February Adhoc. Improv. Play

The next AHIQ challenge is an interesting one. It's all about playing with scale--in whatever manner we'd like to interpret. I've been contemplating the idea of making a quilt with rows of simple blocks and/or shapes. Something in subdued colors and just playing with value changes to see if I could make something with an antique 'utility' look.

Playing with Scale--The start

It was an obvious choice for incorporating scale changes as I already had the fabric pull and rows can be easily tweaked for size. As I went digging for inspiration, I kept coming back to the idea of having a centerpiece though. There's something about the idea of a pretty center with radiating piecework that just appeals to me. So of course it had to be applique. Everything lit up when I saw this on my Pinterest boards {sorry Lori for not linking directly to the pertinent post}.

Sewing together the foundation piece

So as things go when we're making things up as we go along, I doodled some quick ideas until one looked about right. Not an exact copy, but something with similar vibes! Then it was time to start making the drawing happen in fabric. I started with rows of small strings or coins for the background. Just a mellow blend of sagey greens and a piece of cream/black toile. I deliberately left the middle of the foundation free of pieced units as I didn't want to cut any of that fabric out of the back of my applique. It's really not large enough, but I also needed enough foundation to securely sew the applique 'circles' to.

To get the appropriate sizes for the applique, I re-drew my doodle drawing onto a perfectly sized piece of freezer paper. Then I carefully cut out each circle, ironed it onto the chosen fabrics and cut out with plenty of seam allowance--especially the inside brown circle as it's easy to move overlay applique a little too far in one direction or another. At that point, I sewed the outside seam of the brown applique with a quick straight stitch on the sewing machine. Who cares. Nobodys ever gonna see that seam! I trimmed the pink circle a little bit, especially at the bottom where it was too flat looking and hand stitched the outside edge of the circle. I cut the cream {applique foundation} circle out and carefully slipped it inside and underneath the brown circle. And yes, I deliberately chose a fabric with a smaller scale of print! Ooh... gotta love layers of interest!

And so I stitched the brown circle to the cream applique background and then the pink circle to the brown circle. On and on until it was time to cut out my flower pieces, still from that same freezer paper drawing! {So efficient!} It was tough on my fingers stitching over areas with seamed rows, but like I said, NOT going to cut the background out on this one. Too much fear of raveling. It's a good start to my 'playing with scale' quilt and for now I'm mentally calling it 'The Quiet Quilt', the centerpiece notwithstanding.  Lots of the fabric pull are soft, quiet and a little blendy. We'll see where it goes from here. At some point I definitely intend to start with some vertical rows, but just had to establish the beginnings to get a feel for the rest!

Adding some applique details

I was hoping to be farther along with the Vintage Lily quilt, but these snowball blocks have been soooo tedious to sew. Easy as pie, but just yawn inducing. All are sewn now, but next up is the ironing and trimming.*ughh  Not my favorite part of the quilting process! Robin is doing something similar with her scale challenge, so it should be interesting to see both of our quilts progress. My snowballs are a little different than hers as I wanted the corners on mine to end up looking very scrappy and a bit messy. You might remember the look from my Scrappy Tulips finish?

Improv. Snowball blocks for Vintage Lily

So the other adhoc. improv. work in progress are these postage stamp baskets. Originally I had plans to mix them with my pineapple applique, but that flew out the window in a hurry. These baskets are just a little too strong to mix with sweet looking applique shapes. First I laid them out next to each other and tried every which way to be happy with the look. I'm certainly intrigued at the intersection where each basket joins up, but it's so not me. It just feels like a waste of all that time I spent stitching on the basket handles!

Improv. Postage Stamp Baskets

On to other plans! There's not much I can do to make these look more like basket blocks and less like loops with stripey corner units. I contemplated adding 'feet' to the basket like someone suggested the other day, but it just made a muddle at the point where the baskets met. There's probably oodles of different things that could be done with these basket blocks, but what appeals to me right now is giving them lots of breathing room.

Auditioning a layout

So yep. The're going to get the good old, classic sashing treatment. Kind of a fall back around here, but when you like something, there's not point in trying to reinvent the wheel! I cut up all the rest of the pale background fabrics {had barely enough} and started auditioning placement. Two brighter blocks got tossed out immediately and the rest seem to be cooperating. For now, I'm using little fussy cut roses I cut out of a fat quarter for all those inside sashing squares. There's not enough for the outside squares, so that and the setting triangle fabric still remain a mystery. 

Overall, I'm quite pleased with where this quilt is headed though I admit to being a wee bit disappointed when the original plain went south. It's not a bad thing to be surprised by a quilts independence though. Just makes us more determined to try and get it right! Linking with Kaja and Ann for AHIQ #30. Are you having fun yet? 'Cuz I certainly am.....

Moving Another Quilt To the Finish Line

So Chunky Crossroads quilt is now a true-blue finish! Started in February of 2016 as an Ad. Hoc. Improv. challenge, this quickly became a color challenge as well. Basically I took a stack of fabrics that had been simmering for awhile and said, okay, lets just DO SOMETHING.

Chunky Crossroads a completed quilt!

