Summer Beach Quilt

Here's another quilt that I made for a wedding gift: a stacked-coin quilt that is tied with wool yarn. It's the perfect size to roll up and use as a beach blanket! The couple is from California and live on the coast, so I went with cool ocean-inspired tones.

Finished Projects: Wedding Ring Quilt and More

   

Here's a peek at some of my recently finished projects. I finished the hand-quilting on Rob & Stephanie's wedding ring quilt in time to give it to them at Christmas. Unfortunately, the color balance on my only photo is off: the background fabric is actually white.

 Next is a summer quilt made of dupioni silk made as a gift for my mom's birthday. The silk has a wonderful cool crispness and a beautiful shimmer. The quilt top was inspired by some patchwork fabric that I found at Zimman's.

 I also made a whole-cloth baby quilt, with hand-quilting that echoed the flower pattern on the quilt top. The binding is ivory grosgrain ribbon embroidered with a running stitch in pale blue thread.

 

Quilt Progress, and More

My wedding ring quilt is coming along nicely. I laid out the rings and am in the process of appliqueing them on to the backing fabric. I've also drawn out my quilting lines using washable tailor's chalk.

In the process of attaching the rings.

I've also been working on another hand-sewn gift: a set of cloth napkins for my friends' bridal shower. Purple is one of their wedding colors, so I thought that I would follow that theme.

All materials gathered, ready to get started.

 I first learned how to make these from a tutorial posted on the Purl Bee: Molly's Handmade Napkins. It's basically a piece of cloth cut to your desired size, bordered with a contrasting binding.

Fabric cut for six napkins.

 First, I measured and cut the main fabric for the napkins, and cut cut strips 2" wide and 2 yards long to make my double-fold binding (It's just like double-fold bias tape, but since the edges of  the napkin are all straight,  the fabric does not actually have to be cut on the bias).

Binding pinned on and ready to be sewn.

I pinned the trim all of the way around the napkin, mitering the corners. Next step: sew the binding on, and hope that I can finish everything in time!

Welcome

Welcome to my studio! I'm Jessica, a bibliophile, knitter, seamstress, and all-around crafty gal living in the Witch City: Salem, Massachusetts. In this blog I'll share some of my current projects and provide a peek into my creative process.

Meet Mouffette, the studio kitty. She carefully supervises my work.

One of my works in progress is a quilt that will be given to our friends as a wedding gift. The bride and groom chose pink, white, and peach as their color theme, which made it easy for me to pick out some bright and cheerful coordinating fabrics. An afternoon at the laundromat made sure that everything was pre-shrunk, pressed, and ready to go. Playing off of the traditional double wedding ring quilt, which has many interlocking rings, I decided to modernize and simplify the design by having two large, interconnected rings.

After drafting a pattern, I cut out all of the segments that will make up each ring. One ring will be shades of pink and the other will be shades of orange. However, some of the prints had both colors, so there will be some subtle unity.

One circle is complete! Time to piece together the second ring, and then applique them on to the backing fabric. First, though, the white fabric needs a thorough pressing!