Earlier this month I enjoyed making not one, but two new Mystical Land fabric quilt tops! The one above I began in the Spring by making hourglass quilt blocks combining ML with AGF's new Element or blender, Decostitch, but once the kids Summer break from school started in late May this project got tucked away with my other unfinished projects. When I finally returned to my studio a few weeks back I was thrilled to discover that I only needed a dozen or so more to piece together this quilt top and that same evening I brought it along to the lake for pictures!
This is the sixth Hourglass quilt top I've made over the years and my new favorite! Although I now have a spacious studio, I still don't have a design wall, so I made room on the floor so I could arrange my blocks in a thoughtful way that would showcase my inspiration for both my Mystical Land collection and this quilt top -- the beautiful glow and magic of dusk, my favorite time of day!
The transition from the pale blues, creams, and golden yellows into the moody and saturated blues, violet and fuchsia prints is so pretty and was a very fun challenge and chance for me to play with their values. I did quite a bit of rearranging on the floor to get it right and I'm so happy with how closely this quilt top resembles my initial vision!
When I make Hourglass quilt blocks I start with square cuts of fabric and had cut WAY too many for the top above. Not wanting those to go to waste or to begin another hourglass quilt top right away, I decided to pair contracting colors together to make large HSTs from those leftover square cuts. Although in these photos it very much looks like these are hourglass blocks,as well, each block that makes up this top is made of four HSTs. This quilt top is also quite a bit bigger than the first quilt top a made -- I suppose that's a happy side effect of not doing math before I began the first top!
The combination of colors in this one is really interesting to me because of how the berry + orchid purples and the Sunglow Decostitch prints jump out at me. I really love it!
Both of these quilt tops, along with a few others, are in the hands of Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Quilting to work her edge to edge quilting magic. I saw a peek of one already and I cannot wait to get them back to bind and photograph this Fall, my favorite season!
This is the first full week of school for my kids and it feels good to be back to a schedule. We were all ready! I immediately began redoing my studio to open up as a small gift shop, to offer lessons and to host craft nights before the year ends. That's where I'm spending most of my time right now, but I've made sure to make time for sewing as well and I have lots to share. It feels so good to be back in this space today!
How about you, what are you working on these days?
xo Maureen
