Portland, OR - Classical Chinese Garden

This gorgeous, authentic Chinese garden is located in Portland, OR. It was created as part of a "garden exchange program". Read more here, http://www.portlandchinesegarden.org/

London

Green

Just a lovely, to me, little scene, very green and movie set looking.

Woolen Mittens

These little brown mittens were a request from a friend who wanted brown mittens suitable for snowball fights.

The yarn is Organik (70% organic merino, 15% silk, 15% baby alpaca) and it was lovely to work with, also had a nice heathery color tone, which I love.

The pattern was from a book, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, purchased at Purl in Soho New York and avail online: http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/305. I have used this book many, many times and would highly recommend it as it allows you to use any type of yarn you like. It feels like the step before creating your own patterns and has helped me to understand better how a pattern works.

Antique Pillow

This lovely little pillow belongs to a friend of mine. I was so taken by it that I had to share. I'm inspired by the rainbow of sophisticated colors and the time that must have been spent making it. I believe I've seen this technique (tiny protruding triangles) used as edging in quilts before, but do not know the term for it. Anyone?   Thanks you for the response, these are praire points!

Baby Boy String Quilt

This is a string quilt made entirely from scraps and string tied. It was incredibly fun to make as the process was a free form one.

Cathedral Windows Pincushion

Here is a little pincushion I made, my first attempt at Cathedral Window quilting. It is a time consuming process, but worth the effort for smaller projects. I have aspirations to make a white silk pillow with purple, blue & white hand dyed, almost a tie dye style, fabric "windows".

I used the book Cathedral Window Quilts: The Classic Folded Technique and a Wealth of Variations. It's well written and easy to follow. The difficulty comes from the complexity of the process, but the author has done a great job simplifying it and including step-by-step illustrations. The author is a true artist and has explored, and I believe, invented a number of variations on this technique, so there are several other great quilt patterns included. The book is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cathedral-Window-Quilts-Technique-Variations/dp/0715327135/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Baby Boy Quilt

I'm afraid that this is the only rather bad photo that I have of this quilt. The dark portions turned out a bit too dark so the patterned details aren't showing up. This was a commissioned quilt, using quite a few Japanese fabrics.

Fabric Card Obsession

Here is yet another set of fabric cards. I love making them as it's such a freeing creative process, the small little cards are a non-imposing palette. I would like to someday use this method to make an entire quilt, foundation piece each square as it's own little entity and then join them together with sashings.

Wool Quilt

Here is a wool quilt I made for a friend of mine, based on her design and fabric choices. It's made from felted wool, purchased from City Quilter in NYC. I actually used a linen fabric for the backing and was worried about working with it, but it worked out fine. I also used a walking foot when piecing the quilt as the wool was quite thick, particularily the plaid squares.

Toadstool Baby Rattle

I have made so many of these, but neglected to photograph them. They are easily made from scraps of Koigu yarn (which I love to use for making the baby blanket from Stitch & Bitch, photos to come). The pattern is available from Purl Soho here: http://www.purlbee.com/toadstool-babyrattle/.

Little Tote Bag from SEW: sew everything workshop

Here's a little tote bag I made for a little girl using a pattern from the book SEW: sew everything workshop by Diana Rupp. It was an easy pattern to follow, next time I would attach the handles on the inside for a neater look. The fabric is from the "Drawing Room" series by Anna Maria Horner.

Baby Bib

A little baby bib, made using pattern from Etsy (http://www.jcasa.etsy.com/). The pattern was quite simple, and I loved that it included some quilting and soft batting. I was a little confused on attaching the binding, but made it work.

Koigu Knitted Baby Blanket

I adore making these baby blankets. I have made at least a half dozen of them. My favorite part is choosing the yarn color. The pattern is from Stitch 'n Bitch by Debbie Stroller. It's a great book, and my go to book for instructions as it has clear, cartoon-style illustrations of various stitches.

Turquoise Waters Quilt

This quilt was a fabric driven quilt. A few fabrics I'd been collecting called out to me, desirous of being made into a quilt. The pattern of partial log cabin blocks, blending together of one pattern into the next, was also fabric driven. It's hand quilted, which surprisingly didn't take that long. At the moment, I prefer hand quilting to the idea of stuffing a too large quilt under my sewing machine and manoeuvring it.

