I love this time of year when I can wander out to the garden and gather some fresh food to add to my dinner.
I love radishes. After an initial thinning I’ve been gathering some of the larger ones each day to eat. They were planted in the carrot, beet and cilantro rows.
The raspberries are a little slow this year but they are coming along.
I dropped my daughter off at music camp in the middle of last week and have been making good use of my time in the studio. I taught a one day workshop and then dove in to work on these Spring Fever blocks.
My husband is also out of town for work so I have been able to have a lot of uninterrupted sewing time.
I love watching them grow on the design wall.
I think it’s starting to look like a crochet granny square blanket.
I am ALMOST ready to sew the blocks together but will let this project rest for a while. I plan to take the coming week as a “build your own artist residency" in my studio. I will work on some smaller projects and explore some piecing ideas until I pick up my daughter from camp next weekend. I also have a stack of books to dive into.
I finished all of the centers for the blocks I need for my Spring Fever quilt. Next I’ll be making the borders to go around them. I’ve paired up the border colors in preparation. I don’t want to start sewing them on and end up with color combinations I don’t like for the last few blocks. Also, I’m all ready to go the next time I’m in the studio.
I’ve been working on both of these quilts and they have grown too big for this huge design wall.
There has been a break up.
They now have a little more space to grow on their own section of wall.
My favorite week in Ann Arbor is the week the peonies are in bloom at the botanical gardens. Today was a sunny day and they did not disappoint.
My sister and I worked together to make this quilt for our niece’s high school graduation. We each made half of the string blocks. In this picture mine are on the left and hers are on the right. I’m sure she and I could each pick ours out because we recognize our own fabric scraps. However, when they are mixed together in the quilt, it all looks as if it came from one pool of fabric. When making the pinwheel blocks I used two blocks that I made and two blocks that my sister made to get the fabrics distributed across the quilt.
The pattern is Wind Farm, from my book, Every Last Piece. I used the templates from the book, one to trim the string blocks and the other to cut the triangle pieces that create the pinwheels.
My niece’s favorite color is purple so I used a selections of purples from my stash to create the pinwheels.
The quilt includes fabrics from things we made for her, her siblings, and her cousins when they were small.
Congratulations on your graduation, Frances. We know you are headed to do great things!
My sister made this beautiful label for the quilt. I should get her to label all of my quilts.
Last week I worked on a variety of quilt projects. I made more of these little 4.5” stars bringing my total to 49.
I added some color to a few postage stamp centers for more Spring Fever blocks.
and made more postage stamp center sections.
My design wall is filling up and it is bringing me much joy. I have some parts precut and ready for my next sewing day. I like leaving things so that I know right where I left off and can start off sewing first thing.
I thought I’d share some wide angle shots of my studio so you can see those windows. I LOVE all the natural light I get. It makes choosing colors so much easier.
I have room for five sewers, or six if we are working on small pieces. If you are interested in booking a workshop for a small group, let me know.
I do one day or multiday workshops.
I have missed working on applique. I still have plans for a larger four block applique quilt but for now am making a couple of smaller pieces. This one may end up with a pointy border of some sort.
Instagram Photos
