Lots of Changes

 Well, it’s been awhile. Lots going on and I haven’t been able to make it back to blogging.

Wildflowers is a quilt top!

First of all (so very hard to write this),  I was with my youngest son and his wife for a month while they were waiting on their first baby. In very sad news, their little baby girl was stillborn. We are all quite heartbroken as you can imagine.

 Then, when I got back home, my aging father had declined even more since some serious troubles in January. As it stands now, we are making sure that he and my mother (who has Alzheimer’s), have 24 hour care from their children.  When my dad passes, my mom will still need much care and help as my dad and my next younger sister have been shouldering the brunt of that challenge for a long time. 

And if that wasn’t enough, my husband has recently decided to sell our home of almost 20 years. His health hasn’t ever fully recovered from 2 winters ago and we have had many struggles. In the end, we have had to face up to the fact that life is not going return to the reality we previously enjoyed. There is no choice but to make some life changes, whether we want to or not. I am on board with the need for downsizing, but am facing quite a lot of overwhelm at the moment. The house and property are in need of some major tlc, which our children have offered to help out with before the listing & selling. Thankfully we won’t be going at it alone but wowsers, such good timing! Is it wrong of me to already be grieving the loss of my quilting room too?

That being said, quilting and blogging are going to be on a back burner, as needs must. I do have a quilt in the hoop and several handwork projects prepped so yeah. Not giving up on quilting completely! Will possibly pop back in here occasionally or if it seems easier in the short term, over at my quilty_folk Instagram. {I just can’t imagine having the time for long blog posts.} 

Thanks for hanging out with me through the almost 15 years of blogging. It’s been wonderful to find true quilting friends. As to the Bramble Blooms QAL,  I guess my BBIII is on hold for the indeterminate future? Yours doesn’t have to be though. There should be enough posted for anyone interested in continuing, to finish up and see a 3-quilt comparison. We’ll see where this next chapter of our life takes us. I’ve heard that change is sometimes the catalyst for better things in life…

Getting a Few Things Checked Off the List!

There's another quilt finished up for the year 2025! It's was super hard to get good pictures of it as the winter light is a little erratic these days. 

Revised is a true blue completion!

This quilt was started in August of 2022, instigated by an Adhoc Improv. challenge. 

No other option but to add a red binding...

I took the prompt, an inspiration photo or two, and ended up with this odd, funky tulip quilt. 

Loving the fan quilting on this one

Really didn't know how to do the hand quilting, so ended up doing freewheeling Baptist fans. Something that always makes me smile. Such a good way to deal with applique!

My fave blocks have the smaller tulips

I know that I flipped that picture above so it was right side up but who knows what happened? I'm in a hurry with this post because we have a big weekend and company coming in less than 2 hours....

A matchy matchy backing for once!

Yikes! The next quilt in the hoop is Lillabelle. It's so lovely in person, but looks a little greyed down in the pictures. 

Next up in the hoop!

It was also started in 2022. It's part of my Circle Game series where I take the cut-out circles from behind another quilt and use it to jump start a brand new quilt. Lillabelle is the 2nd in the series and one that my youngest daughter has already claimed!

Starting the quilting progress

And I've also managed to get the top completed for Joy Basket. It's made out of such bright colors that It was harder than you might think for me to gain any traction.

Does it read as an Audrey quilt?

I'm so very pleased with the busy, sparky hsts though. Just love how imprecise they are! Cutting and sewing improv. style is the easiest way to give my quilts the utilitarian, hand made look that makes my heart happy. 

Just scrappy enough!

And... then I went ahead and added on a bright red border. I mean, why not? I've only been wanting to do this for about 10 years. Do you ever do that? Wait and wait and wait on an idea because it's just not quite 'you'. Yet!

Makes me happy the hsts aren't perfect

I've had the fabric for years and years, slowly cutting off little chunks here and there. This quilt seemed absolutely made for it and besides, eventually all the fabric would be used up....

This one is going to be sooo cozy!

