Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Working On the Foundation of a Quilt

I had finally dug out my backup sewing machine late last week and was making a bit of progress on re-familiarizing myself with the way it operates. Then I got one of those phone calls that turns everything upside down and inside out. Yeah, hello and goodbye to the weekend plans of completely immersing myself in quilting room!
Trying to see what I have to work with!
Oh well. That's just the way things go occasionally. I did manage to pick the loose thread and lint off of the four quilts I entered into a quilt show about an hour from here. That's the same show my fire quilt ended up at two years ago--a kinda intimidating show for me honestly, but they seem friendly and the quilts are definitely displayed very well. I decided it was time to quit being a coward, maybe stretch my wings a little bit once again. Always interesting illuminating to see our quilts hanging alongside other peoples efforts right?

So many options!
So yesterday saw me back in the quilting room and for some reason I was ready to play with the words on a quilt idea suggested over at Anne's. I'm running a little late with this challenge but have been thinking about it a lot. It needs to be something that has meaning to me and also be a bit challenging or I'm gonna run out of steam fast. That's just how I roll.

Since I do a lot of applique work around here, it feels like a good time to dive into my 'Word Play Quilts' book by Tonya Ricucci. It's been gathering dust for a long time now. First I had to rough out the basic foundation and idea of the quilt, which I quickly did by grabbing the leftover rising sun blocks. Love, love, love using up the orphan blocks! And no, it wasn't a totally impulsive decision. Like I said, I've been pondering different avenues for this particular idea for weeks now!

Then I played around with how to set them together and finally decided on a simple every-other sort of block in complementary colors. Since the intent is to ultimately add words onto the quilt, I knew there needed to be calmer areas in addition to the attention grabbing rising sun blocks.

The biggest trick was how to design these new blocks in order to have them end up at 17 1/2" square. Oh yeah. Because I had trimmed those big star blocks down to an oddball size thinking it wouldn't matter....  That math almost broke me, but last night finally saw me with some real progress up on the wall. The colors are making me very, very happy and for this moment, I'm thinking, words? Forget about the words! hehe  But no, it'll will be a fun quilt {if and} when it all comes together. Basically I need to decide if the quilt will be medallion style with words surrounding the 9 centerpiece blocks or if they will be rows of words breaking up each 3-block row, or even if it will just be a big puzzle. There are lots of ideas being considered, but nothing will be set in stone until the words start getting finished. At that point they will be auditioned with the rest of the pieces and well, you get the idea. That's when the real fun starts!
Because quilts are meant to be used....
Had to laugh as I wandered through my sons bedroom to get to the quilt room over in the corner. Apparently he threw off the blanket when he came in late last night {from a long weekend in Oregon with his older brother} and just curled up in his favorite quilt, never even attempting to get between the sheets. Gotta love these kids who grow up living with quilts. They sure do know how to use them!

11 comments:

  1. Those 2 blocks look great together - very dynamic! I love the pink and red corners :0) Your quilts will be wonderful and well appreciated at the show I'm sure - I'd love to see your quilts in person and enjoy a closer study of your lovely handquilting. good luck with your words - I hope you'll post about your process - I often think about adding words to quilts but haven't done it ... yet :0)

    ReplyDelete
  2. love all of your "wheels" I know I really enjoyed making them i bet you did too

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love those sun blocks, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with them. The words challenge is a really intriguing one, with not only design and technique coming into play, but the words themselves will add a whole different level of meaning. Such fun!

    ReplyDelete
  4. the quilt is progressing ell hope you share photos of your quilts at the quilt show I am sure they will be well viewed

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love those wheels and a great combination with the other blocks

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your circle blocks. I pulled out an older book of circle designs a couple days ago and inside was one of this style wheel block you are using. I think I was just trying to make one that laid flat.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Audrey tus bloques rueda son tan bonito.
    Tus hijos disfrutan sus edredones ¡¡magnifico!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The center blocks are having fun together. I like how the corners of the alternating blocks seem to be underneath the circles. Congratulations for being brave and displaying your quilts at the show.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm really liking how this is coming together! Very curious to see how you work the words in, too...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lucky you. I never bought Tonya's book and now it's out of print.
    As always, I love your Rising Suns. It's such fun to work with curved designs. The worst thing about rotary tools is how it limited our results into only things that can be cut with those tools. Silly. So good to get back to some hand cutting.
    We must be at the same point in the decision process. I had several ideas where to add them but finally decided to "let her rip" on the back. I am interested to see how you add them to this beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like how these two blocks sit together -can't wait to see where you go next!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting! I love getting comments and always try to respond via email. Please leave an email in the comment to ensure a return reply! {Many of you are popping up as Anonymous for some reason, so I have no idea who it is.} Regardless, I appreciate all the comments and read every single one.