Crazy Quilt and Fused Quilt

These are both quilts I've made for my husband, that hang in his office. His hobby is music, so these help take his mind off of work problems when otherwise he would be completely surrounded by them.

The left-hand picture is a crazy quilt square with music motifs. The guitar, bass, saxophone and drums are the instruments he plays. The keyboard is for me, and the brass instruments are for decoration. I got the fabrics during a trip to the Chicago quilt show one year. They are a combination of music themed fabrics and warm colors. There are many beads coming from the guitar and saxophone to show the beauty and richness of the music he makes.

The right-hand picture was from a pattern. It was also a lot of fun to make. The overlapping instruments create interesting shapes, but I tried to emphasize the original shape with the machine quilting. I also put in the frets with the machine quilting. Fused quilting is fun and quick: you iron down your fabrics with fusible webbing, and then just quilt around them without worrying about covering your edges. It wouldn't be suitable for anything that needed to be washed, but for wall hangings it is a lot of fun.

No new finished temari yet. I'm working on a cool one, but I'm running out of thread (just before the holiday weekend too, eek!). I'm hoping to make a LNS (local needlework shop) run after work this afternoon. I started with a full skein, but it is taking quite a bit more than I expected, and the color I chose is not available at the local JoAnn's. I am very sad to report that the local JoAnn's is carrying fewer and fewer colors of DMC #5; it's very discouraging, especially since I got a discount card for them through EGA guild.

Have a safe holiday!