I love that this quilt was started with the cast-offs and orphans from other quilts. This quilt is exactly why I always save the bits and pieces that don't work for an original quilt idea. I mean, sure. This quilt slid in front of a lot of other very planned and purposeful quilts, but it totally makes sense now. Gotta go with our gut!

The basket turned out so good!

Probably wouldn't have ended up with something nearly this interesting if I had simply rummaged through the current fabric stack and started from there.  

It's a silly sort of quilt!

On a different note, I will be missing from the blog for about two to three weeks. Going to spend some time with our youngest son and his wife in Oregon and then also, our oldest daughter and her family will be flying out to visit for a week in March as well. Good times! Had to get a pile of hand work prepped and ready to go just in case I end up with a spare moment or two to quilt!

Up above is the results of my improv. log cabin basket I've been pondering doing forever. Still need to stitch it all down and then I went ahead and added the stems for the pussy willow style flowers that will be eventually added onto it. I have a couple border ideas in mind for the sides of the quilt, including more log cabin blocks? It's already an odd shaped quilt so we'll see what happens. Hope to seriously start working on my Bramble Blooms III after next months shenanigans are over and done with too. Lots of stuff to keep me busy for sure!

I'm Still Quilting

 I keep running out of time to write up this post. The 'Folksy Tree & Baskets' quilt top is finally finished! All the applique done and dusted.*sigh

Getting the birds stitched down

I am so thrilled about the birds on this quilt! They look very fat and happy.

And a finished quilt top!

It just feels like they make this very brown and blue quilt come alive.

So happy with the scrapped together
background fabric look

When all the birds, berries and leaves on the tree were attached, then I realized that the baskets needed just a little bit extra. 

And the very subtle addition of blue leaves

But not TOO much, if you know what I mean. The blue leaves were the easy, peasy way to add in the little bit of color that properly ties the baskets back in with the rest of the quilt--instead of them just being a glaringly bright, creamy white distraction. 

Crossing my fingers this quilt will look
extra cozy whenever the hand quilting happens!

Or whatever. I just know that I like it ever so much better now! Sometimes these little details sort of sneak up on us, but they are actually just as important as some of the other more obvious ones.

Glad that I saved these basket cut-outs so they
could enjoy a quilt of their own

Still super happy about the lone basket lying on its side at the top right of the quilt. Why don't I do that sort of thing more often? It seems to add a wonderful dash of character to the quilt....

Loving these colors too

Overall, this quilt ended up being really folksy and fun looking, while still holding it's own as the depository of many oldish and long-languishing fabrics. It's really quite satisfying to finish up these sorts of quilt tops! Just don't think they'd feel nearly as interesting to me in all brand new fabrics. Although, I suppose it's not totally out of the question!

A very basic quilt top

I also managed to sew together a very fast and easy 'boys' quilt top. It's deliberately done very mishmash, scrappy and utilitarian style. I'm imagining it hand quilted in a naïve, organic style that will hopefully hold to the unpretentiousness of the blended fabrics. Still need to put together a baby girls quilt and maybe one more baby boys quilt. None of them are going to be very fussy though. This is going to be the year of the more minimal looking baby quilts. And I mean that. ha!

Starting to get to the point where I can cut it up!

On my wall this past week is the log cabin look piece that is potentially going to be cut up into a largish looking basket. The handle will be cut out of a blue/green fabric in whichever of these fabrics has enough leftover! The birds jumped onto the wall after I cut them out of the backside of the Folksy Tree and Baskets quilt. The wings were a quick addition just to see if they were worth holding onto for use in yet another quilt some day. I'd say yes, these are definitely keepers!

Playing with the color layout on the border

And another project which also managed to get some traction, is the Joy Basket quilt. All of sudden after always, always envisioning multiple rows of border surrounds, I dove right into a scrappy hst border.

How about if I put all extra hsts on the bottom?

I think it was because I finally realized that the border make-up wasn't all that important to me after all. What I really wanted was lots of color and zest. So I impulsively started cutting out free-style improv. hsts in various paired fabrics. It is taking quite a bit of time to sew these together, but I think I'm up for the challenge! After some darker quilts, this is absolutely making me remember why I adore color in quilts.....

