February Quilty 365 Linkup

So here we are at the beginning of February. Wowsers. This is getting to be quite a stack of circles for Quilty 365! At day 98, I figure 27% of my circles are now completed or at least prepped! I grouped my January circles {below} in chronological order just because I could and well, I'm always curious. The ebb and flow of this month is not exactly the same as the last ones. That may be because the past month was full of challenges and I was a bit off my usual routine. Or perhaps it's just because I'm mixing my fabrics more?

January Circles

I don't know about you, but I am getting a bit frustrated with my monstrous, heaping, pitiful scrap bin. There is rarely the exact color that I need for the day and how in the world am I going to sew the proper mood of the day if I have the wrong shade or tone? hehe  It all works. Or it better, 'cuz I'm starting to feel stubborn about sticking with the scrap bin. Even if I have to do fabric repeats, which is a huge concession for me. For some reason I didn't want any repeats when I initially thought about this project. Now I'm thinking it's not such a big deal after all. Some days might be similar to others in retrospect. And why would that be a bad thing?

A total of 98 circle blocks!

An 'on-point' block layout has been niggling away at my imagination. It clearly needed to be auditioned as a potential solution for my blocks posthaste. And yes, you guessed it. The blocks are in chronological order. Why not just check that out from the get-go and get it out of my system {even though I'm fairly sure of the outcome, it's always good to know}. The layout? Definitely one to consider if I mixed the circles up and figured out a better color balance. This one's a bit awkward.

But I could put some of the solid fabric circles on the edges. Having to cut those blocks in half would probably make it easier to lose parts of my circles. Of course I could also add setting triangles to keep all of my circles intact or yeah, the obvious--try a different arrangement altogether. So far I'm not settled on anything concrete. It's very early stages for me and honestly, I'm not above dividing my circles into two sets for two different quilts.

A possible layout 

It's interesting to get this far in a daily quilting project though. You never know until you try, right? Thanks to every single person sewing along! I'm absolutely loving seeing these circles pop up in my reader, being able to check out all the unique touches. I'm still just blown away by all the personalization, talent, creativity and just plain fun people are having with this basic little project. Makes me feel like a slacker sometimes!

So please link up with us if you're still playing along! Link your thumbnail picture to a current post on your blog detailing:

• What particular day you  happen to be at now {such as 'day 75'}
• A picture of your January circles whether they are stitched to the background fabric or not {can add a picture of all your circles to date if you want}
• A link back to this post
• Any thoughts or introspection you might want to add about this particular project

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

The First 2016 Finish

Muddy Creek is now a finished quilt! My first 2016 finish in fact. It was actually quite difficult to get good pictures of this quilt as the center tends to fade in and out depending on the lighting. Not exactly my specialty! And see how yellow the quilt looks here? I will probably never get the whole lighting thing.

Muddy Creek is finished!

I was thrilled to find the perfect binding lurking right at home in my stash totes. One of the fabrics I used for backing fabric had just the right tones to tie everything together the way the quilt needed. And why didn't I think about that specific fabric while I was stitching the quilt? Luckily there was enough leftover and all was good. Any other color would have pulled attention away from the center of the quilt, which obviously, did not need to happen.*wink

A look at the binding

This was my quilt design, from start to finish, although you can be sure that there was influence from snippets of other quilts hiding out in the depths of my brain. I just figured things out border to border like I do so many times and let the quilt talk it's way through any resulting dilemmas. Working this way often makes for a challenge {trying to get pieced borders to fit especially}, but the end result is, in my mind, more charming and 'real'.

A closer look at the center

When I stitched the cross hatching on the purple check, I just started on one end and worked my way around the quilt in a circle. I used the grid of the fabric as my guide and made slight adjustments where the fabric didn't line up precisely {something I never made any attempt to do}. It makes for an interesting intersection when the circle is complete, but to my astonishment, the cross-hatching was only off by about half a grid. Wowsers, I couldn't have planned it any nicer than that! Very easy to make adjustments and have it all join up neatly in the end. Only a dedicated perfectionist is going to realize that my cross-hatching is not lined up perfectly all the way around the quilt! And who cares if they do notice? This post really resonated with me years ago and I confess to allowing it to directly influence how I approach my hand quilting today.

Love how soft it looks it here...

I had so much fun playing with these fabrics and colors, absolutely loving the old fashioned qualities and feel of this quilt. It feels like 'my version' of an antique quilt and I'm anxious to try my hand at it another time in the future. Perhaps with different colors? No matter where I go with quilting, it's the antique style quilts that continually draw me down the garden path.

