Colorado, Chihuly and Two Finishes: Confetti and Log Cabin

My sister and I took a confetti class with Peg Collins a while ago and decided to actually finish one this year. Sister wants to include aspen, mountains and a lake so I used the same idea. It was easier than planning something myself. Half my luggage was batiks for these tops; my sister had a much larger collection and we still needed to buy specific colors.

Her well executed plan was to go to work one day leaving me to purchase more fabrics. This entailed two trips because I "didn't get the right aspen fabric" the first time. Good thing I love her to pieces!

Confetti Quilt - Cabin in the Aspen

We cut skinny little strips then cross cut them into itty bitty squares. Sister made fabric dust with some while mine were a bit on the large size. Each fabric went into separate piles on plates and trays. We sprinkled them across the batting making sure to cover it all. Think of it as something between dusting sprinkles across a cake and piping whipped cream on the cake. Bent nose tweezers came in handy to move specific pieces just a tad. Who'd have thought an eighth inch would make a difference?

I carefully cut the aspen trunks, laid them in place and added a cabin rather than a lake. Finally, I covered it with tulle and "quilted the heck" out of it.

Confetti quilt  - Cabin in the Aspen, details

Sister suggests I hang mine in the bathroom. That may or may not be a compliment but she's certainly channeling our mother. When we brought artwork home, clever Mother would admire it then say, "Go choose a place to hang it in the garage so we can look at it every time we drive in or out." We not only fell for it, we thought we were extremely special. Our friends only had a refrigerator for artwork. We had a gallery!

Aspen Quilt Details

Size: 14.25"(H) x 18"(W) 

 Pattern: Confetti quilt 

 Batting:100% cotton scrap 

 Thread: YLI nylon monofilament in the top, cream Aurifil in the bobbin 

 Quilting: Free motion

One of my husband's coworkers had a baby girl so I finished the log cabin star quilt, too.

Variable Star Log Cabin

Here are the final two choices for the binding. The brown looked good but not as fun as the blue batik.

Binding choices for Variable Star Log Cabin

There was some soft pink for the back. I used curvy free-motion quilting to enhance the cuddliness.

Back and quilting detail - Variable Star Log Cabin

Log Cabin Quilt Details

Size: 42"(H) x 42"(W)

Pattern: Log cabin

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Lavender Aurifil 50/2

Quilting: Free motion spirals and flowers

Next, DH and I visited  Chihuly Garden and Glass near the Space Needle in Seattle. What an inspiring exhibit! Some of his installations were in Texas recently but I missed them. Don't be like me. If you ever have the opportunity, take it.

Although all of his work is fabulous, my favorites were some of his earliest Baskets, based on Navajo pottery and weaving. I loved the juxtaposition of these understated glassworks with native art.

Dale Chihuly glass Bowl with a Navajo basket

A wall of Navajo rugs at Chihuly Garden and Glass

Each room highlighted a different series of his work, such as the Sealife Room. For some reason this reminded me of Disneyland's ride "It's a Small World."  Happy, concentrated colors.

Sealife Room at Chihuly Garden and Glass

In  all the gardens, this was my favorite view. Fabulous colors in the plants and glasswork.

Chihuly Garden with thistle

Enjoy the day, Ann

Aspen Leaves

Walk through aspen groves and listen to the wind rustling the leaves. To top it off aspen turn the most vivid colors in the fall. Entire hillsides of brilliant orange and yellow! These are some of my strongest memories of living in the Rocky Mountains. And I had a good assortment of just those colors in my stash.

For the straight line piecing assignment in our book study I chose to interpret these leaves. I had my recollections and some very old photos. But using out-of-focus or slightly faded photos allows more room for interpretation. (And my sister kindly emailed some current photos. Hooray!)

Aspen Leaves quilt

First I sketched and sketched and sketched. When the layout pleased me I enlarged it to 18 by 24 inches, the size of my sketchpad. This seemed like a reasonable size to sew.

Original Drawing for Aspen Leaves

Next I drafted a sewable pattern by overlaying a second sheet of paper and drawing with a straight-edge.

Sewable Pattern for Aspen Leaves

Now for the fun part: choosing the fabrics! In reality aspen turn from green to orange and finally yellow. But no matter how I tried, the solid yellow leaf did not look right. So I fooled with Mother Nature. Can you find the orange slice fabric?

Here's a detail of the free motion quilting. All but two pieces came from my stash. Of course, now I'm out of orange... and need more yellow, too.

Detail of Aspen Leaves

Fret not; enjoy the day.

Ann