Woodpile Inspirations…..

Back in December, I shared a photo of a Cord of Wood and the quilt design that had spring from that photo…..

Then earlier this month, I described an amazing set of hand-dyed fabrics that I bought.

Now it was time to merge these two!!

As I was ironing all of the hand-dyed fabrics, I kept thinking about this pattern and decided that it might be gorgeous to do in blues with touches of yellow!!

I started out by cutting a LOT of 1.5-inch strips…..

Have you ever used a barbell to keep your ruler from sliding?? Try it some time….it really works and you get some exercise at the same time!!

Next I did a lot of sewing, sub-cutting and re-sewing to get it to this stage…..

WOW… I REALLY like those colors!!

Next was making the accent blocks, using paper piecing…..

….and then laying the whole thing out……

I tried flipping some of the triangle sets around……

But all I could see here were Gator mouths!!

I added an orange-ish border…..the only fabric that is not hand-dyed……

…..and voila….this idea has moved from paper to fabric!!!

I am contemplating what type of quilting to add and can’t wait to see it finished.

I am also debating about turning this into a pattern but haven’t made that decision for sure. What do you think…..is this pattern worthy???

Hand-dyed Heaven

These past two weeks have put me in “hand-dyed Heaven”!!

One of my friends has a reputation for making marvelous hand-dyes!! Due to health reasons, she decided to get rid of most of her fabric and I was excited to be able to purchase the majority of her hand-dyes.

After I had washed and dried them, I started wondering exactly WHAT HAD I DONE…..

After several days of ironing and folding, I have three wonderful shelves full of special fabrics…..

I especially love the ones with these lines…..

There were several surprises mixed in and I can’t wait to figure out something special to use them for…..

These night skies are also intriguing!!!

I am so looking forward to using these in future projects!!!

…oh….if you need hand-dyes, just give me a call!!

Friend bearing gifts

Yesterday, one of my quilting friends, Anita (check out her blog here), came by to pick up her income tax returns, and (unlike most of my clients), came with thank you gifts in hand. She does some gorgeous hand dyes and brought these 5 half yard pieces to add to my stash. She had read on a previous blog post that I was missing light colors so she brought these to help fill in a bit.

They remind me so much of Spring and I cant wait to use them in some way.

Her husband, Bill, has been recently playing with Rust dyeing and has come up with some amazing designs. He sent about 15 pieces and told me to pick my favorite. There were several that I really liked, but this one grabbed my attention…….

I can see cutting out the “chain section” and bordering it with some cool piecing. Another idea to add to the “to-do” list.

Isn’t it wonderful to have such good friends!!!!!

Thank you Bill & Anita!!!!!