Spring Cleaning

It has been a luscious week. Everyday has been a mix of sunshine and rain. The lovely peonies where just blooming into their glory when a storm came through and pounded the poor things to the ground.

Luckily, Greg was able to stake this magnificent deep purple iris in time and save it from the same fate.

There have been some family distractions, plus I am waiting for some new digitized designs which I want to add to the black border of my new quilt. So since I was in a waiting zone, I used several days to clean up and reorganize the studio. I know it still looks messy in the photo, but believe me it's a major improvement. You can actually see the worktable's surface!

Since my artistic output was limited this week, I thought I would share pictures of two fabulous quilts made with Sassaman FreeSpirit fabrics. I love to get these kinds of emails! Even I don't have enough time to exploit all the possibilities of every new fabric line, so I really appreciate seeing what others have done.

The top quilt is called Four Cards Around and was made by Diana Ramsay from North Carolina. She used the Card Trick block for the basis of her design and it is a clever way to play with the gradating dots fabric. She has actually created the illusion of depth by arranging dotted fabrics according to their density. The black background makes the cards feel like they are floating in space and adds even more dimension. The simple border is delightful and just right! I am going to file this block in my "must try" ideas for the future.

The next wonderful work is by Sue Wood in Canberra, Australia. She claims this is only the third quilt she has made! I'd say she's gotten off to a roaring start! She has cut 60 degree triangles from the Teasel and Lace fabric (Prairie Gothic) to make the kaleidoscopic hexagons. Each block is fascinating and unique. I like the way she has organized them by type and especially enjoy the spider block in the bottom corner. The geometric blocks are a nice contrast to the spinning organic ones and create an icy atmosphere.

Both of these quilts are breathtaking... one for it's joyous simplicity and the other for it's opulence. Two ends of the spectrum and I love them both. Thanks, Diana and Sue, for sharing your talent and enthusiasm!

I did sneak in a little time to play with my digitized embroidery designs. I only have four designs to play with, but I am amazed at all the possibilities. The hardest part is rehooping the fabric, but that gets easier with practice. I can distort and move the shapes in my sewing machine to make these little embroidered collages. In this little experiment I like the transparency of the spirals and the life in the skewed spider.

I have dubbed this technique as "Free-Form" embroidery. Now I'm afraid I'll have to get another Bernina, so I can be sewing while the other one is stitching out digital designs! What a dilemma!