Ooh, I like these. These are organic cottons dyed by hand with vegetable dyes and other natural substances. The colors are great. See more of them here, and most of them are available online at eQuilter.
Quilt above made by Maria de Los Angeles Artavia T.; from the exhibit "Shapes and Colors of Costa Rica" at the 2005 International Quilt Festival.
Wow, I haven't posted in two weeks, how'd that happen? Partly it's that I haven't had much to report lately, quilt-wise - I'm working on the swap blocks, and I went out of town one weekend so I didn't get to work on anything at all. Actually that's not entirely true - I took all the bits and pieces with me to start on the Day of the Dead quilt, and I sorted through stuff at my aunt's house, and I started a piece of embroidery. I had a piece of cyan-blue batik with swirls on it, and I started outlining swirls in reverse stitch, in heavy perle cotton (#5, to be exact). It looks cute, I should've taken a picture before now. The most entertaining part was trying to explain to my mother and my aunt and other assorted relatives about the Day of the Dead quilt. I don't think they quite got it.
Here are the four swap blocks that are finished. I have some more bits and pieces (i.e., subunits) together but this is it for finished ones. I like them all - the one with the too-light center probably the least, the two on the top row the most, although I also like the bottom right one with the lighter corner star points really well, too. Since I keep running out of one fabric or another, they are going to keep changing a little bit, anyway.
This exchange was supposed to take place at fall retreat, and I don't think I'm going this year. It's the first time in maybe 7 years that I haven't gone. I know I'm going to be sorry I'm not, but there were too many other factors - mom's disability, money, a minor shortage of vacation time.... (I had enough vacation time and in fact had already put in a request to use it - but I have taken an awful lot of vacation already this year and am going to be taking more, so on top of everything else that may have been the tipping point.)
I have promised to make another autumn leaf quilt - a small one - so here's the beginning of that. I haven't decided how many leaves I'm making exactly. We'll see how it goes. (Last time, I totally got addicted to making the things, so you never know.)
"24/7" was made by Rachel Wetzler of Illinois; it was the 1st place winner in the category Innovative Pieced, Large at the 2005 International Quilt Festival.
I don't have much to say about my own quilting right now. I am making cranberry blocks, still. I will try to take a picture tomorrow, if I remember!
