Greens and Jeans

Celebrating Hand Quilting

Emily — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:58:02 +0000

This week the blog Celebrate Hand Quilting is having a blog hop. If you’re visiting my site from there, a special welcome!

Lately, I’ve been hand quilting this batik orange and blue string quilt, I’m calling Water & Sun. I hand quilt with a hoop.

I’m doing a simple pattern to emphasize the graphic nature of the blocks. However I wanted a variety in the texture, so in the orange blocks I’m doing one line through the middle of each strip with orange thread

In the blue blocks, I’m doing two lines with blue thread.

I hope that this will provide some depth and movement in the quilting.

My quilting style is a mixture of traditional and modern. I love working with the deep colors and textures of batik fabrics. But I also love exploring the traditional patterns and hand quilting. This sampler quilt from last year, combines both! I did sampler blocks in batiks, then did a detailed feathered border in all the sashing and borders.

The quilt I’m most proud of this year, is my very first quilt started that I finally finished 11 years later. We’re enjoying having this one on our bed. More photos of it are here.

Thanks for visiting. If you’d like to see more of my quilts, click here.

A Wildflower Walk

Emily — Thu, 09 May 2013 23:01:44 +0000

Last weekend we took a walk to seek and find the spring wildflowers. Here’s what we found:

Beech trees in bud

Sessile bellwort (thanks to Miss M for the ID)

Bloodroot

Blue Cohosh

Duchman’s Breeches & Spring Beauty

More Duchman’s Breeches

Ferns

Wild Ramps

Skunk Cabbage

Squirrel Corn (What a funny name!)

Red Trillium

Trout Lily

Wild Ginger

And a beautiful view.

Harvest

Emily — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:04:29 +0000

This harvest looks remarkably the same as the last one. Some greens are starting to bolt so we’re enjoying the flowering parts of them too.

Harvests this year: 10 oz.

Linking to Daphne’s Dandelions.

W.I.P Wednesday

Emily — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:45:36 +0000

Finished:
Batik Granny Squares was finished last weekend. This has been a slow project for me, mostly on the back burner and I’m finishing mine way after the ‘hype’ in quilt blog land ended. Still I’m happy with it and glad it’s finally done.

In progress:
Water & Sun
I finished piecing the squares for this quilt top this past weekend also. It is just waiting for a white border. The border will help make sure it’s square and that it doesn’t shift when I baste it.

New: None!

No Progress:
Hexagons
Cathedral Windows

Stats
In Progress: 3, Water & Sun, Hexagons, Cathedral Windows,
New: 0
Finished: 1, Batik Granny Squares

Batik Granny Squares

Emily — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:38:53 +0000

I started this quilt top in March of 2012, after seeing others Granny Square quilts based on this pattern. I used the revision posted here to make them with less waste on the ends. I cut out many sets of squares from my batik collection and pinned them together in sets. Then I sewed these squares as leader-enders while working on a few quilts (one, two, and more). There was no rush for this quilt since it was for us and our guest room with a twin bed.

After the new year, I took all my squares and pieced them together as a top and began the process of hand quilting. I chose to do a simple concentric square design, which is best seen from the back. I used wool batting for the first time. I washed it very gently, on a short cycle with warm cold and low spin and tumbled dried it for just 15 minutes in low heat,following the directions on the batting package. Now it’s laying out to dry the rest of the way. I do enjoy the loft and feel the wool has.
I had about one third of the quilt done, when I took on finishing Kathy’s Quilt. So again the project got set aside. Once I finished that project I returned to quilting and just finished last weekend.

I think I enjoy looking at each square individually, the combinations of colors that go together more so than the overall look of the quilt.

This is the first truly scrappy quilt I’ve done, and I think I like it better when I control the palate of fabrics used. I also think it’s hard to capture the colors of the fabric with the camera. Even so, I’m happy with this finish and enjoy seeing the bright colors on our guest bed. It measures 64″ by 96″.

First Harvest

Emily — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:47:04 +0000

Here’s my first harvest of 2013. The slow start to spring means that it has taken a while for the greens in the cold frame and hoop frame to begin to size up again. The sorrel has just sprouted as well. Greens here include mache, claytonia, spinach, winter lettuce mix, winter spinach, purple mustard greens, beedy’s camden kale, and sorrel. Also one little bit of green garlic from our self-seeding patch to go into the dressing for this first salad of spring.
Linking to Daphne’s Dandelions.

Crocuses

Emily — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:39:39 +0000

The crocuses were in full bloom this week with the sun.

Looks like spring is finally here!

W.I.P Wednesday

Emily — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:52:30 +0000

Since my last W.I.P post, I finished Kathy’s Ohio Stars. It’s in the mail back to her.

In Progress
Batik Granny Squares
I returned to working on hand quilting my Batik Granny Squares. I’m in the home stretch now.

These photos are a few days old, but I’ve now finished all the interior squares and am working on the outer edge and border. The quilting shows up best on the back.

I’ve got just two sides left to go. I’ve also already made a scrappy binding, so hopefully I should finish this in the next week.

Water & Sun
I’ve made all the orange/blue units for this quilt and began sewing them together into blocks of four to make quilt top. They’re all laid out on the floor of my craft room right now and so I’ll have to piece them together soon to continue to work in there.
The layout is similar to this, except that the quilt will have blue on the edges instead of orange.

Hexagons
I finished my first square of hexagons in green and have started another square in blue.

No Progress
Cathedral Window

Stats
In Progress: 4, Batik Granny Squares, Hexagons, Cathedral Windows, Water & Sun
New: 0
Finished: 1, Kathy’s Ohio Stars

On the design wall

Emily — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 23:13:55 +0000

Blocks for my Water & Sun quilt on the design wall, experimenting with different layouts.
These are only a part of the squares, but it is what fit on my design wall.
It’s helpful to take photos of them to get a better sense of how the colors and design works.
Layout A

Layout B

Layout C

Layout D

Layout E

Layout F

Which do you like?

Kathy’s Ohio Stars

Emily — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:30:08 +0000

Last weekend I finished quilting Kathy’s Ohio Stars. Kathy hand-pieced these lovely blocks in the early 1980s. She quilted two rows, and then it was put away in her attic. Kathy writes a wonderful gardening blog, and saw my quilts here on my blog which is a mix of gardening and crafts. She asked if I’d finish the quilt for her.

At the end of February I began work on hand-quilting this large quilt. It measures 84 x 96. Exactly a month later, I quilted the last 4 squares and sewed the binding on. I’ve also embroidered a label for the quilt which tells of Kathy and my parts in putting it together. I think it’s always good to have a label which can hint at the story behind the quilt.

The back of the quilt is a red. Red never shows up quite right on its own in photos, but it does make for a nice contrast to the neutral quilting.

It’s a lovely quilt and I’m sure Kathy will be glad to have it finally finished, 30 years later!

If you have a quilt that needs to be finished with hand quilting, I’m happy to continue to do this type of work. You can contact me through my About page.

Linking up to Finish Up Friday, and Link a Finish Friday.