quilting pictures in my head

for a number of weeks now, i've had a recurring picture in my head of a patchwork tea cosy.  it was, in my mind, a project that would use up all those little scraps that you end up with after larger quilt projects. but i hadn't really had any other quilt projects going on until recently. it was getting more urgent and the past few days, i actually woke up thinking about this tea cosy design, so on sunday, i sat down with the scrap basket and started to sew.

scraps of anna maria horner's innocent crush line

and it began to come together, remarkably like the picture i had in my head. even down to the colors.

after a week of building quilts following directions from the marvelous fresh quilting book, it was quite liberating to take the experience i'd gained and forge off on my own. to do a bit more experimenting and to feel a bit more playful. i used malka's advice in the actual free-form quilting i did with my machine, so i didn't abandon her lovely book altogether. a project this size was perfect to experiment and get comfortable with the free-form quilting, as it's quite manageable to maneuver under the quilting foot. i had intended to back this with an old felted sweater, but the size was a bit wrong for the felted sweaters i had on hand, so i've used a thick cotton batting and a simple purple cotton on the back, more like a normal quilt.

side 1

i'm quite surprised how this project went from a pile of scraps and an (albeit rather clear) picture in my head to a beautiful handmade tea cosy that i'm now using with a smile as i make my morning tea. and i'm even more surprised how much it did end up looking like i had pictured it. it was one of those moments of inspiration that kept coming back to me - a picture, fully formed in my mind, flashing into my head unbidden at odd moments. i will definitely be working on those more often.

side 2

the shape ended up a little wonky on the top, but i'm ok with that - it just lends to the handmade charm. even husband really likes it - and it brightens up the kitchen significantly.

what are you going to create today?