Cathe // 1

It's great to be back at work in my studio.
Before I show you what I'm working on right now I want to share pictures of the making of a quilt I finished just before leaving. I couldn't post about this earlier as it was a surprise birthday gift. It's the first quilt I gave away and this was special for me. From the start while selecting the fabrics, colors, and patterns I tried to put myself in the place of the receiving person imagining what she would like. Because of my last minute travel plans I also had to hurry with finishing it and ship it before I left home. So I had only little time with the finished quilt and maybe that was for the best. While I was super satisfied with the result and quite sure she would like it and it would make her happy, I also felt a tiny bit sad to let go of it. Being in a rush prevented me of getting too attached to it.
Thanks to Skype I was lucky to witness the moment she received the parcel and opened it. Her genuine surprise, the fact that she liked it, and her appreciation for my work made me happy.
The joy of giving!

Cathe is the name of the quilt. While it has something to do with the woman who received it, it is not her name.

As usual I'll show some process shots before getting to the finished quilt in a later post. I decided to do a disappearing nine patch layout.

This was my fabric selection to start with. I did add some other prints along the way once I realized I didn't have enough of these.

To give it a fresh and contemporary feel I added a lot of white.

I decided to lay the blocks so that no seams match.

Sewing and cutting the nine patch blocks was a lot of fun!

I totally underestimated the time it would take me to decide on the final layout. But that is me. I'm always looking for good balance and tend to over think matters.

Over thinking or not, I liked what I was seeing!

Check back tomorrow for more.