Susan Schrott

It is so hard not to share  the design process with my friend but I really want to see her  reaction when I give her the finished product for he birthday. I am pretty sure she does not check my blog so I can safely post some pictures of the work. Yesterday I auditioned some background fabrics and after deciding on this rich handdyed brown toned piece, I curve pieced into around the entire quilt top. Then I free hand cut, using a rotary blade, some more leaves from, again using only my own hand dyed fabrics, and fused them on the brown outer border. I love the way the leaves float around the piece. It feels like they are swirling around the tree. The next step to come will be the transfer of some family photos to make it an heirloom piece.

Auditioning outer border and the placement of the border leaves

Tree of Life for (it's a secret incase she views my blog)

Somethings in the air. My girlfriends are turning the big 50. So for this special friend I am creating a Tree of Life and will include photos of her family too. I selected the fabrics today and designed the shape of the tree and leaves. I am using all of my own hand dyed fabrics. Here birthday party is January 9th so I have a nice head start.

My birthday gift arrived safely to the wonderful and talented Gloria Hansen. I am so happy that she liked “Petite Quilt #2″. In fact, she wrote a bit about it on her blog which made my day!

Now I am back to work on Andantino which never seems to end. Do you all remember Shari Lewis singing “This is the song that never ends…it just goes on and on my friends…” Well, that is how this piece is feeling! But I think the end is in sight.

I have a friend who recently had a big birthday. She is a very special woman, very kind and talented and I spent a few hours yesterday making her a gift. She doesn’t know it yet, but it should arrive at her home by tomorrow or the day after. It measures 7 inches by 7 inches and I created it using my own hand dyed fabrics, my own hand painted fabric that I scattered leaves on and let dry in the sun (which left it with a delicate imprint) and a four inch inner mini quilt that I made. The inner quilt was created by using a phototransfer of my own drawing, which is part of the Women in My Family series. Then I added an outer border to the mini quilt (are you still following this?) and embellished it with Swarovski crystals. I free motion quilted the piece using king tut cotton thread and gold metallic thread. I hope she like “Petite Woman #2″. Once she receives it, I can reveal who the birthday girl is!

Free motion detail

Second layer

Adding four inch quilt

Adding gold metallic threads

detail

"Petite Woman #2"