January Applique Prep

Lots of applique projects in the works around here. Oh we are sooo surprised! I've spent quite a bit of time here lately trying to get some of the prep work done. Always a good plan to have the hand work ready for the quieter times.

More words and tulips on quilts!

Above are the outer borders for Peace Always. Not really what I had in mind when starting the project, but I'm sure this will work fine. It's another one of those bright quilts that I'm just not always sure how to react to. Each of the three flower borders actually has three yellow tulips on it, the middle tulip being a smidge smaller. I will probably have to audition it one more time before doing any stitching because something is still nagging at me. 

I often work upstairs in the evening and the lighting is terrible in the area where I have access to the floor. Plus, the carpet is an ugly blue-gray. It sometimes becomes necessary to do one last audition downstairs on a different surface {and during daylight hours}, before I'm satisfied everything looks the way it should. 

Below is the Joy Basket quilt. Just need the letters stitched down. They've been waiting for quite awhile now! One good thing about this quilt taking it's sweet time is now I'm much more fixed on what kind of surround needs to be next. Have been dithering back and forth between piecing or applique or both and eventually I've managed to settle on some sort of improv. piecing. Yay! Love making it up as I go along.

Three letters won't take long to stitch

Another project in the works is the Folksy Tree and Baskets quilt. This is where I left it last August. Sometime between then and December, I added the primitive looking pink tree. I based it off of a tree in our backyard that has been cut down, but the stump continues to send out new scrawny branches every year until it blocks my kitchen window. Been looking forward to the fun part, but hadn't been able to find enough time with the design floor. 

Had to change out the green leaves

This past week I finally found time all kinds of time and thankfully it went fairly well. Thought I had it all the way I wanted {picture above} and then hit a major road block. I played late, late into the evening and ultimately decided it was the olive colored leaves that were not quite right. Ughh! Really didn't know what to do because the blue leaves by themselves just came off as boring. Played and rearranged with several different greens for the leaves, and then actually went to my old fashioned color wheel for help. Uh huh. Totally feeling desperate! 

Anyway, that's when I decided that a very dark emerald green could be an interesting option. I searched and luckily, found a fabric that, kid you not, has been in my stash for at least 25 years! Wowsers! So thrilling to finally find a use for it! Anyway, by using that specific fabric, I was able to salvage the olive green/blue print fabric at least. Very quickly after, the quilt decisively let me know that it had the right vibe and please, oh please, just leave me alone!

The final applique selection and placement
for Folksy Tree & Baskets quilt

Also went ahead and prepped several of these 'dove' blocks. Going to put them with this largish sun applique if I ever get it finished up. You would not believe the number of bird motifs that I have drawn trying to find the perfect one. Love the antique quilts for inspiration, but some of those birds just look like flying dinosaurs! So I've been pushing this to the back of the list. Always interesting when my motivation gets balky and stubborn. Maybe now that I have the birds figured out, I'll finally be ready to do the stitching on the sun?

Bird blocks for Doves in Flight quilt

Also went ahead and jumped into the border prep for Old Fashioned Wildflowers. I thought to do piecing in the border, but then kept thinking about a sort of scalloped look instead. Drew up this simple swag type border {with separate pieces} and thought, Yes! This is exactly what I want! 

Will probably add in the small terracotta colored circles where the scallops join up. Am absolutely delighted with finding a use for the dark, drab olive green background fabrics! They have been in the stash totes for years and years, never finding a good home no matter how hard I have tried. And believe me, I. HAVE. TRIED. 

Whatever possessed me to buy so many fatquarters of these drab greens? But this will be a very sweet use for some of them {Still have more to use up!}. There's just something so very pleasing about these greens and blues together. Sort of feel like I've inadvertently stumbled onto something very precious for this quilt....

Border prep for Old Fashioned Wildflowers

My husband finally got the quilt hanger up in the quilt room. My daughter bought an oversized one for my birthday last fall, knowing that I wanted to hang larger quilts in the guest bedroom. I keep thinking we need to repaint this very pink and orange sherbet room {thanks to my oldest daughter}, but who has time to paint? 

