Lonely Crane

I found this little crane lying in the corner on the floor of my craftroom looking all lonely. It was my prototype and the first crane I paper-pieced using my CraneStar pattern.

I decided to turn it into a little quilt to showcase that first crane. Right now I'm not certain if I will just bind it and leave it as a mini quilt or quilt some back panels and turn it into a pillow like the original CraneStar pattern. If I sew another single crane block, I would position the crane a bit lower. I will eventually add this mini quilt as a free pattern extra on my blog so that those who have the pattern will have another fun option :o)

I designed the free-motion quilting pattern in the blue border to mimic the flowers in the fabric I used for the crane. I love how it turned out (even more-so on the back) and would like to do it again on a solid border! The red thread on cream is nice.

Mr. Scruffy is critically eyeing the lonely crane quilt but I think he likes it because he ended up falling asleep on it!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Crane Star Pattern

The Crane Star pillow pattern is now available in my SHOP. The Crane Star is a versatile pattern made up of six cranes. This pattern includes instructions for basic paper-piecing technique as well as layout & instructions to make a 19 x 19 inch pillow cover.

Paper-piecing allows the quilter to create intricate blocks with accuracy and ease. The fabric is sewn directly to the paper template. Felicity tested my pattern using her own choice of fabrics which I think looks fabulous. I have enlarged the pattern ever so slightly. Read her review here.

PatchworkPottery pattern booklets include a metric conversion chart, stitches & terms section, fully illustrated step-by-step instructions, and full size templates. Try joining rows of half Crane Stars to make a matching quilt or incorporating a single crane into a quilt.

The Teacup Pouch pattern will be available next week. The SpringTime Bag and Quilted Teacup & Saucer patterns are coming soon!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Crane Star Pillow

Inspiration struck this week and I finally finished my Crane Star pillow. It's been so long that I think the panel faded slightly from sitting in the sun through the summer. Note to self... don't leave half finished projects on the floor!

From paper to fabric...

Front & back...

I wanted to try some "not-quite-straight" quilting that I saw at the last Vancouver modern Quilt Guild meeting for the back panels. I like it and it was super fun and fast. My Japanese husband said that the pillow looks very Japanese so I think that's a good sign!

I ran out of the pink fabric that I used for the crane on the front so I had to substitute it with a linen that was a close colour match. I pieced the binding with all six fabrics and added rainbow sashiko on the linen ties to echo the front of the pillow...

Stay tuned for the Crane Star paper-piecing & pillow cover pattern coming soon to my shop!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Crane Star

Paper-piecing seemed tedious and confusing before I began this project. I had an idea in my mind and the only way to create it seemed to be paper-piecing which I had never done before! After watching a few tutorials and piecing a few cranes, I came up with a method that worked for me.

My first idea was to quilt the pillow cover entirely by hand to resemble Japanese sashiko. I ordered some custom hand-dyed floss from Cymberfloss in France. It turned out gorgeous and the colours matched perfectly! My embroidery went much slower than expected as I was forced take it one stitch at a time. Pulling a few running stitches through several layers of linen and batting proved impossible.

I will be freemotion quilting the rest of the pillow cover in the same colour as the linen so that the focus of the quilt remains on the cranes.

I am also in the process of making a lap quilt with seven crane stars. That's a total of 42 paper-pieced cranes! Percy Persimmon is helping me pick fabrics that look like origami paper. I think he's doing a great job!

I'm hoping to use some of this beautiful hand-dyed floss by Nell's Embroidery in North Vancouver.

My husband Sota is from Japan. His family lives inland and were luckily safe but the news was still devastating for all of us. He started Crane for a Dollar to teach school children to support, sympathize and come together as a community by folding origami cranes to raise funds for Japan. If your child's school is interested in folding 1000 cranes or want to find out more, please click on the postcard :o)

After seeing all the folded cranes, I was inspired to design this paper-piecing pattern. Fourteen cranes finished and twenty-eight more to sew... and then the PDF pattern booklet will be on its way!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)