1910. The subjects might be flowers, foreign cities, birds, etc. My cigarette silks feature actresses from that era. The silks are old and somewhat fragile, so incorporating them into a book rather than a wallhanging, seemed prudent.) I'm using some of the ideas from the class but putting my own spin on the project.)
I have now pieced twelve crazy quilt background blocks using coordinating pastel batiks. The instructor had suggested that fusible batting be attached to the back of each block so an embroidery hoop would not be necessary. I then used misty fuse to attach a cigarette silk to each block. My next step is to frame and anchor each of the silks with lace, beading, or trim before moving on to the rest of the stitching and embellishing.
I get a kick out of the pose, costume, and facial expression of this actress.
