One Project Completed, Several More to Go

front of The Staring Owl, designed and hand-crafted by me

back of The Staring Owl quilt, recycled cotton clothing

In January of 2009, I began felting second-hand sweaters and creating items from the felted wool. Never one to begin small, I first turned a sweater into a one-button jacket. The jacket fit my daughter, but she didn't like the style, so it still hangs in a closet.  Then I made the requisite felt pouches. My biggest projects, however, were two folk art quilts that I designed and handsewed for my son and daughter. These took me over a year to complete. Then I turned my hand to smaller projects as my life became more complicated--my daughter, and last child at home, headed off to university, and we moved to another state. However, I wanted to make another folk art quilt, so one of my New Year's resolutions this year was to complete two more such quilts. Hurrah! I've met half of that resolution: I just finished a much smaller folk art quilt than the ones I made my children; it's the size of a baby quilt, 45 inches X 45 inches. I've titled the work The Staring Owl because a phrase from William Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost inspired the design: "Then nightly sings the staring owl, tu-whit, tu-who, a merry note."

Because I usually have two or three projects going at once, I've already started on the second folk art quilt of my New Year's resolution, and I've drawn the design for another. The second folk art quilt will be made entirely of squares cut from felted cashmere sweaters, though there may be a few squares of merino wool in there to make up the size of the quilt. This one will probably be lap-sized--or baby-quilt sized--too.

first squares for a cashmere quilt

Each of the pink cashmere squares has a crocheted flower (with leaves) sewn to it. I envision scattering these pink squares among green and blue squares of cashmere--a stylized lily pond. Oh, and each square has a cashmere backing, too.

The third idea for which I've already drawn a design will be a more traditional quilt, with real hand quilting instead of applique-embellished squares connected with crochet. I'm keeping that design secret, however, until I finish the quilt, for with it I am embarking on another first for me, and I want to see if the experiment is successful before I publish the result.

I'm hoping that I can finish both of these quilts before the end of the year...and maybe even add another large project at the end. We'll see.