17.20.17

When I signed the mortgage and bought the place I have been living in from my middle brother, I gave him this turtle wall hanging I have been working on for two years. It's about 20" X 20", give or take. It is the first one I have done that has been finished with facings. It was a lot of fun to experiment with the Kantha style/ primitive Sashiko style of quilting.

Even though the hand applique' went pretty quickly, I hand quilted through 2-4 layers of batik fabric, with garment fleece in between the layers. This is tremendously labor intensive and I could only work on it a few hours every few days.

Hanging sleeve shows pleat

Some of the last stitching included adding small snail shells, beads, turquoise (to honor his bride) and some small twig beads we bought when he comforted me on a particularly difficult day.

The only machine work on it is the application of the facings and the seaming and hemming of the hanging sleeve.

Here's another something special from Sisters. This quilt, made by Diane Ottenfeld, was inspired by the book Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, particularly the Akan proverb on the first page.

"The family is like a forest; if you are outside it is dense.
If you are inside; you see that each tree has its own position."

Exciting raw-edge choice for the fronds in this quilt by Diane Ottenfeld