Author: Laura Kate

One of six children, I was raised by a busy mom, who instilled in me a love of fabric. Though I learned to sew and knit at a young age, it was the arrival of my first grandchild that pushed me into action. A long-time knitter, I am now ready to explore all things fiber.
Posted in quilting

SAHRR 2025 – yes, I’m participating

Posted on by Laura Kate

After telling myself that I had too many projects going at the same time I had decided that adding SAHRR to the mix would not be a good idea. Then I changed my mind. What’s this all about, you may ask?

After my mother had a stroke, I assisted my sisters in cleaning out my mother’s crafting room and disposing of the contents. One project bag contained some intriguing fabric panels depicting Japanese geishas. I took these home.

There are four in all. She also had various bits of Japanese quilting fabric, including cotton fat quarters and some lengths of yellow silk.

I became enamored with the idea of making a Japanese-style quilt, to the point that I bought a few books to learn how.

So, getting back to SAHRR. I decided that my center block could be one panel.

I worked on it a little to get its dimension down to 11 and 1/2 inches. My plan is to make a row-style quilt that will be suitable for turning into a kimono-style robe. I’ll match up each week’s clue to one or more block patterns from this book.

All the blocks are designed to finish out at 9 inches. This plan could be a good work-out for my problem solving skills.

And when I am finished, I will have something made with my mother’s fabric selections, to remind me of how much she loved to sew.

To see the SAHRR 2025 participants’ center blocks, click here.

Posted in drawing

Sunday Sketch Colored Pencil

Posted on by Laura Kate

For today’s sketch, I wanted to try to draw a photograph of a sunset that Bill took during our trip to Italy several years ago.

This is the view from Medieval Assisi, which sits on a hill well above the surrounding landscape. He had shared it with me during our joint “100 Day Project,” back in 2023. I had never quite finished making 100 pieces of art out of Bill’s photos. This one I had wanted to turn into an art quilt. I had even done a fabric pull in anticipation.

It seems like an impossible task when I think about it now. But the first step is always to get a good drawing, from which to make a pattern. For this drawing I used graphite and colored pencils.

There’s no way for pencil to get the lustrous glow of a sunset the way a photograph can. But I did manage to render the shapes reasonably well.

Posted in drawing

Sunday Sketching – Pencil Portrait

Posted on by Laura Kate

I’ve decided to do some sketching every Sunday this year. It helps me understand my subjects better and gives me an opportunity to work on values and composition.

Today I pulled up a photograph of AshLynn, my great niece. Her mother is a children’s librarian. Last July we were at story hour. I was snapping away with my cell phone and was charmed by Ashlynn doing an exercise called Flitter Flutter.

Waving her chiffon scarves while looking back at her beloved Grandma.

Ever since I have been wanting to render the scene in watercolor. My first step toward that goal is this quick sketch.

What are you working on these days?

Posted in embellishing, hand embroidery

Friday Finish: Dragonfly panel stitching

Posted on by Laura Kate

For this week, I made a promise to myself that I would complete the hand embroidery on one of the Here Be Dragons art quilt panels. By New Year’s Day, I had finished.

The goal was to emphasize the painted lines while quilting the fabric layers together. I used DMC stranded floss in colors compatible with the fabric paint.

Here is the panel before stitching the background. The dragonfly is already stitched.

Using primarily stem stitch I outlined the botanical shapes of leaf and flower. With rice stitch, I worked the blank areas of the panel to secure the batting and backing.

Here is the panel completed.

I feel pretty good about my work. To me, the piece has variety but also cohesion, achieved by using repetition and a limited color palette.

I now have only one panel of this quilt left to stitch. My goal is to have the work finished and framed in time for an exhibition sponsored by my local art association. It will open in early February.

There’s nothing like a deadline to keep an artist motivated.

Posted in knitting

Last Finish for 2024

Posted on by Laura Kate

Hello, it’s been a busy month for me. I couldn’t let the year pass into history without sharing one final fiber object completed. I choose knitting.

The pattern is Velvet Mirror, a cowl designed by Andrea Mowry. In this image, it is laid out to dry after washing. You can see that the colors used in the stranded design are reversed at the mid-way point.

I enjoyed knitting two colors in the round, which allows continuous stockinette stitch – no purling back. It’s a very clever design.

Once the cowl is dry, the two ends of the tube are sewn together using Kitchener stitch, after adding a half twist.

The twist allows a lovely drape, which can be worn in the front or the back.

Both yarns are from Knit Picks. The white is a luxury blend called Paragon made from merino, alpaca and mulberry silk. The color changing yarn is from a now-discontinued line called Impressionist in colorway Rembrandt. I wish that you could reach through the internet and feel how soft this garment is.

I highly recommend the design, and plan to try other patterns by Andrea Mowry.