Recently I’ve been taking a break from larger projects to create some small items.

I have always enjoyed making small purses and find it fun to pair up interesting fabrics and linings. I chose a series of beautiful batik fabrics that I’ve had for a long time but just couldn’t find the right place to use them. The process made me ridiculously happy and I love to peruse my growing collection in various sizes.

I’ve also created a few small painted quilts and tried out a new method of mounting these pieces to 8 x 8 canvas boards. The idea is to paint the canvas to match the quilt and/or extend one aspect of the quilt onto the surrounding canvas. I was rather pleased with the results and look forward to experimenting with other subjects and larger canvas sizes. 

Last year I made a “yoga kitty” mat for my daughter’s cat (which he loves) and thought these would be popular items as the “yoga kitty” fabric is so incredibly cute. And to give the dogs equal time I also made a few doggie themed mats. These were a lot of work to quilt and bind but the end result was worth the effort I think. These will make great gifts.     

I have also created a few traditional small quilted wall hangings of the sun and moon. Both the bright sun quilts are paper-pieced using a variety of yellow, orange and red fabrics.

The moon scenes are appliqued on strips of stars and swirled night sky fabric. My husband said the moon had to have a face and I added the kitty into the design as my granddaughter loves kitties and I plan on making one for her birthday.