Two Medallion-Style Quilts in Progress

I love to click onto my quilty blog list and see what all my fellow quilters are currently working on. See the progression of a specific project or where their muse is currently leading them. My favorite part is that 'Aha! moment' or the times we shake our heads and say, 'of course, why didn't I think of that with a similar project?'  There is so much inspiration to be had from following along on another's journey and making the inevitable connections--viewing the process from such unique perspectives.

Everything has a starting point...

I often wonder what it is that people see in my quilting, why they keep coming back to this blog. Does anyone really know what I'll be doing next, because I certainly don't! And then I think about the connections and inspiration gained from checking in with other quilters. Oh yeah. Maybe it's the same right back.

So, having said that, how bout some background on my latest? This little centerpiece was started a couple months ago. I found the background fabric {a fat quarter} in a box of oldish fabrics my husband bought at an auction. Probably the best find in the entire box! Immediately my mind jumped to ideas involving an applique centerpiece. Which lead to all sorts of vague ideas about a sort of 'cameo' applique used at the center of oh... a medallion quilt perhaps? You know how I love those medallion quilts.

The ideas sort of ebbed and flowed and finally I had a plausible rough draft drawn up of what my quilt might 'possibly' look like. The problem was, the cameo was not being cooperative. So I dithered around until eventually there something to move forward with. Not nearly as much applique in the center as imagined, but oh well. This is what 'fit' into my oval--everything else had to go.

The Cameo quilt

On to the next phase then. Which involved a border with diamonds. Yikes! I hate those! But the drawing. It just had to be! So, stall, stall, stall. A few tentative looks into border books and templates. Ughh.  Stall, stall, stall. Until finally {I love that word don't you?} parallelograms made their way into my consciousness too. They seem just a teensy bit easier to understand than diamonds. Uh huh. 

Fast forward to last Saturday where my entire day was made up of constructing that little bit of green and white border. I played it safe and did not try to wrap the pointy bits around the corner or make them fit together into nifty little lemoyne stars. No siree, I did not. What happened was more like this: how many repeats does it take to extend beyond the corners? And then where do I chop them off to make it look like I did it on purpose? Oh and what about a coping strip in between borders? Because, gulp, it's looking very wan and anemic without that sparky bit of color. Whew! It's done now and no-one in my family seems to get how hard all that calculating/stressing and speculating is for me.*wink

Folksy Flower with one border added

I also finally dug out my Folksy Flower centerpiece in the last week or so. It's a fallish looking project and I have not been in the mood. The first border is attached now though and awaiting the second before I trim off the corners. The plan is to turn this one on point with multiple borders on each corners. It has sat simmering in the tote for months while I pondered the setting. On point or not? Pros for? Cons? I am a ditherer plain and simple, and refuse to rush my projects just for the sake of simply moving ahead. Details matter, and sometimes more than you might think!

I have also been stealthily working on my rising sun {twirly ball} blocks. All the middle circles have been sewn together forever. You knew that. Well, now the outer rings are sewn together as well. All 12 of them! And so now, all that remains is the part where I clutch my head in terror and try to sew the inside circles into the outside rings. I may even stall for another year or two. It's not completely outside the realm of possibility when it comes to something I dread so very much.

Starting to see the blocks come together....

And looky, looky what the postman delivered the other day! This is the results of winning a giveaway over at Kyle's lovely blog. I can't get over how cute the little bag is and of course I am always thrilled with getting to add new bits of fabric into my crazy fabric totes! Talk about inspiration, Kyle is always making the sorts of quilts you and I positively drool over...

Winning is so much fun!

So that's it for now. I'm finding myself in the quilt room a little bit more these days as the days have turned cooler and fall is a lovely time to quilt!