Caroline's Placemats

Smokey, the burrowing cat & quilt inspector, hard at work

Well, the holidays are over. Whew! It really became "Ahava's quilting sweatshop" as I tried to finish 8 placemats and napkins prior to Christmas to give to Caroline. Mission accomplished. Here's Smokey hard at work. (Don't worry, Caroline, these were washed throughly prior to giving and hermetically sealed against cats.)

I got these great cobalt blue fabrics at Houson International Quilt Festival this November. They are screen prints of traditional Balinese fabrics. I fell in love with them. I showed them to Caroline. We placed them under Caroline's blue and white china and the fabrics 'sang'. So this was what was needed. A snap follows of some of them on my drafting table (turned into a great cutting table) inherited from my grandfather's house. It's pretty special to me to create art on something w/ a family history.

As I've mentioned on previous blogs, most of my obsessive-compulsive quilts take 2-3 years to produce what with the hand quilting and hundreds of pieces - usually 1/2 square triangles. So placemats are a really fun project. Instant gratification. Plus I love to live w/ nice linens.

Hope everyone's holiday was blessed, safe, and lovely. Bless us all. (everyone)

A snap of the pile of placemats