Finally - some projects!

I've been on a quilt spree lately. Well, not actually quilting, since I have never actually made a finished blanket, and then quilted together the various layers with stitching to create a real quilt. Usually, I do the piecing, and then am pretty much done with the project, so find some other way to use it. Some day I will actually make a quilt. Probably.

In any case, here's what I've been up to:

This pillow is a pattern from the Denyse Schmidt quilt book. I really like this book. If it had existed 10 years ago, when I was thinking about quilting but really wasn't interested in the usual quilt patterns, then my entire hobby trajectory might have been different. Plus, I got to use some of my Amy Butler fabrics that I bought last spring, thus justifying an order for some of her latest Belle designs.


I also stumbled onto Natascha Rosenbererg's website and blog. She has an illustration style that makes me smile every time. She also happened to have a few little quilt kits at one point, and I was lucky enough to get the last one. Thus expanding my mailbox fun to packages from Spain. I had so much fun putting this together, playing with all of the pieces. I threw in a bit from my own stash to fill it out. I haven't figured out how to finish it yet, but I want red fabric with white polka dots, which I seem to be unable to get at my local fabric store. Natascha has some other finished pieces on her website that I love. Anything with houses appeals to me, and she has a couple of stuffed ones with her own people peeking out the windows. How great are they?

My last, non-quilting project, was inspired by this paper doll book. I think the book is actually a little too simplistic. In many cases, the paper doll examples just use a lot of vintage ephemera smooshed together, or other similar sort of easy ways to make a paper doll. Some a really great though, and I enjoyed the history of the dolls. But it did give me a little push to just put together this guy in an evening. The biggest problem is that in the process of punching holes for the eyelets using a hammer and punch, I made a few marks in the studio floor. Whoops! So while the book is only so-so, anything that gets me to actually make something is a winner.