So much better looking in this light, but the center sort of fades out...

This was a good finish to start the year out especially with all the challenges I've had of late. It's been oh, so relaxing and comforting to stitch on. Not demanding or finicky in the least.

Is anyone ready for the February Quilty 365? I've lost a bunch of followers lately and thought it might be from not posting so often or having a less than exuberant mood this month. Then I realized Google made some changes that forces people to set up an Google account to properly follow. I sincerely hope it doesn't cause problems with the February linkup as that would be frustrating for all of us.

Another Play With Improv.

I'm sure you've heard it before, but I've got to say it again. I'm simply terrible at keeping up with BOM's, Linky Party's and QAL's. Please don't take offense if you have one I keep skipping. And what beautiful irony that I have my own monthly linky party going on around here at the first of every month! Oh the laughter that has caused me a time or two, as I'm sure you can guess.

The Ugly Quilt

The one thing {other than my daily circles} that I determined to make sure and keep up with was Ann and Kaja's AHIQ series. No matter what. So yesterday and today found me sewing up a storm. I wanted to finish up with my improv. string borders on the Ugly quilt especially. 

When sewing the strings together, I just matched up two longs sides and sewed, no extra cutting for curves etc. Then, when I had about six brown and pink strings sewn together, I added in a red string. That string was laid face to face with a brown or pink string set and then cut {freehand} to the curve. Next, I added another brown/pink string set, cutting to the curve to match up to that previous red string, and on and on I went. It seemed to help 'straighten' the border and also add some interesting wonkiness. This all feels very new and 'modern', but really, this is a very old style/design in quilting. Making the border in these comfy colors really emphasizes the vintage make-do look for me. I can totally see this quilt hanging out on my couch some day in the future!

No fancy corners for this quilt!

So then I jumped to these crumb/improv. blocks from the scrap bin. A couple weeks ago I had pieced the blocks together in sets of four with a light colored striped fabric. There was a plan of sorts. I really liked the 'glow' that was slowly emerging, but then somehow I ruined it by adding in too much brown. That's a tendency I have when it comes to brown, using too much, but I continued on with what was pre-determined. Honestly, I think my brain was on auto-pilot or something because I wasn't really thinking about anything but getting it done.

Improv. Squares with first short sashing strips

The plan was to add long brown sashing with the shorter brown strips {picture below}, but this just immediately set my nerves jangling. I mean the very second I put them on the wall! Waaay too contemporary of a look for me. I couldn't get the long strips off the wall fast enough. And then I was stalled. Duh.... Time to wake up and pay attention! With the idea of sashing still in my brain, I considered using a lighter colored fabric in place of the brown {looking at the picture above sort of gives the illusion of that}.

Adding the long sashing strips

Then I stepped back from the wall and gave it all a very long look. Hmm....  What if? And so yes, I squished all the rows together and gave that a good look. And I'm liking this very well indeed. Not exactly what I was expecting out of these blocks, but still... It's sort of interesting in a scrap bag kinda way.

And then taking them away

There are still three more rows to add onto this quilt, and it's only about 42" wide--much too small to call it quits. For now I'm leaving it on the wall and looking at it every time I walk through. It's not my normal style of quilting and yet I'm absurdly pleased with it now that all the rows are cozied up together. 

I'd like to think I'm opening up to the idea of what Improv. might be. A What If sort of conversation that is really just an extension of what I've been trying to do for the last couple years. And I'm not done with strings either. I had a great idea pop into my head just the other night. Maybe next month I can actually find the time to explore where my brain is going with those.... Time to link up with Kaja and Ann's January AHIQ!

One Out of the Hoop and Another About to go In

All the hand quilting is done on Muddy Creek now. I love the texture and feel of a freshly stitched quilt so very much. So worthwhile to get to this particular point in a quilt! This one has been giving me a few anxious moments, wondering if my light floral border fabric is maybe too 'light' for the murkier center colors. It always seems to be a roller coaster of emotions for me as I reach each different stage of the quilt making. Hopefully I'll find a good binding fabric to tie it all back together and then of course I'll be delighted once again. That's just the way I roll!

Muddy Creek

Next up in the hoop will be Flowers and Flying Geese. It was a small enough quilt top that the dining room table didn't have to be moved out of the way to sandwich and pin. Funny how that could be the deciding factor, but I was quite desperate to get a quilt ready to go. Don't need any down time with that hoop right at this particular moment in my life!

