Quilty Folk

Do you ever find yourself looking at a quilt top and wondering how you ended up here? I do pretty often. It all started over fifteen years ago when the quilt group I was part of had quilt block exchanges and monthly challenge blocks. I would have this stack of sampler blocks that needed a proper layout on a fairly regular basis. While greatly challenging at the time, in retrospect it was one of the best things possible for my creative journey.

Exuberance, a finished quilt top....

The possibilities for layout are unlimited except by the boundaries of our own minds. As you can only imagine, my mind was busy rebelling against the naysayers, the hidebound and the quilt police. What do you mean I can't do that? And so began my endless quest for combining odd stacks of quilt blocks with {in my mind} the most interesting quilt layouts for them, and yes, even adding on the occasional border. Which has the added benefit of making a quilt seem even more interesting or perhaps, more importantly, distracting from a less ahem! fascinating quilt.

A fun touch of applique in the border. Simple yet bold...

These improv./crumb blocks, stitched straight from my scrap bin, looked pretty good to me from the beginning. Sewing them side by side didn't seem to be the right avenue for accentuating their scrappy goodness though, and in fact, made them look a little too blended and mushy. One thing led to another until I had me a nice little quilt top. Not very exciting, but pleasing all the same. Every quilt is not destined to be a star!

A lovely blend of scrappy bits. Always engaging!

Then one day, a lot of little {vague} ideas gelled into something that comprised a border unit for this particular quilt. It took some auditioning with bits and pieces of applique, some hem hawing around with color/fabric swatches and a lot of scratching my head and deep ponderings. It would have been easier to give in to that antsy feeling of 'wouldn't I rather be washing windows than fighting through this creative walking-through-mud process?' But... I've learned through years of trial and error that there are only good endings if you work through that itchy feeling. It's not uncommon to feel like you're having to force yourself to make that all important design decision.

Most quilts take a little coaxing. A little sweet talking. They don't just stomp their feet and demand 'I need a specific design element, don't be stupid, there's only one possible design element that will work!' That's called a pattern. Anyway, the point of my little story here today is that I'm so very surprised by the end result of this particular quilt. Even though I was the one making all the decisions during the entire process... It didn't turn out at all how I envisioned there at the beginning. What a happy, yet quietly exuberant, quilt top started from make-fabric, improv. type sewing. Which is why I'm naming this quilt 'Exuberance'. I think this quilt is absolutely delighted to be numbered among the successes....