Blog / improv

Happy New Year, dear readers! I hope 2015 is off to a great start for all of you!

Over a year ago, I discovered Sarah Waterhouse's screen-printed fabrics and fell in love. I quickly decided that I wanted to stock her designs in my shop, and selected a number of prints from her Geometrics collectionto carry. Though her organic fabrics are a heavier weight---perfect for upholstery, tote bags,...

I was recently commissioned to make a quilt for a family member, with the only parameters being that it needed to fit on a twin bed and should feature light blue fabrics.


Using the slab technique from Sunday Morning Quilts, I constructed blocks from light blue and aqua fabrics, including vintage prints and men's dress shirts. To keep the quilt from becoming too busy, I alternated the improv blocks...

English paper piecing has become my go-to project when I'm traveling, so after finishing my star blossoms quilt, I immediately switched over to a hexagon project I started ages ago, but had never finished. During plane rides this past fall to Salt Lake City for Sewing Summit and Houston for Quilt Market, I stitched away.


The main fabrics I used were hand-printed scraps by Sara Lee Parker, which I bought from her table at Crafty Bastards a few years ago. I paired her prints with an olive linen from my stash. I took an improv approach to the layout of the hexagons---I pulled basted hexagons from a pouch without looking, and stitched together whatever I pulled.

Once I'd stitched together all of the pieces I had, I decided to machine appliqué the entire shape to a rectangular scrap of muslin. I did echo quilting around the edges and then framed it all with a black binding.


I love how this piece turned out---and loved working with Sara's fabrics---and can't wait to hang it on my studio wall.