This is a make-do quilt top started a few years back. The flying geese units were leftovers from an old baby quilt that just sort of jump-started what you see on a quiet fourth of July weekend. I used a lot of odds and ends, leftover applique bits, and little pieces of fabrics etc. Always an interesting, but also fun, creative way for me to work. And sometimes I wonder if my best quilt tops start from this sort of challenge? It really is a huge thrill for me to figure out how to make the random odds and ends 'work'.

Flowers and Flying Geese

I can already see this quilt top is going to be a challenge for me to hand quilt. I'm really not that adventurous with pattern, but I'm thinking Perle Cotton and big stitch quilting for this go-round as far as the thread is concerned. It's a good change from the more muted colors I've been working with and this whimsical style seems to suit my current mood quite well.

A bit closer look

So ironic to see some of the same leftover pieces show up in this little mini quilt at the very same time I'm working with the other. I will never understand the way my brain works. Never, ever, ever.

Antique block mini quilt

It's been wonderful to have a slight breather from everything going on around here of late, getting more of a schedule together and less of an 'on demand' situation. Not sure what the next couple weeks will hold for me, but I'm making use of my time as I get it. I spent one evening just digging through my stash totes, emptying everything out and refolding everything well enough that the lids will actually stay on.

A stack of interesting fabric

Can you believe that some of the fabric jumped out to stay? I started with that grayed down green that I am so very tired of--challenged myself to try and find something to perk it up. Here it is in a nice little stack awaiting inspiration and motivation for some day in the future. I find that having it sit out in the open helps me to ponder ideas better and then eventually I'll make some sort of decision to go forward. Or maybe even dump it back in the stash totes. Either way, it's never a waste of time to try and generate ideas!

A Little Bit of Stitching

My circles are saving my life. I don't know how it happened that this simple little project has become the one thing I look forward to. Every. Single. Day. And the funny thing is, I think my circles are getting more interesting because of it.

Almost up to date with the January circles!

The light gold circle on the far right bottom was a day where it felt like I might be 'disappearing'. Who am I? Torn betwixt and between, rarely doing the things that 'I' want to do. But apparently a part of me must or this craziness in my life wouldn't be happening, right? Life is about choices and I'm choosing to back burner my quilting right now for the greater good of my extended family. I'm just hoping this is a very temporary thing.

Just a little more hand quilting left to do on this quilt!

There are waaay too many quilts in my head to let this go on forever.*wink Oh well. At least I have another quilt top {or 20} to be hand quilting when I run out of quilt on this one. Two or three hoops and it's done, amazing at that sounds. Then I just have to find time to sandwich and pin the next one.

I'm Still Here!

Wowsers, have you seen the January Linkup for Quilty 365? We have 49 links! Thank you to everyone sewing along. It's so much fun to see all the different interpretations. I am still sewing circles, only one behind as of today, but honestly the past week has been a lot overwhelming to me.

My new solids applique project I've dreamed up
This is block 1 out of 9--all with the same non-solid background

Earlier last week, the older cousin I sometimes sit with for the past year has passed away. It was very sad as she's been in my life forever, but also somewhat a relief as the quality of her life had really gotten to her sunny good nature. Her funeral was Friday and then on Saturday my mother fell and broke her leg. It's sounding like it will take at least 8 weeks for her to be up and around, so quite a challenging next couple months ahead of her. {And probably for the rest of us as we try to keep her off her feet and out of trouble.}

Just playing around with the antique block I bought on our trip last summer
I dug through the leftover applique and have this to stitch together for a mini quilt....

And last but not least, my husbands aunt whom I was helping take care of back in October/November, has steadily been going downhill as well. Last week saw her having more mini strokes and now she is a complete invalid. Which means I will be needed there as well since most of her family lives elsewhere or is practically useless. Oh, did I really say that out loud?

So... the moral of this story is that I am going to be taking my little handwork bag out at odd random moments, hopefully still circling even if I'm not staying current day by day and yes... being a slacker on this blog. I'm hoping to find time to have something to post about at least once a week and YES, I will still be doing the circle linkup at the first of next month. Please bear with me until my very chaotic life has a chance to settle down once again. As my husband is so fond of saying, 'This too will pass'.

Always Nice to Make a Decision or Two

All the Vintage Red blocks are sewn together now. I played with several different ideas for layout. First, offsetting the blocks, then considering some simple pieced sashing. Next I removed a couple flowers and insert a plain block or two. And finally, I lined them all back up in proper rows and added a simple light blue print horizontal sashing. Ta da!

