Penny Richards' photos

A simple quilt I made for a niece. Lots of handstitching. She requested blues and greens. The lace in the center belonged to one of her ancestors (and might have been made by that ancestor too). I didn't buy anything to make this quilt--all the fabric and thread was already in my house.

New chalk art on our front walk for daughter's birthday--the sixth birthday chalk I've done for her since I started in March 2020. She likes corgis and took Latin in high school, so "cave canem".

Made another small quilt, this one for a cousin; she requested "something colorful". Some of the fabric and thread is from our shared ancestral stash, including the vintage 70s print border. I bought nothing for this quilt; even the batting was free, from a neighbor via BuyNothing.

First new chalk of 2025 on our walk now, based loosely on John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott; no real resemblance, I know, but it's still sorta recognizable. Pretty pleased to get a white dress looking white on our dark pavement.

I worked on this quilt on the patio at Gallifrey One, a Doctor Who fan convention in Los Angeles. I assembled the 36 squares and sashing at home and pin-basted it to the backing and batting. Then I just sat and sewed by hand, all the quilting, and the binding. It was very pleasant to work on, and fun to sit with other crafters and chat. The prints were gathered from various sources, I only bought two of the fabrics for this quilt, the rest were from thrifted clothing, friends' stashes, my own scrap bags. Very happy with the result.

I made a string quilt--that's when you use strips of fabric, in this case mostly diagonally, to create the blocks that become the quilt top. I didn't buy any fabric for this one, it's all scraps in my house, many of them from neighbors, some from my own sewing projects or clothing. At least some of the thread is from my grandmother's stash. The blocks were machine sewn, most of the rest is hand-sewn, and there's some embroidery too, here and there. (The center square is gold fabric with spiral embroidery.) I really enjoyed making this one.

I'm making a string quilt from scraps of past projects, for a show in February. These are the first sixteen blocks. Sorting fabrics into color groups, ironing and cutting them into strips, and assembling these blocks, even adding embroidery to some of them, has been a nice mental distraction.

Last new quilt for 2024; eighth total, and largest I've ever made. I know, it needs ironing. :) The neon squares were from Trash for Teaching, a warehouse of post-manufacturing waste (not there anymore, sadly). They were already cut into squares of this size, so I accepted that gift. The print fabric and rickrack are probably from my grandmother's 70s/80s stash. I'm thinking of it as a blank-slate quilt--the giftee can add to it, write on it, draw on it, etc. It's also bright and different enough to be easy to find on the beach.

The chalk on our walk in November 2024 is based loosely on Waterhouse's Boreas (1903). She is prepared for the wet weather starting this weekend (part of her pavement is already getting damp).

This is my seventh-ever quilt, smallish, basic, but I think I'm still improving with each one so I'll keep going for now. They will all be gifts. All the fabric here was free from a neighbor who was giving away her quilting scraps on Buy Nothing. The prints are mostly are Christmas red and white, and dogs.

This was my entry in the Belmont Shore Chalk Art Contest in Long Beach today. They put down good art paper, but we're still chalking on a busy sidewalk--it's one of my favorite days all year. This is loosely based on a depiction of Mary Magdalene in a Dutch missal c.1500; I've never tried the background lettering technique before but I like how it turned out. A passerby called it "the Patron Saint of Pumpkin Spice" so that's the name now.

A birthday gift for a young friend; all fabrics from my stash, most of them scraps from a neighbor, via Buy Nothing.

For October 2024 (our fifth Halloween during covid), our front walk features a chalk drawing based on the Bride of Frankenstein as portrayed by Elsa Lanchester in the 1930s. This version has a stunned looking cat (I'm not good at drawing cats). And spider webs. And lightning bolts. and might get some other crawly creepy additions before the big day.

This is the fifth quilt I have ever made. A neighbor gave me all the front fabric here--and most of the squares were already cut, which was a nice bonus. The backing fabric was from a rescued bolt of old bridal material; that also came to me for free.

Made another smallish quilt, probably for gifting; shades of Turquoise, fabrics mostly from a neighbor's scraps, some of our discarded clothes, and one vintage sheet I bout around 2010. Handsewing with thread from my grandmother's stash.

The late-August Art Nouveau-inspired chalk drawing on our front walk was quite faded after a month; but enough was left to revive it with a faux-mosaic effect, and I think I'm going to use this idea again, it's fun to do and I like the result. Original drawing partly based on Paul Berthon's L'Hermitage.

I'm just realizing I never posted this one at ipernity; I made this in 2021, from a lot of scraps of acrylic yarn, especially variegated brights. It was my first hexagon blanket. Three years later, it still makes me happy just to see it.

Our current chalk art in front of our house is based loosely on Paul Berthon's L'Ermitage (1897); I like how the yard shadows have joined in on the composition.