flying stars

Yikes, I certainly have been neglecting this mousehole, I haven't posted anything since October! Didn't I make some sort of resolution last year to post something once a month?

My absence here does not completely reflect my absence in my physical studio - but it comes pretty close.

Since completing the huge delectable mountains project in October, I have only finished two baby quilts. Today I'll share a couple snaps of the star quilt which was picked up last weekend. My friend who ordered this quilt for her first grandchild wanted to pick up the quilt in time for the birth of the baby. Based on the predominance of pink fabrics in the quilt, it is true that everyone is expecting the baby to be a girl. Let's hope that ultrasound prediction is correct. I've been known to use pink in quilts for boys and girls - but not so much pink as this quilt has.

This is one of my favorite patterns to use for baby quilts, it lends itself to so much playfulness. This time I hand-quilted the entire top in order to secure the layers - the stitching isn't very dense but it's enough to prevent bunching and create some new shapes to follow. Around the border are stitched several stanzas from the nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

The top of the quilt uses primarily batik fabrics - all 100% cotton, the back is composed of playful print of red ladybugs on a green leafy background - and bordered with black and white check fabric . The finished quilt measures 58"x50"

delectable mountains

Yesterday I finished the quilt I've been working on for the last couple months. I can't recall exactly when I started the piecing of this quilt, but according to my last post I do know exactly when I started the quilting.
As you can see, the quilt is a big one - here it is displayed on a queen sized bed. A friend commissioned the quilt for her son who is getting married on November 7th. The wedding is taking place in Mexico where the couple is currently living.

The groom's family are all flying out to attend the wedding. I thought they were leaving today so I gave myself the deadline of having the quilt finished and ready for delivery for Friday morning and for all intents and purposes I had the quilt finished as of Wednesday night - a whole day early - woo hoo!!



The bottom border was already personalized with the bride and groom's names and the date of the wedding. On Thursday evening I learned my friends aren't leaving until a few days later - which was great news as it gave me the opportunity to add an excerpt from a prayer which was on the wedding invitation.
(the picture on the right shows Stella, the studio cat, I think she was endorsing the idea of adding the extra words as this was the first time she curled up on the quilt while I was working on it - perhaps she wanted to add some of her own special magic to the mix!)

So yesterday I added these words on the side borders:

To the heavens above. To the earth that we love
To that which we are, have been, and will be

.....a nice little prayer to sleep under.

The quilt is an adaptation of the traditional quilt pattern called delectable mountains. The quilt measures approximately 88" x 98" - it is machine pieced and hand quilted the fabrics and batting are cotton.

studio update

Last week I finished the baby quilt that nfp ordered to give to one of their staff. The shower is coming up this week and the quilt was picked up last night. I look forward to hearing how how the expectant mom likes the quilt. This is the second child in the family, the first child was born just about two years ago and also received a magical mouse quilt. As I mentioned in the post for the "nesting village" quilt, the family is proud of their Ukrainian roots these roots are oncemore represented by squares of blue and yellow which symbolize the flag of the Ukraine.

This quilt I've called "the ladybug garden" - along the border of the quilt I've handstitched part of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem I used in the kitty cat garden:

kind hearts are the gardens
kind thoughts are the roots
kind words are the flowers
kind deeds are the fruit

I love the sentiment of the poem and I think it is a wonderful verse to be shared with children - and good thoughts to take to heart. I am pleased with the quilt it is sweet, bright and ever so cheerful! I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished quilt, there was barely enough light left in the sky last night to get a snap in - fortunately yesterday's rain paused long enough for the shot.

And YEAH I finished the top to the big project I'm working on. Yesterday I layered the quilt and last night I began the quilting. Now I am hopeful that the quilt will be finished in time, until I started the quilting I was a bit worried (let's hope I didn't jinx myself!). This is the largest quilt I have ever undertaken - right now the quilt measures 88"x 98" - which will comfortably fit a queen sized bed.

rings

I recently finished another wedding wall-hanging. this one I gave to friends who were married on saturday - what a coincidence that the favorite colors for this couple is the same as the colors of the previous two sets of couples who received mouse studio wedding wall-hangings. what is it with red and blue?

this wall-hanging I retained the traditional log cabin block style of having a center square of a different color. added a bit of gold to this quilt to symbolize the gold matrimonial bands.

spring projects

I have dropped the ball terribly in terms of maintaining this blog! so much for my new year's resolution to post something every month - I did say that, didn't I? oh well, I'm nothing if not consistent - this resolution, went the way most of my new year resolutions go - which is why I make a point of not making new year resolutions!

my lack of posting doesn't mean I haven't been completely unproductive. here are some snaps of three projects I completed since the last time I posted.

a baby quilt - an uncomplicated pattern, your basic many trips around the world. I like to make baby quilts that will be used -- which is why I tend prefer quilt designs that don't intimidate. I envision that a magical mouse baby quilt will be used (and abused) for years. all of the baby quilts I make are made with 100% cotton materials and completely machine washable. I love it when I see one of my baby quilts years later and it is ragged and threadbare - then I know it gave love and was loved.

