034 - Coasters

Inspiration

When I came across some small scraps of this black and white print of birds and birdhouses, I thought it would be perfect for the quilt with birds and birdhouses and lots of black and white prints.

But because it was a very small scrap, I decided to try to use it in the corners of the flying geese border of the crib quilt ... but after making the square in-a-square blocks didn't like them for the quilt.

The four blocks became coasters.

Details

The coasters measure 4 1/2-inches square and are made from quilting cottons.

The pieced square-in-a-square is paper foundation pieced. They are layered and quilted simply, along the seam lines, AKA stitch-in-the-ditch, with yesterday's quilted feather design in the turquoise triangles. They are bound, like tiny quilts, in a traditional way with solid black cotton.

They will live in a drawer in the studio, ready for the morning latté or iced water or tea that is I often have sitting next to the sewing machine or keyboard.

033 - Quilted Feathers Design

Inspiration

Quilters often use feather-inspired designs in quilting.  I wanted to attempt a more literal interpretation and attempt to draw recognizable feathers with the sewing machine.

Details

This is an unmarked design, free-motion quilted  on a scrap of muslin layered with batting. It measures approximately 4 by 5-inches.

One of Nolan Scalin's skull projects in the book is a thread-titched skull, produced by sewing only forward and backward.  I wondered why no one explained how a sewing machine could be used to stitch in any direction by using the free motion technique.