My inspiration came from the book Log Cabin. I love this simple, tiny book and constantly refer back to it. It does not contain any patterns but rather, a great number of variations of Log Cabin type squares, which allows for individual creativity. I particularily like how they show a multitude of arrangements and how the design shifts when the color is varied. It's available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Patchwork-Log-Cabin/dp/0715310844/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248193348&sr=1-8

WIP - Japanese Squared Quilt

This is another work in progress. I have been obsessively purchasing Olympus fabric packs from Purl Patchwork (http://www.purlsoho.com/) and City Quilter (http://www.cityquilter.com/) in Manhattan. The are packaged in such a way that you never know what gorgeous fabrics you're going to get. I feel like a little kid with a present. The squares are approx 3.5" and I used leftover wool coating to make a 1" sashing.

WIP - Grandma's Flower Garden quilt

This is very much a work in progress. I have been working on this quilt since April of 2007. It's nearly a throw size now, but I'm hoping for something closer to full size. I'm using lots of Liberty of London fabrics as it only requires a tiny amount of each fabric.

My inspiration was this antique quilt. I think the small pieces made it incredibly soft and cozy.

String Quilt

This is a string quilt made entirely from scraps! I was inspired by this string quilt: http://www.filminthefridge.com/2009/04/24/a-colorful-string-quilt/. This was an incredibly fun quilt to make, also so satisfying to use up scraps!

Habu Yarn Cowl

This is a little cowl I made out of necessity, having only a small amount of Habu yarn. I purchased the great round clear buttons from M&J Trimmings (http://www.mjtrim.com/), a truly amazing and inspirational store in New York City.

Camara Case

Here's a little bag I made so my camera will survive in my purse (after one fatality). I just quilted two pieces of fabric and made a little pouch based on the sizing of the bubble wrap bag that came with the camera. I sewed binding, in quilting fashion, around the edges. It was very satisfying to make exactly what I needed, and not have to use an extra large black camera bag with straps and side pockets.

More Fabric Coasters

A few more fabric coasters, made from my favorite 4" Japanese fabric packs. They sell them at the counter of the quilt shop (City Quilter in NYC) where I love to go to on my lunch breaks. They are completely sealed up so one can only see two of the many fabrics contained inside. It's such a tease I always end up buying one. I'm planning on making an entire quilt from them (I have enough).

More Fabric Notebooks

Just a few more fabric cards. I made these using my favorite Moleskin notebooks, the small
3.5" x 5.5" variety. These ones have graph style paper.

Fingerless Gloves

Here is a little pair of fingerless gloves I made, using instructions found here (http://www.purlbee.com/greenaway-fingerless-gloves/). I omitted the eyelet edging near the fingers and also made them a bit longer as I had extra yarn. I used one skein of Alchemy Yarns, Hand Painted Sanctuary, a lovely wool & silk blend.

Fabric Notebooks

A few notebooks I made, based on the instructions in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Holverson (available here: http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/our_books). For the first two, I used iron on vinyl to give them more strength. I recycled a few dead quilting ideas in the process (first: paper piecing a million purple hexagons together, third: a log cabin quilt using black & whites w/olive green centers). These measure 5.25" x 8.25".

Vintage Japanese Fabric

This fabric has lovely white sashiko style top stitching along the edges and down the center. I purchased it from Kimono Lily (http://www.chuu.com/shop/dc/home) at the Brooklyn Flea Market (http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/), which is so fabulous. It embodies everything I love about living in Brooklyn, great down to earth people living in a huge city as if it were their little neighborhood.

Embroidered Drawstring Bag

I used the instructions here : http://www.purlbee.com/lucky-gift-bags/ from Purl Bee for an embroidered bag, but altered it slightly. I omited the top stitching, and I used Microsoft Word for the font for the initials.

Golden Globe Vase

This is a small pot that I made. I love how "mistakes" can add to the creative process. The small bumps near the rim were added to cover a blemish and I ended up loving them.

Modern Crazy Quilt

This is the quilt born of scraps from the quilting class with Denise Schmidt. I added some black and white fabrics and used a few curved seams for interest. I quilted it in straight lines and the backing is an electric blue.

Denise Schmidt Quilting Class

I had the privilege of attending a Denise Schmidt (http://www.dsquilts.com/) quilting class last spring. It was an amazing experience, even the train ride from New York to her studio in Bridgeport, CT was delightful. I incorporated my patchwork squares from this class into a quilt, still a work in progress, so no photos yet, but it's nearly finished.

About Town

Just a few things that struck me, some in a humorous way. I have had a lovely daydream of traveling around the country photographing all the different varieties of rideable (for children that is) animals, spaceships, etc in photo #2. Perhaps someone has already done this and made a coffee table book out of their photos?

Abstract Subway Art

Unfortunately for those of us who live in New York, the subway system is not in the very best of repair. Fortunately for me, the layers of old paint mixed with rust make for beautiful abstract designs.

Lavender Quilt

Small quilt with fussy cut centers, hand quilted down center of "logs" or strips.