the colors and material chosen for this quilt were chosen to represent the four classical elements - earth, water, air, and fire. encircling the blue border is an adaptation of a native american prayer. the words I have stitched on the border are:

Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
In beauty may I walk.

last month our friends randeep and adam were married - to celebrate their union I made one of my tried and true wedding wall-hangings. the symbolism of the wall-hanging is obvious - the colors I choose for the rings represent the couples favorite colors. it is a coincidence that the last two wedding wall-hangings I have done have been for couples which favor red and blue - in fact, this quilt looks very much like the last one - the border fabrics are the same I used in this are the same as I used in that. I had just enough of both the multicolor border fabric for one more wall-hanging - which I think is great as I really like the fabrics.

also this spring I had an interesting project. it actually turned out much better than I anticipated for I had never attempted such a thing before. a friend asked me if I could make "a ham with legs" for him so he could give it to his girlfriend as a gift for mother's day. the back story is the girlfriend has a bulldog which they affectionately refer to as "a ham with legs" - he wanted to surprise his girlfriend with token of his affection for her and her dog.

unfortunately, there is a sad end to this story. the gift was a great sucess - my friend was pleased with how it turned out and his girlfriend, when presented with the gift was tickled and touched. but alas, the relationship did not last - a bit more than a month after he presented the ham to his girl, they broke up. I don't know what has or will happen to the stuffed ham....maybe the canine version of "the ham with legs" will get hold of it the stuffed one.

tick-tock

last month I had the audacity to put forward a resolution that I would post at least once a month on this blog. at the time this seemed like a realistic goal; it's not like a month goes by without me working on something in the studio.

february hasn't been all that productive in terms of quilting projects despite piecing a large bed quilt (86x90) (at least this is large by my standards, I generally make wall-hangings, baby quilts, or lap-quilts) . I didn't have any pressing projects on the board, so I got it into my head to make a bed quilt for my daughter em. I made her a bed quilt in 1997 when she graduated from high school and it was very loved and very used and right now it is ....well in tatters...

the plan was to use the day of the dead fabrics that em bought a while ago. early on in the project I told her I was finally going to use the day of the dead fabric. told her my idea was to pull out the various colors that were in the main fabrics and just use stuff from my stash and have the quilt be somewhat scrappy. she was enthusiastic. early on, I asked if she would come up to the studio so she could see what the 'plan' was and how it was looking so far ....she replied, "no, I want to be surprised, I always like what you do"

famous last words.... both the accompanying fabrics and the pattern I selected for the quilt didn't pass muster! I learned em doesn't care for yellow/golds/brown..... or at least not to the extent I incorporated the colors into the piece and she also wasn't very keen on the pattern and thought the whole thing was just way too masculine looking....

investing a lot of time into a quilt that doesn't please the intended recipient kind of takes the wind out of one's sails.... but that's cool, this isn't the first time I made something that didn't work out...but the other times it was me that didn't like the product... and I know it won't be the last....unless I suddenly quit quilting and that's not gonna happen!

the quilt is so large I couldn't set it up in my normal spots....didn't quite fit on the studio felt wall and no way it could hang on the line outside. only thing I could think of was to put the top on a bed; well I learned that's a problem when there are animals around!

well, it does seem that all the animals really seem to like the quilt.... I do too....but as of now, the quilt will be set aside the back and the quilting will have to wait until I figure out its fate.... for now I think I'm going to play with a palette of bright batiks and start something nice and small....

catch up II

well it hasn't been as long between posts as the last time I gave a studio update, but it's still been a while. on my list of resolutions for 2009 is to be a little bit more attentive to the magical mouse blog. one of the secrets for meeting goals is to set realistic goals -with respect to the magical mouse blog, my intention is to post once each month - if I post more frequently great, but again set realistic goals. I can feel good about meeting my resolution this month - hey I even have days to spare!

the first quilt I finished in the new year is a baby quilt which I am calling the kitty cat garden. I selected a broad assortment of both bright and softly colored fabrics. many of the fabrics feature veggies or whimsically themed prints.

lately I have gotten into stitching words on the borders of quilts. this quilt features several lines from a longfellow poem:

kind hearts are the gardens
kind thoughts are the roots
kind words are the flowers
kind deeds are the fruit

outside of this baby quilt most of the projects undertaken the last couple months have been little useful items which I made to give as holiday quilts - some of these projects include using tee shirts from last year's peace show to make a tote bags such as this one. unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the next peace show tote - it featured several improvements over this one as I learned much
the words on the back of the tee-shirt I used as a center panel in a pillow for a friend who just happened to win this quilt last year and has it hanging in his bedroom.
I also made a lot of these handy little cloth wallets:
a few placemat and napkin sets for various friends. nothing fancy, just useful items with fabric which reminded me of them.

one friend is a collector of day of the dead objects, so I thought this would go well

another friend has a fondness for the provence and the colors yellow and blue