Vintage Red

That's it. Exactly what it needs! Even though I was pretty sure at the start of the quilt that it would have some pieced sashing. Can I just say that I really, really had my heart set on some pieced sashing? But sometimes quilts have other ideas. And sometimes I just don't know what I want, until the perfect solution is right in front of my eyes and everything sort of 'clicks' into place.

On to the outside border. Or not? Nah, it needs a little extra on the outside. Okay, more of the light blue print?

Auditioning border fabrics

 Perhaps with some pieced blue triangles? haha  Gotta keep trying don't I?

Possible piecing

Or maybe just the simple red print. Yep. That's the one. This quilt is just really stubborn or else I didn't believe it could be this easy. One simple fabric border? How often does that happen around here, me being the queen of adding-on-a-border. And another. And another....

Or just a plain red

Okay, okay, confession time. I've been debating this for a several weeks. More really, if you count all the time I've had stitching and thinking about the quilt. It's been hard to let go of my pre-conceived notions and just let it be. It's always good for me to have time to simmer, even if I'm pretty sure what the outcome will be. I don't like regrets and/or the feeling of having rushed a decision. The quirky red flowers look like they're more than capable of holding their own in a simple layout and now I'm okay with that.

Time to soak the border fabric in very hot water and some liquid 'free and clear' laundry detergent. There was a teeny, tiny bit of dye in the water within the first couple minutes and then nothing so far. Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to red fabrics!

Gotta see if the red will bleed

And I have the two flannel comfort quilt tops sewn up and ready for quilting too. Just need to get my regular sewing machine into the shop before I attack these. This backup machine has a smaller harp space and I just don't feel like wrestling these quilts around without the larger space. Plus, I'm a yard and a half shy of having enough backing fabric. Guess I'll have time to find something to go with what I already have!

Rail Fence comfort quilts

Obviously, it's not Monday, but I thought this would be a good time to link up with Moving It Forward Monday over at Em's Scrapbag! Amazingly enough I've had enough time to check out each of my open ended quilting projects {not just Vintage Red and the comfort quilts} this week. It felt good to take a thorough look at everything I have going on. Decisions have been made, ideas are churning and I am almost ready to dive into a new project or two.*sigh  Isn't that how it almost always goes?

And That's a Wrap For 2015!

2015 Finishes

Looking back at my 2015 quilty accomplishments I feel a bit overwhelmed at all the quilts brought to the finish line, but also a nagging sense of 'is this it?' So puzzling as the time invested adds up to a whole lot of hours. What's with the 'is this it?' stuff? It must be the UFO's--the quilt tops that I would so love to see finished up and being used. Ah well. There's just never enough time in the day is there? Ten years ago I would have been bouncing up and down with joy at getting through twelve whole quilts, not to mention a little doll quilt and pillow {not pictured}! But don't worry, I'm still happy as can be. There's times I want to pinch myself just to see if it's real. Is this me? A true blue quilter?

Working on my Fire Quilt this past year, I actually gave myself tendinitis, which still plagues me occasionally. Who'd have thunk it? Quilting doesn't seem all that strenuous! But it happened, and luckily I caught it in time to not completely shut down my hand stitching/quilting efforts for the long term. I have learned to {ugh!} pace myself through the days and weeks and not go off on those extreme hand stitching/quilting marathons that are so tempting when a finish is right. around. the. corner.

So... the stats on the 2015 finishes. This is just something I like to take a look at--probably only interesting to me:

• 1 doll quilt
• 1 wall hanging
• 1 baby quilt
• 4 lap-size quilts
• 6 bed-size quilts

• 1 quilt {the doll quilt} was completely machine quilted
• 5 quilts finished with mixed machine and hand quilting {4 using Perle Cotton for hand quilting, 1 with regular hand quilting thread}
• 7 quilts completely hand quilted {3 totally using Perle Cotton, 1 using mix of regular and Perle Cotton threads, and 3 using only regular hand quilting thread}

• 6 quilts in all {old and new} were gifted

I'm obviously working on trying to loosen up and be satisfied with mixing machine quilting with a bit of hand quilting. That was one of my goals for 2015 and it helped me end up with one more quilt finish than last year. Don't know how it's really possible to compare, as every quilt is different in size and stitching application, but it sounds good in theory!

And here's a closer look at my Big Star quilt, one that was finished up earlier in December when my computer was being worked on. The wintry outdoors made the quilt look just a little less vibrant than it actually appears, but my oh my, did this quilt sneak up and melt my heart.

