Month: May 2024

Pencil Quilt (and a couple doll quilts)

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, QuiltingLeave a comment

A friend recently asked me whether I had stopped making quilts since I haven’t posted about any new quilting projects for several months. This is definitely not the case. In fact, last year I gave away nineteen quilts to various organizations. Most of these nothing fancy, just easy scrap quilts to use up fabric I have been given over the past couple of years. I still have a lot of fabric yet to use, so I will continue to make quilts to give away.

In talking with her, I realized that I have made a couple interesting quilts that I forgot to post about.

Pencil Quilt. The idea for this quilt came after seeing an advertisement for an adult coloring book with pencils. These books were sold a a way to reduce stress. Not needing any more crafts, I did not purchase a book. But, I did make my idea become reality.

To make the pencil tips as precise as possible, I used a variation of a technique called Paper Piecing. However, to avoid having to remove the paper, used dryer sheets were a better alternative. When ironed and taped to a blank piece of paper, these sheets of thin unwoven polyester can be used in any regular printer. But, since the softener sheets are lightweight, the sheets do not need to be removed.

After sorting through my batik fabrics, the quilt top was pieced in a color gradient order. For the quilting, I pulled different doodle designs into a graphics program and settled on how I wanted the quilting to look.

The end product was very close to the idea I originally had in my mind – a fun, colorful quilt.

I also made a matching doll quilt.

Another Doll Quilt. When my niece graduated from high school, I made her a quilt as a gift. She now has a two year old daughter that is using this quilt.

For Christmas, I made a doll quilt to match the original quilt. So, my niece’s daughter and her Baby Lissi doll have matching quilts.

Spring Has Sprung

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Flowers, Fused glass, Yard Art1 Comment

Spring is my favorite time of year. And, while my main planting will need to wait a few more weeks, I have been enjoying the color of the spring flowers in my gardens.

To bring the spring colors inside, I made some glass table art.

Floral Bowl:

A base of green flower stems was created with cut pieces of glass and vitregraph contour fused together.

To add details, a variety of flowers were made using cut glass with frit details, murrini, freeze and fuse flowers and flamework flowers. The butterfly was dichroic glass that was etched to create the details, white enamel paint was added to create the dots and a handmade butterfly body was made with fused dots and stringer. These design features were contour fused to soften the edges, then placed on the stem base and tack fused together.

The resulting 12″ piece of art was slumped into a bowl shape.

Eden Flower Bowls:

Eden is an innovative fused glass technique by Cristina Grumezescu Schnellboegl (tutorial available on Etsy). I will not describe the details of this technique because it is a paid tutorial, but I used this technique to create really lovely custom glass. The resulting glass was squashed to make it 3mm thick, cut into the shape of a flower, contour fused with added details and slumped into a bowl shape.

Deep Slumped Tulips:

Glass petals were cut and contour fused with frit and flower centers, then slumped over a deep ceramic form and epoxied to a green base.

I am enjoying the lovely spring flowers now in my dining room while waiting a few more weeks to do my spring planting.