Sunday, September 23, 2012

Cathedral Windows - Hubble #1

I love it!


People have been asking me how much time this has taken me to stitch.  I don't usually keep track of how much time I work on something because I enjoy the process more than the end product (hence the piles of finished quilts and bins of finished needlework around here) so it is hard for me to give a true answer.  I did start this project in January of this year, although the planning for it started last year.  It took me about six weeks of solid stitching to get 1/6 the way through.  

I then had a series of short breaks where I made a double-sided quilt for Brad, did the actual quilt work on the Home Sweet Home quilt #1, spent a week on the backing and quilted the Dresden Plates quilt, and lastly finished the top of Home Sweet Home quilt #2, which hasn't been photographed yet because I need to make a backing.  Also in there was my long trip up to Kelowna where I finished up UFO's (unfinished objects that have been around for a long, long time) but then I spent hours and hours and hours working on this.  The quilt is 58" square and each little square is 3" across.  

All worth it, in my opinion.  It is hand folded, hand pieced, hand appliqued, and hand bound.  Each little prairie point was place by hand (my how I hate math).  I stopped counting the yards of black fabric and just bought two yards more each time I went in.  All of the black fabrics were designed by Faye Burgos from Marcus Brothers.  The colored fabrics are 99% Kaffe Fassett fabrics, some leftover from Lollypop Trees and many bought specifically for this quilt to get the right shade of fabric.  



My inspiration for this quilt was the images coming from the Hubble telescope.  It's amazing to me that with our eyes, we see so little.  When you layer images of stars that the Hubble can see, it's layers and layers of color.  Each star is a different color based on the age of the star.  Truly breathtaking.  




Some comments from facebook:

Kamila Vm Kamila It´s breathtaking !

Anna Margrét Árnadóttir Summer!!! This is one of the all time most wonderful quilts ever 
I have seen . . . thought first that all you fabrics were batiks . . but up close I saw that "Hubble #1" had found all the best fabrics in the Universe ♥ Congratulations on a magnificent quilt!

Anne Andersen Really beautiful. Must have taken you forever. :-))

Chantal Lynch Absolutely wonderful! Love the inspiration.

Margaret Jackson Graeff That is incredible! Just gorgeous!

Christina Belding Awesome!!

Sandra Howell Wow! Breathtaking is an understatement. I'm not a fan of creating a Cwindow quilt, but my hat's off to those you make them.

Bettina Trapp This is amazing!

Cathy Hurst Just had a look at an enlarged photo. Your quilt is absolutely gorgeous and a massive amount of work. Well done!



Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Royal Santa by Amanda Lawford #10

This background took me a long, long, loooooooooooong time.  It is stitched in one strand of Caron Impressions in cream.  It got to the point where I would just make myself do one length of thread a day.


Doesn't it look fabulous though?

The tiger is stitched in Au Ver a Soie silk thread from Access Commodities.  It is done in long and short stitch, stem stitch, back stitch... basically a lot of little stitches.  Also, the nose is done in basketweave.