Hanging Method for Small Quilts

I was so glad to discover an easier way to hang small quilts than sewing in a sleeve for a tiny dowel. I use this method to hang all my lake quilts.
The corner pockets are made from two squares of fabric ... usually the same fabric as the backing for the quilt. Fold the opposite corners together to make a triangle. Press the fold.
I sew the the pockets to the corners at the top of the quilt with a zig-zag stitch before finishing the edges of the quilt with a binding or couched yarn.

Recently, I've been using these pockets to hold a flat piece of wood at the bottom of larger quilts to help them hang flat against the wall. This pair is cut and ready to be sewn to the Smoky Mountain quilt to ensure the bottom corners won't curl out.

More Flowers

This is the way my "ortwork" flower pieces begin.
Opps! I take that back. This is where they begin.
Bags of scrap fabrics, thread ravels, strips of wool cut for rug hooking, roving, and disassembled silk plants.

At this point one layer of netting has been applied and quilted just enough to keep all those bits and pieces in place on the background. I'm building another layer with flowers, stems and leaves plus more texture.
I cut the silk flowers apart and shape them to resemble particular flowers for my composition. The cone flowers get centers from balled up strips of wool. The yellow coreopsis will be getting some of those, too.
I love these bright pink poppies. The snippets from shaping petals become part of the piece as buds and flowers in the background. The leaves are also reshaped from my box of disassembled silk ones. I'm finding the backside of some are what is needed for a few of the plants.

Birds in the U.K.

"Flitty" flits about in the United Kingdom. Go here to read more about him. I like his fancy headdress and tail feathers.
There are wonderful "tweets", birds made of wool fabric with fancy fabric wings, made by Jackie in the United Kingdom as well.
Make a trip to her blog, Dog Daisy, to check out more of them. They are real characters!

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

Flowers! I've been knee deep in flowers ... literally.

All week I've been busy coming up with another variation of these.

Studies I had made a year ago last fall.

Blue Bird

The Blue Bird's here in Tennessee are scoping out nesting sites. Watching them flit around in our yard inspired me to create my own version.
A few months ago I granted permission to McCalls magazine to feature a project based on my bird pattern. Their online magazine, "Quick Quilts" published it today..
These made by Kerry Joho look like sweet country cousins to my long-legged birds. Evidently kits for making them with RJR fabrics can be ordered through the magazine site. To make them from scratch, my pattern and instructions are free. Click on the links in my sidebar for access to download them to your computer for printing. To see many interpretations of my bird by me and my friends click on the Picasa "Birds" album that is also located in my sidebar.