Art Nouveau Block

I’ve been working on an Art Nouveau-themed block for Ritva (in Finland) in a round robin for Crazy Quilting International.    Her block was pieced in lovely pastels and she asked that we keep it pastel and not introduce strong or bright colors.

This is what I came up with.

For this block, I stitched the center motif first, using a design from .... oh hell, I can’t find the book!  It’s buried somewhere in my studio, which looks like a bomb went off inside it.  It has NEVER been as messy as it is.  Nothing is even put away from Saturday’s boutique.......

But I digress...... The motif is very swirly, a la Art Nouveau.  I was going to make that bunch of silk ribbon pink flowers into a canopy-type arch of flowers, but it didn’t come out that way, and I wasn’t in a mood to frog it all.  So I added the filigree instead...  Swirls are good, so I added them everywhere.  And that’s a button in the upper left motif - matches the beads pretty well, eh?  That was a happy accident.

And now I’m starting on Margreet’s Art Nouveau block, and will have it ready to show you next week.  Must get them both out to Gerry by this time next week to be on time.  for once

My goal tomorrow is to hit the thrift store for the first time in a month, but first I must do one hour of studio clean-up.  I’m announcing this so that I will feel committed (in the sense of obligation, not in the sense of a mental institution) which we all know I need.


And I wanted to show you a wonderful gift that arrived in the mail on, um, Saturday, I think.  :-)  Hey, I can’t do all this stuff and keep track of TIME, too!  ;-)   My dear friend Pam Kellogg sent these lovely dyed laces (and some vintage undyed lace) to me.   Do you have your bibs and/or drool cloths handy??

That is a lace jabot (look it up) in the center.  Isn’t it to die for??   OK, OK, you don’t want to look it up?  Here’s a link.  :-)

Watch that you don’t drool on your keyboard.   Aren’t these beautiful?  And the colored one below is my very favorite, because I totally love lace handmade with rick rack!!   And Pam did such a beautiful dye job.  (Pam, do you do hair?)

Thanks so much, Pam!!!  If you haven’t stopped by her blog recently, you’re missing out on a lot of fun and eye candy!!

And to close up this post, here’s a quick picture I snapped of a little girls’ dress I made last week for the boutique.  Since it didn’t sell there, I’ll probably list it in my Etsy shop.  Tomorrow.

Yes, it’s a pillowcase dress.  I almost made myself a halter top out of it but my “girls" wouldn’t have appreciated it.    However, I knew it would look much better as a dress.  I added the yellow cotton trim at the bottom and as ties as the top, and a soft green cotton casing at the top.  And large white rick-rack for trim.  It’s about 19” long, which will fit a 3T - size 5 as a dress (depending on how long you like it), or several sizes more if worn as a blouse.  If you’re interested, contact me and I can send more specific measurements.  Oh, I’m going to list it at $18.

That’s it for now.  I’ll post again in the next day or two and show you my thrift store finds (if any), the next African block in the series, and the aprons and sachets I made....

Hugs,