This is one of three quilts I hope to hang here, rotating them out throughout the year. It's also the room set up for me to do my yoga, so I'm looking forward to enjoying these quilts from day to day. Who knows, I might make a quilt especially for the wall of this bedroom some day! In the meantime, it will be much easier to say no to giving these particular quilts away. I have very persuasive children.*wink

Quilt decor

And here's Ellie with her brand new 'big girl' quilt from grandma! She was super happy with it and wanted to carry it herself even though it's pretty big for such a little gal. Love that the grandkids enjoy getting quilts from me. Takes me back to good times when my siblings and I were fighting over my grandmas quilts whenever we went to visit! 

Brand new quilt for the granddaughter!

So yeah. Lots of work to do with all of that applique in the lineup. I'm wanting to finish at least one more of the quilt tops, maybe two before starting in on the next Bramble Blooms quilt. 'Cuz of course it will have applique too! Three of these projects will be complete quilt tops when the applique gets done so that's exciting too. Excellent motivation to get stitching, right? 

Starting January With a Couple Finishes!

This may be the brightest quilt I've ever made! Whew! It was a doozy to work on. In fact, I didn't even realize how not relaxing it was to hand quilt, until I was more than halfway through. I kept wondering, why am I always putting off picking up my hoop? 

Cannot believe that this is a quilt made
by me. Unreal. So bright you need sunglasses!

I finally weathered through and wowsers! Does it have the sweetest, just washed and dried texture! I hand quilted around a lot of the flowers in the border print and that seemed like a good touch too. 

Very sweet cuddly vibe to it when crumpled

This quilt was started in October of 2020 after a weekend with family at the Oregon coast. I'm pretty sure the blue background fabrics were directly influenced by all the gorgeous coastal blues we experienced. 

Once again, the hand quilting helps
make the quilt look soooo much better!

Though the quilt top has been done since December of 2021, it definitely took me a lot of time to come around to wanting to dive into the hand quilting. And not just because of the loud colors! The only way I could think to hand quilt the blocks was to do echo stitching around the inside of the applique. Ughh. All those layers of fabric. Otherwise it probably would have had to be some sort of crosshatch pattern and that didn't interest me at all for this quilt. 

A little matchy matchy in the setting
triangles and border, but who cares??

Regardless, it turned out to be a very obnoxious, though deceptively sweet quilt that should make my granddaughter grin when she receives it. In fact, she already knows it's hers 'cuz she's been over here visiting a time or two while it was in the hoop. She's only three but she comes over to me while I'm quilting, and pats it a little possessively.  So cute. I'm pretty sure she likes it just fine!

Orphaned bits and pieces

A new great-niece arrived just after Christmas. Once it settled down around here, I made a plan for a new little, baby girl quilt. Just kidding. You know me. I basically raided the orphaned applique totes, sewed up three quick flower-in-a-basket blocks and then belatedly started wondering about the rest of the quilt. 

Backing made out of pieces from the stash

I ended up scrounging around till I found enough orphans for the center of the quilt too. The leftover patches just happened to be from the older sisters baby quilt, which I thought an interesting connection. 

Love the little applique blocks...

I decided to make four-patches but totally forgot about seam allowance when cutting. That made me grab the old fashioned lavender prints to enable making the 4-patch units large enough for adequately sized repeats. 

Softer looking in a crumple...

Bit by bit I assembled the top, making lots of mistakes along the way. Thankfully nothing that turned out to be a complete disaster, just time-sucking things that made me question my sanity. Remind me again why I make baby quilts for every niece & nephew plus the greats? Yeah I know, 'cuz they are sweet little critters and I love my family. 

The quilt was turned out kinda cozy but a little dull looking. Big surprise. All the deliberate color clashing that I just love to play with made for just way too much tension in the quilt. Thankfully I have tricks to fool everybody into thinking the quilt looks better than it does. Just add applique. It's like magic.*wink

Even the rosy pink binding played a part
in making it look better!

