All posts filed under: Crafty stuff

An artistic exchange

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m working on a very exciting, but slow, project. I’m making a quilt for my sister to give to her best friend who is having a baby. And she is going to make me a piece of art. I’m so excited.  Her art is AWESOME. I want one like this… (shhh don’t tell…) The quilt I am making looks like this: Well, it looked like that a few weeks ago when I took really bad photos of it.  It looks much better in person, and it’s going to look even better when it is done in a month or so. And Felicity already likes it, so I’m feeling pretty good about it. As long as she can avoid getting into the trouble she got into with the last Hawaiian quilt I made, everything should be fabulous! I’ll keep you updated as I sew (and take better pictures).  And if you want to keep updated on my talented sister, you can follow her on facebook.  Or just check her website.

Finished project: a Hawaiian quilt.

Published by The Dreamstress

There is clearly something in my temperament that makes me suited for hobbies that most people would consider slightly obsessive and insane,* or at the very least extremely labour intensive. I hand-sew anything I can, create historical clothing that involves massive amounts of engineering, insist on buying my furniture second-hand so that I can take it apart and re-finish or re-cover it with a finish or fabric I like, and finally, make Hawaiian quilts. Hawaiian quilts (at least the proper hand-sewn ones) are quite possible one of the the most labour intensive quilts out there.  First a stylised pattern, symmetrical across four quarters and usually representing a plant or something else in nature, is basted and appliqued to the base fabric.  Then the top, batting, and bottom fabric are all quilted together with little tiny hand-quilting stitches that mirror the lines of the pattern. Even if I work at it pretty much non-stop, it takes me about 6 months just to make 1 baby quilt.  If I have it as a nice hand sewing project …