Map Quilts

Pondering the idea of making a small quilt of a map of our area.  Maybe a topo map, or road map, or or or...  Looking for ideas across the internet this morning, I found some wonderful things!

Scrappy maps in vivid color like "I Left My Heart in Africa" from WorldQuilter

Topographic Quilt of Julian, California.  One of Haptic Lab's fabulous Neighborhood Quilts

And the most stunning quilts by Leah Evans...wonderful interpretations of topographic maps and aerial views in fabric. 



Leah Evans' "Tundra" quilt.  See more at DesignBoom and Leah Evans Textiles



First Redwork Experiment

Thanks to a challenge over on Stitcher's Showcase, I've tried my first semi-traditional redwork piece.  Cute!  Click the photo for a closer look.

The pattern is one of the wonderful patterns from The Floss Box "Science" series.  The red thread is a one-off "detritus" silk floss from Hand Dyed Fibers on plain off-white muslin. Stitches used included stem stitch, back stitch, couching, lazy daisies, french knots, and tailed french knots.

Quick to stitch up and I love the little flowers.

And the buggies!

Happy Sunday everyone!

My Scissors -- Feathered Friends

Today: scissors decorated with wings and birds. 

Right to left, these are Sullivan's Scissors "Wing" style in copper finish, Mundial's 3.5 inch stork, and Nogent scissors embossed with two birds.

First up, Sullivan's Scissors "Wing" style in copper:

 These are lovely and quite a substantial weight.  The blades are not fine but they cut well, and they also go so perfectly with that Chatelaine "Autumn Watergarden" WIP.

Mundial 3.5 stork:

These are inexpensive and not hard to find, but I love the fine little blades and the two-toned wings.  One of my go-to pairs of scissors.

Nogent two birds, these need the close-up:

Pretty, huh?  I bought these for $15 on E-bay several months ago and don't know very much about them.  They are marked "Nogent", a French maker, but I haven't been able to find them elsewhere on the internet.  The blades are fine, though and the action is very smooth, so I think I got my money's worth. 

Green and Gold for the Tree

This year's ornaments-in-progress.  Old gold on green!  I know it's not a traditional color but we have several glass ornaments with this color scheme already and I think they give a brightness and glitz to a Christmas tree.  Especially if you use white lights like we do.  So pretty!  Better photos will follow when they get finished all the way, but I've got to find some matching trim and beads first (oh poor me).

These wonderful snowflake patterns are from a wonderful newish book "A Rainbow of Stitches" by several French designers including Muriel Brunet. 

The book has a wide variety of hand embroidery patterns as well as cross-stitch, all of which lend themselves to whatever colors you choose.  As for my snowflakes, I think I'll also work some up in alternate colors for gifts.  They stitch up pretty quickly.  See the more traditional red on natural linen up there in the first photo?  I'm also thinking silver or white on dark blue or gray could be wonderful, or any color on white...hard to go wrong!

My Scissors -- Sentimental Favorites

These two little dears are nothing super spectacular...except that they were last year's birthday gifts from my two favorite little people.

The boy picked out the blue ones on the left, which are very sturdy little 3-inch "Blooms" brand scissors with titanium blades.  Actually very nice travel scissors.  And the girl (of course) picked out the little pink Kelmscott "Little Gems" on the right.  They don't cut worth a darn but they are very very cute!

And the two of them even managed to pick out colors that matched the pieces I had recently done for them!  (They may have had daddy's help.) 



Finish: Arelate Studio "Ferocious Beastie" for Lena



I mean, just look at these faces.  How could they not do a great job?

More ladybugs!

I thought there were a lot last week, but yesterday there were at least three times as many!

This time it was the boy who got to enjoy them with me.

I think I need to pull out my stash of Terrance Nolan/Dimples Designs "Wee Beasties" patterns.  I've done one set of three ladybugs but if they are going to swarm like this they will need more friends!

The Tailor of Gloucester

Since today was Tuesday and it is the day where it's just us girls in the house, we decided to go on one of our favorite outings together...the craft store followed by the used book store!

At the craft store we found some lengths of fabric for some projects around the house, some cork to replace the old stuff on big brother's desk, and some colored pencils.  Oh, and Lena picked out one skein of pink DMC. 

But the real treasures were the next stop.  The little bookworm has been into her Beatrix Potter books lately, and we found a title she was missing from her collection.  It is hard to believe really, but until now we've been missing "The Tailor of Gloucester". 

She's a little like a cat, she found a sunny spot on the floor to read her new books.

What's your favorite picture, Lena?

She has good taste.  I also scored a new-to-me needlework book, "Erica Wilson's Childrens World"

It has a large section of pieces inside based on Beatrix Potter's works (plus Muppets and Winnie the Pooh) but I bet I know which one I will have to put on the ever-growing to-do list.