Rainbow Hexagons

About a year ago, the clock on the wall in my office at work died a slow, painful death. As it stopped keeping time accurately, it made weird noises. When we reported it to facilities maintenance, they didn't fix it, they just removed the entire clock, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. From where I sit, I can't see most of the hole, but one of my coworkers looks right at it. He has commented that I should make something crafty to cover the hole, but it wasn't until this month that I realized I could use an embroidery hoop to make a convenient circle. I got an 18" hoop at Hobby Lobby and painted it silver. All the fabric is from my stash. The hexagons are pieced together, and then I stitched the whole loop down on the black background. I managed to get the whole thing in the hoop without too much trouble.

Other art for the office: owls, butterfly, polyhedrons

Flowered Doll Blanket

I embroidered these flowers over 15 years ago, and I just now got around to turning this project into something useful. Originally it was a doll blanket, but I had just hemmed the edges, so the back looked unfinished. I was too old to actually use it for its intended purpose it when I made it. Then last year my mom rescued my American Girl doll from the closet of my childhood bedroom and gave it to the daughter of one of her friends. I pulled this project out of a box and decided to turn it into a more usable blanket for her. I added some quilt batting and some lavender fabric for the back that matches the lavender ribbon on the front and stitched around the edges with lavender thread. See this post for detailed pictures of of the flowers.

Finished size: 16" x 19"

Ribbon Embroidery

I saw this idea in a magazine and had to try it. Of course I tried it with the regular ribbon I had on hand, not the special embroidery ribbon, so it was quite a feat to tug the ribbon through the fabric. I do love the results however. At some point I did buy some embroidery ribbon, but I never ended up using it, probably because these projects are decorative only and not at all useful.

The Decade Quilts

After 11 years, this project is finally finished! I started these blocks in 2001, and a year's gone by since I last worked on them. This is one of four mini-quilts I made with the blocks. I decided that there was no need to make a full-size quilt, so I made four mini-quilts instead. They are "pet sized," and will be donated to the animal shelter. For being badly pieced, the tops came out remarkably free of puckers. I used quilt batting recycled from another project and backed them with various solid fabrics I had on hand.

Finished size: 30" x 36"