Burda September 09 - Folkloric Skirt

A few days ago I received my first Burda (formerly World of Fashion) magazine in the mail.

A fan since childhood of anything pioneerish (thank you, Pleasant Company), this skirt caught my eye and also reminds me of the folk dancing that was a part of the ballet classes I took as a child. The British Royal Academy of Dance - which has schools for children worldwide - mandated a full skirt and black canvas Cuban-heeled character shoes for that portion of their classes. Those were my first heels, at the age of ten!

Quilt as Wedding Favor & Color Mastery

Earlier this year, I was intrigued by a new book by Maria Peagler on color use in quilts. While I haven't been very good at keeping a color journal, I've gotten good mileage out of her incredibly easy Renaissance pattern, which as you can see involves strip piecing varying widths and colors according to different types of color harmonies.

I'm hand quilting this piece in blue, green, purple, plum and pink. I love the backing fabric - a gorgeous homespun-feeling green shot with mallard.


Then I returned to the pattern in an itty bitty 4" finished block size. The pattern calls for fat quarters, and I found that 4 sets of seven would yield all the 8" by 8" blocks I would need to do some quirky little quilts as wedding favors at our wedding in December (first five below!).



Now I just have to figure out how I will hand quilt all of these babies before Christmas. I *am* excited at the prospect of stocking up on YLI glazed cotton hand quilting thread - the colors and texture are delicious.

Two Red Heads

Welcome to Ugly Pretties!

I made a New Year's Resolution in January 2009 to learn how to quilt (a practical past-time in my mother's Midwestern family), and it has opened up a whole world of creative beauty to me. Alas, I am only an also-ran in the great sport of pretty-making, but 2010's resolution will be to produce a bit more while consuming. This blog is my head start!