Big Stars finish

I've had an on-again, off-again love affair with this quilt from the very beginning, but am absolutely thrilled to have it finally finished up. It's a permanent reminder to me to try the hard stuff and not give up. I was quite terrified to be sewing these big stars in the first place but while working on the hand quilting found myself touched by all the imperfections and mistakes I kept finding. Do you see them? Good, neither do I {from a distance}. But I know where they are and I'm charmed by them all the same. Because I did it. I won out over the little voice in my head telling me I could never sew this sort of thing. The mistakes are proof that it was indeed, a difficult project for me at the time!

A closer look

I also wrestled with the idea that I was cheating this quilt by not quilting more densely. It wasn't until the quilt was bound, washed and dried that I could more clearly see that this quilt didn't need the heavy quilting after all.*sigh  That slightly looser pattern makes for a much more cuddly, snuggable quilt--something I for one, am always striving for. Why do I even bother to doubt my instincts about these sorts of things? I haven't listened to the quilting police for a very long time. Which means, essentially, that it's been a  royal waste of my time to fret.

Moving forward for 2016, I fully intend to keep hand quilting with both Perle Cotton and regular hand quilting thread, continue making an effort to mix machine quilting with hand quilting, finish new quilt tops up along with older quilt tops so as not to have any sort of disconnect, continue to explore and play with improv. {figure out how to incorporate it into my quilts and make it part of my 'personal style'}, continue on with my love for applique {of course!} including other quilter's patterns plus whatever I dream up. I also want to keep trying to learn and grow, and more importantly, as Sweet P said so very well, keep having fun! Lists and goals are all very well, but quilting is supposed to be my happy place. Have-to's have a way of sucking out all the joy. Here's to another great year of quilting! The journey is never quite what I expected, but it's almost always much, much better than what I originally envisioned.

I couldn't end the year without also saying 'Thank You' once again to Tim Latimer. I credit him with giving me the initial impetuous {years ago} to be more prolific with my hand quilting via his very inspiring blog.

January Quilty 365 Linkup

Happy New Year everyone! Okay, here we go with the Quilty 365 Linkup. December was a tough month to try and have a daily project. Wowsers. Was it for you as well? I have to confess to struggling occasionally, wondering just how important this was to me. Those of you waiting to start this month are sounding kinda brilliant right about now!

All my circles to date!

Some days it was easy to dig through the scrap bin and grab enough fabric for a circle--very enjoyable and relaxing. Other days I had this sort of 'who cares' attitude because I was running my legs off with the Christmas stuff.

Some are already more scrappy than others....

But every single time I actually sat down to sew the circles, I was so very glad to be working on this project. Because it feels right. And I'm oh, so curious to see the outcome of an entire year of my moody ups an downs reflected in fabric! Usually when things get uncomfortable, difficult {or even monotonous} I have to move on to something else for awhile. I really wanna see if I have what it takes to do something quilty for 366 days in a row and if {or when} the perimeters have to change in order for me to keep it up.

It's interesting to see the colors together

Which leads to this: I recently discovered something very interesting. Although I have an massively overflowing scrap bin, I don't actually throw many pieces of fabric into the scrap bin that are over about 4". Somewhere around that size and up to 5", I just tuck the fabric into whatever is left of my fatquarter etc. and back into the stash totes it goes. Which means a one-fabric circle is quickly becoming an impossibility unless I raid the stash totes. What?!! Although I've done that once or twice {okay, maybe three times}, my personal Quilty 365 was going to be made primarily out of the scrappy bits. If that's still my intention, then I'm going to have to work a little harder to make that happen. My recently perfected grab-and-go technique is not going to work for much longer without a bunch of repeats!

So... is anyone still making circles with me? It's not too late to start if you're wanting to join in! I personally started sewing circles on October 26th. The first picture represents all the circles up to New Years Eve for a total of 67 days! Woohoo! I am still amazed at all the interest this simple little project has garnered. Thanks so much to everyone who is participating and interested in linking up together. So many fabulous interpretations--you really need to go see them all to appreciate the very unique perspectives. I just can't say it enough--quilters are amazing!

Please link up with us if you're playing along! Link a thumbnail picture to a current post on your blog detailing:

• Your starting date
• What particular day you  happen to be at now {such as 'day 35'}
• A picture of all your circles {or at least the December circles} whether they are stitched to the background fabric or not
• A link back to this post
• Any thoughts or introspection you might want to add about this particular project

   

    An InLinkz Link-up