Uncommon Quilting

 I've done my share of quilting small designs on the  many Hoop Skirt dolls that I made in the heyday of Open Range Art Dolls. The collage and quilting was as inventive as I could make it, but my work eventually grew stale and uninteresting to me. 

I came across the book, The Uncommon Quilter by Jeanne Williamson, a couple of years ago and loved it immediately. My quilting exercise for this year is inspired by the author's unusual approach to quilting. I plan to make a quilt square per week for a year using found material, fabrics as well as papers, plastics and plants. My serious diminished fabric stash needs to be refreshed, too. I hope some new ideas shake loose as I work through the year!

Week #1 is a grey print fabric that I folded into a grid to cut a rough pattern of holes. This was layered over a bright floral pattern. The quilting follows the grid pattern by intersecting in the center of each hole. The I stitched around each hole. I like the randomness of the bright colors peeking through. 

Week #2 was inspired by leftover silver inbewtweens from a sheet of Christmas labels. The sheet stuck well enough to the green print until I could stitch it in place with a zigzag stitch. The irregular circles quilted inside the silver grid echo the shapes a bit.