A New Novembery Quilt

Every so often, I get a craving to stitch up another quilt design.  And this month I was in the mood to work in purples and burgundies....so I went searching through my Watercolours skeins to see what would call out to me for an autumn quilt.

I chose the skein at the bottom, Watercolours 184 - "Sheherezade" with all those yummy purples and golds, so I could also sneak in a bit of metallic ribbons in purple and burgundy.

Here's the new quilt I designed and call "AUTUMN STARS":

Honestly, I can't get enough of those traditional quilty stars.... and I find myself returning again and again to playing with them in new and different ways.  This design incorporates some fun and easy stitch patterns in the star centers - checks and stripes - and uses them in the outer borders as well, which gives the design a contemporary art quilt look.  And I gotta tell you: there's nothing difficult about this one and the whole piece is just plain FUN, FUN, FUN to stitch on a cold night by the fire.  
Here's a close-up look at one of the purple stars and the border:

And because this has such a rich, autumnal feel to it, it would be terrific to change out the colors if you wanted to work your own fall quilt.  How about blues and golds?  Teals and oranges??  Just find a variegated skein you're crazy about, and then match your solid color #5 pearl cottons and two rich metallic ribbons, and you're good to start stitching!!

So if you're in the mood to stitch up this satifying new AUTUMN STARS quilt, please mosey on over to my website and you can find all the pattern information on my American Quilt Collection page.....

A New Design That's Pure Pattern Pleasure!

CALLING ALL BEACH LOVERS:  If you're a stitcher who enjoys doing geometrics, you'll understand my newest design, called "SAND & SEA PANEL".  It's an abstract design that captures a slice of the beach, where the sand meets the sea, and it's composed of just a few composite stitch patterns:

I got the idea this summer, when I was printing out a batch of my popular "RED, WHITE & BLUE PANEL"  and took a closer look at that model, thinking how cool it would be to try a stitch a slice of the beach in soft pastel colors.  Before I knew it, I was pulling out  beachy threads and fiddling around with shell-shaped stitches..... Here's a close-up of the sand and sea foam section, where you can see the shells (sorta like a half Rhodes Stitch) and what I like to think are tan sand dollars (or maybe sea urchins):

And of course, I had to create a simple bargello pattern for the edge of the sea brushing against the shore!   I pulled out a handful of shimmery Ribbon Floss and came up with a soothing repeat wave design. 

The lower block of sea pattern was also fun to create, using a variegated Watercolours in cool blues and greens - 194 - "South Pacific".  I was sorely tempted to use a brighter Watercolours 207  - "Bermuda Reef" for a sunnier look, but ultimately went with the cooler colors for the model, since it reminded me more of the foggy Half Moon Bay beaches I visited in my childhood. 

Here's what the sea section looks like up-close, and again, I tried to incorporate circular and starry shapes in the pattern, so it gives the illusion of looking underwater at all the mysterious sea creatures living in the ocean....

As I was stitching this piece, I was thinking how perfect this would be to hang in a beach cottage, or a coastal vacation getaway.   Not being lucky enough to have a shabby chic beach retreat, I at least can look at this finished piece and dream....sigh!   And if some of you stitchers can do some real beachcombing, I also thought a few real (tiny) shells would be fun to sprinkle on the finish piece...

So, if you're a geometric beach lover, you might want to wade on over to my website and check out this serene new "SAND & SEA PANEL" pattern.... cuz everyone needs a little beachy getaway!!