...differing rays of light

As I begin to receive more quilt requests, I find that I am both exhilarated and intimated. On the one hand it is the perfect excuse to try out some new techniques and patterns that I've been stewing over for a few months. And on the other hand I am daunted by the fact that these commissioned quilts also come with expectations and and opinions.

The perfect arrangement, it seems, is when someone approaches me to make a quilt with a few guiding principles, and then I can take it from there. This is precisely what happened in the case of "Differing Rays of Light". One of my lovely new sister-in-laws (Abbie) asked for a quilt and set forth the following stipulations:
1. There should be a giraffe on it.
3. It should include colors like burnt orange, brown, pretty blue or olive green.

With these directions I giddily went searching through some etsy fabric stores (an activity which invariably makes me feel giddy) to find the perfect print. Of course it's hard to choose one, so I settled on two Michael Miller animal prints to feature in a quilt pattern I'd been waiting to use.
Here is picture of the quilt top squares with the Michael Miller fabrics and a bunch of left over scraps from other projects. At this point in the project I considered the fact that Abbie is starting her freshmen year in college this fall, and I know how cramped dorm rooms can be. So I decided she needed something a bit more versatile and useful than a mere quilt...a quillow, for example.



Abbie's quillow is called "Differing Rays of Light", a phrase I pirated from the Sub-Saharan nature journal of Sir Samuel White Baker (1821-1893). Here he describes the giraffe: "The eye of this animal is the most beautiful exaggeration of that of the gazelle, while the color of the reddish-orange hide, mottled with darker spots, changes the tints of the skin with the differing rays of light, according to the muscular movement of the body. No one who has merely seen the giraffe in a cold climate can form the least idea of its beauty in its native land." - From "In the Heart of Africa".

good ideas

My recent infatuation with the concept of the "quillow" has heightened my awareness of the innovators among us, and I have a new-found appreciation for the creative souls who take the mundane and ordinary to create the exceptional. Namely, those who wed two very normal concepts into one hilarious product.

There was a genius out there, for example, who mused to his or herself, "Those with beards and mustaches have the warmest faces during the depths of winter's chill. How can more of us benefit from seasonal facial hair?" Using the simple formula: Wool + Hat + Beard + Mustache = the Beard Head, now each of us can face winter winds with confidence, warmth and facial hair.














Example 2: Camping is fun. Bears are terrifying. How can one sleep in the wilderness without fear or apprehension? Well, what if you yourself appeared to be a terrifying bear? Not only could you ward off unwanted animal predators, but you could also play hilarious jokes on your camping comrades. Thanks to Eiko Ishizawa of Amsterdam, looking like a bear while you sleep can be more than just a pie-in-the-sky dream.




Let these dreamers and schemers motivate us to make the world a better place with our own ingenious, laughable and functional hybrid items.

my little Matryona

What could be better than a quilt and a pillow? How about a quilt that IS a pillow!! That's right, and herein lies the genius of a "quillow", which is a quilt with a pouch sewn to the back so if you fold it into thirds it can be turned into a pillow. I like to refer to them as the popples of the quilt world.

This is my first attempt at a "quillow", and I think it has quickly become one of my favorite projects. This was a commissioned piece for a dear friend who gave me full freedom to create a quilt for her daily use. She studied in Russia and has a sincere fondness for Russian history and culture. So when I found this nesting doll (matryoshka in Russian) fabric by the Japanese company, Kokka, I knew I wanted to use it for her quilt.

The design for the project went through several stages, and even I was unsure what it would look like until it was finished. In the end, I cut out eight separate rectangles (4 are larger and 4 are smaller), created borders for them of a dark brown and a teal , and finally placed them alternately in a sea of a cream colored muslin. For the outer border I sewed strips of the colored fabrics at 45 degree angles (as though making a binding). The pillow section of the quillow is appliqued with three dolls I cut from the Kokka print, attached with fusible webbing, and used a simple zigzag stitch to secure them to the fabric.

I think what draws me to this particular design is how it manages to look both old fashioned and modern simultaneously. The colors are exactly the dark and rustic tones I (inexplicably) associate with old Mother Russia, yet the design is simple with straight lines and without too much clutter. The name for it comes from a poem by Teresa Pfeifer called "Matryoshka".