In the end, I deliberately added the green striped fabric in the center applique, which just so happened to be a match to some fabric in the older brothers baby quilt. So interesting that I still had some to play with! That fabric had just enough energy to play well with the rest of the quilt and take care of the 'dulled down' factor. That and the purple tulip cut down and reshaped from a bird motif basically saved the entire quilt. 

Still needs help

You can see it above just before sewing the rows together. I'd already switched the light, white squares from a busy print in an effort to lighten things up. It should have been obvious right then but I'm kinda stubborn sometimes. Especially when I'm in a hurry. Was trying to save on postage by sending the quilt with the grandparents!

Had to sandwich and pin 2 quilts before
moving the furniture back

Also managed to get another quilt in the hoop. This one is a little folksy. A little funky. And a little awkward looking which might actually make it more loveable? 

Next up in the hoop!

Hand quilting is moving along fairly well--all freehand Baptist fan quilting with no marking. I'm having a bit of a stretch problem in this striped fabric behind the large tulip duo though. It's not 100% cotton so that's my own fault. It's a {repurposed} 3x large mechanics shirt I found for cheap at the 2nd hand store years ago. Just could not resist throwing it into a quilt! Ah well. It's going to end up 'good enough' and it's not like this quilt is going to set the world on fire, right? Having fun with my quilting therapy and that's the only goal these days...

Are You Still Following Along With the Bramble Blooms QAL? Here's the Third Part--BBIII!

Okay, I've finally figured out how to do the BBIII part of the QAL! Life happenings are a little uncertain around here for an undetermined period of time and this approach will best match the posting requirements from me.

Fabric pull for BBIII

Bramble Blooms III Prompt:  Now that we've established the basics of our series, it's time to get more personally creative! Make a fabric pull, whether from the original, older fabric color palette you've already been using for the QAL or a bright, shiny new one that feels more inspirational. Think about all of the elements you've previously incorporated into your BBI and BBII quilts. Take the time to consider which elements have felt especially good to play with. Have any of these blocks, motifs or color blends unexpectedly piqued your curiosity? What if you tweaked them just a little? What if you really pushed the boundaries and made them much bigger/smaller or even potentially a lot more improv. and quirky? Which elements do you particularly dislike? Perhaps it's time to drop those and move on.

Now take out some paper and an ink pen and draw up a potential design for BBIII using any or all of the previous elements. Consider this a 'doodle', not something that has to be perfectly in proportion or laid out exact as to measurement on graph paper. Let your ideas flow as with the ink from the pen. Draw one or several drawings and then choose your favorite or the one that looks most intriguing at the moment. Perhaps you will pick the design that your fabric pull will feel most at home with. Or would you rather choose the design that will feel the most challenging to combine your fabric pull with? Either way is totally fine. Finally, sew up your design and get ready to see it in quilt top form. You can totally do this!

Design doodle #1

Don't feel like you have to use every single element from before, including the medallion layout. Go somewhere that feels fresh and interesting to YOU. Do keep at least one of the elements though, and concentrate on keeping some similarities there. This will add interest when comparing BBI, BBII and BBIII.

Design doodle #2

Add applique or not. In my case, I am somewhat obsessed with the flower, leaf and yes, even the bramble-ly thorn motifs. So of course that's where my imagination continues to take me! What if I do this? What if I do that? Make notes for clarification rather than trying to draw a 'perfect' design. You can always come back later and fine tune the one that you've chosen out for making.

Design doodle #3

Don't worry about the proportions of each individual part of the design and how it might all fit together properly together or not. Just doodle what your mind is envisioning in a very simple and basic way. Draw relatively quickly and let it be primitive. Your rough lines should easily convey the general feel of your idea as it's being created in real time because your hands are in fact, connected to your brain. It might feel forced or tricky, but believe me, this works. 

