patchwork – the long thread

February 16, 2008February 16, 2008

Table Makeover

Raise your hand if you own one of these IKEA lamp shades. I have seen them everywhere, but still love them. My mother bought these two tables at an estate sale and I painted them for the girls’ room. They are right next to each other because their beds are pushed up against the walls for now. You can see the before and after of the tables below.

I’m not sure that I’m happy with the colors as I was mixing acrylics with house paint that I had on hand, but oh well. It adds some brightness to their very pale pink room.

Then I finally finished these little runners for the tables that I’ve been thinking about for a while. I just cut fabric with no measuring at all, then snipped as I pieced it together in a random pattern.

January 16, 2008March 21, 2008

Patchwork and Quilted Pillows

I made these pillows last week in my patchwork frenzy and just finished them last night. I embroidered the flowers and lines and sewed them in with the cotton prints. I used upholstery fabric for the border and backing so I’ll need to have them dry cleaned after the inevitable jelly hands get to them.

After I made these, I found this totally amazing pillow from A Stitch in Dye which is giving my pillows an inferiority complex. You can see her beautiful work on her Flickr page here and more for sale in her Etsy shop. She also has a blog here. Wow, I’m a fan! I am really in love with the hand dyed look, inspired color choices and beautiful free form quilting. These must have taken hours to make and they are really inexpensive ($40 and $42 each).

Here are a couple of other nice quilted pillows:

This one is from Raeburn Ink, $70.

And this one by Neressa Bennett, $95.

All of these modern quilt designs make me think of the Quilts of Gee’s Bend. I felt inspired when I saw this exhibition and I urge you to take a look at the patterns, color and design for inspiration even if you are not a quilter.

December 26, 2007January 15, 2008

Merry Christmas!

I finally finished this table runner just before Christmas Eve. I am still just piecing together fabric and am satisfied with the pieced work without the additional step of quilting. I designed this runner to resemble a tree with triangles of descending size that meet in the center.