Design doodle #4

Don't be afraid to draw several doodles and maybe even throw the worst of them away. {It actually feels really good to crumple up a terrible design into a ball and throw it away!} As you are drawing, things will probably occur to you to that might not even fit into the current doodle. Finish the one you're working on, and then go ahead and explore the next idea directly after. 

If your brain feels fuzzy and sluggish {because of the implied pressure to be creative}, make yourself draw at least one overly stilted and perhaps unimaginative doodle, and then just walk away. {It is oddly helpful to force out one pitiful rendering rather than nothing at all.} Let your brain cogitate and ponder over the next couple hours or even, days. Then, whenever a random QAL design idea pops into your mind, hurry up and draw it out on paper immediately so you don't lose it.  

Keeping the odds, ends & orphans just in case

When you've got a design that feels right, then feel free to dive into the making part of the equation. Don't rush into micromanaging how you're going to implement every single, little part of the quilt! Simply start from the center like we've done before with BBI and BBII. Basically, I'm urging you to FORGET about the other parts of the quilt until you get there {except for maybe assigning potential colors to those areas}. Please don't stress to the point of positively paralyzing yourself! And remember, there are lots of tips for border making in this post here. You can also check here for a list of all the posts in the QAL if you need to refer back to other tips and tricks I might have dropped.

Start by making the center or possibly making blocks. Concentrate on that alone. Now, how does that section look and feel? Good? Move on. If not, fiddle with it for a bit. Does it need a coping border? Applique? An addition of improv. piecing? Remember, auditioning is your friend. What's next? Decide on the components and colors for the next phase, and then sew up each and every part of the quilt as it connects to the previous portion. Listen to your quilt and pay attention to the feelings in your gut of 'something is needed' OR 'something isn't right'. Take plenty of time for pondering if you're unsure. 

All the leftover fabrics to date from the original 3 quilt fabric pull
Enough fabric left to easily make a couple more in this series!

It's very important to understand that your chosen 'doodle' isn't set in stone. Ever. Consider this just a starting place! At any point along the way, you can change things up or even eliminate part of the design. Play with how to interpret your design so that it has the very personal vibe and voice of YOU. That could be as simple as choosing out special fabric prints or mixing areas of formality with make-do backgrounds. It's completely up to you how closely the lines are followed in your original drawn design.  And yes, if you really, truly, positively want to make up one of my designs, then feel free. Go ahead if you have to! Give me the design credit of course, but seriously, wouldn't it be so much more rewarding to make a YOU quilt?

The tentative plan is to host the BBIII link-up party sometime in the middle of June. This will give five months for putting together a quilt top. I will be posting about my own Bramble Blooms progress along the way, along with any other quilting progress made around here as well. As the link-up time gets closer, I will try to post a heads up as to the actual posting date for the third part of the QAL. Don't know how many people are actually interested in this particular part of the QAL, but everyone is welcome, whether they have completed BBI or BBII quilts or not. Lets dig into this from a slightly different approach and see where we all end up. I bet some of you are going to be surprised! 

For myself, I can already see that I'll probably have to make more than one of these designs eventually.*sigh  Will probably continue to hang on to all the leftover fabrics from these Bramble Blooms quilts until I can get this series properly worked out of my head. {Could be interesting to see how much of this fabric could actually be used up and how many quilts that would be?} 

Thanks so much for coming along on this oldy, moldy fabrics adventure with me. Some of you have even left a tip in the tip jar! Not necessary, but very sweet! The more I play with older fabrics, the more intriguing it is to see if I can truly end up with a quilt top that looks 'intentional' as to fabric choice, and not just a sorry use-it-up story. The resulting quilt tops from all of you has been absolutely fascinating to see. I love how much personality I'm seeing, the random bits and pieces you've gleaned from my tips about making your fabric work for you! Love it! And hearing about your struggles with the process. We've all been there before or will be eventually. It's all good stuff. Hope you've learned a valuable tip or two in the journey to making your own very personal and unique quilts. It's a lovely, sweet thing to know our finished quilt is the only one like it in the whole entire world! Fingers crossed this hasn't been a huge waste of time for anyone. I know I'm still learning something with almost every quilt made....