I love quilts with lots of block repeats where the fabrics and colors get to shine. However, these colors were tough for me as they weren't exactly in my comfort zone. I ended up adding in some brighter, hotter pinks and also some lighter greens and that's where I turned the corner from drab murkiness to just having fun with value and sparkle. When I see potential for colors to dance across a quilt, then that's where I dig in and start to get serious. It's one of my favorite creative grooves, really.

Loving the simple texture from the stitching across the crossroads...

 As you can see, there isn't the usual skinny little coping border between the main part of the quilt and the applique border. I'm earnestly trying to audition each part of the quilting phase for what's best. Not just rely on the same 'ol, same 'ol. I know some of you don't especially care for borders, but they are incredibly intriguing to me. This was one quilt that obviously didn't have to have one, and so the challenge was to find a border that said 'neener, neener, neener... Wanna bet I won't look better without a border?' lol  They are always an option around here, but that doesn't mean I'm oblivious to the fact that it's not always necessary....

Amazing how much difference a little bit of binding can make!

This applique border design was cherry picked out of an older book called 'Mad About Folk Art' by Gerry Kimmel. The original design was only the solid fabric vine, bulbs and leaves. After getting that part figured out, measured properly for this particular quilt size, then cut out and tentatively placed, it just wasn't enough. The background fabric was one of those Basic Gray tone on tone fabrics I love, but with just the lime green applique on top, it was a bit too blah. Not in the least willing to ditch any of that cut out applique vine, I finally determined to add the different colored 'flowers'. It was a simple fix but wowsers, upped the time factor considerably. Of course.

Just enough hand quilting in the border

So that left me with lots of time to consider how crazy I am, taking a straightforward improv. style quilt to the next level of complicated. First of all by placing the applique on what is more or less the color of fresh concrete {who does that?}, then playing around with a tricky one-piece applique vine, then saying, nah... 'Not good enough'.... By the time all the hand stitching was done, it was hastily folded up and put out of sight.*sigh  Can I never truly just do simple?

A feel good finish....

But the funny thing is, this quilt has been beckoning to me. Because I really do adore the colors in it. In spite of all the frustration in getting the colors balanced out properly across the quilt and trying to determine a great add on border look, dealing with puckering issues on the back etc.--it's been such a fun, delightfully playful quilt. I mean that sincerely. It must be some sort of illness, thriving on these ups and downs of the endlessly fascinating quilting process! The icing on the cake with this quilt was when I found a perfectly, hideous binding fabric hiding in the stash {given to me by a quilting friend years ago}. One that was exactly the right color. Bingo! Cut small enough, almost any fabric can work as a great binding! It took care of ALL the remnants of worry left about the quilt not being one big cohesive whole. I am still marveling at how that light pink pulled all the lighter colors from the inside of the quilt out to play with the outside edges. Don't you love it when it all gets wrapped up with a bright shiny bow!

For the most part, it always came down to, 'What do I have to lose?' 'Is this idea worth exploring?' The fabrics were all from the stash except for the long border pieces. Time is just whatever I choose to commit. And who cares? It's really all about the process anyway. I'm starting to get a little worried though. Each new foray into different and challenging color palettes seems to take me further and further away from those original 'safe' colorways. I tell myself that it's the benefit of learning and growing, but is there really any going back after a certain point?

Tree of Life in the Hoop and the Other HST Quilt in the Works

Like most other diligent hand quilters, I tend to roll straight from one quilt in the hoop to the very next. This 'Tree of Life' quilt has been calling my name lately, sort of impatiently if you want to know the truth of it. It seems to be the time. 

Tree of Life in the hoop

So, okay, I'm fine with working on these colors right about now. Winter is settling into it's 'Oh no! There's more snow! mode and everything is sooo cold and chilly. These colors are bright, peppy and just feel good in contrast. This quilt was one of those bucket list quilts but also a very whimsical start. I need to remember that all those stacks of fabric piling up around my quilt room will eventually find their day as well.

Also something important to remember is that just because a quilt was on my bucket list doesn't mean that it will end up looking exactly as imagined. This crazy blend of busy-ish fabrics tend to make this quilt look a little more vintage that all the patterns and photos I usually admired. I really stretched myself with this fabric selection and that's a good thing. It feels unique and makes each block feel a little more special. I had to work harder to feel satisfied if you know what I mean. Plus I learned a lot. I wouldn't be where I am now if it wasn't for making and learning from these sorts of choices 3 1/2 years ago! And yeah, it's a little wonky from using homespun fabrics in the setting triangles and not trimming every block to exactly square. Hand quilting will take care of the worst of it {it's very forgiving} and then washing and drying after should take care of the rest of the wonk. In spite of the fact that this quilt rejected most all the fun colors of perle cotton, {it wants to do boring white/cream thread}, we're all good here.

Tree of Life

This past weekend saw me working on adding another round of borders to my HST Medallion quilt too. It was the 5th round of first the black coping strip border and then the pieced triangle border. I tend to lump them both into '1 border round'. It never seems to photograph well when the pink hst's are on the outside edge, especially if they are sewn in the lightest pink colors. Ughh...  Oh well. You can get the idea of where I'm at--exactly halfway through the 10 rows of hst border work! Uh huh. It's gonna be a big one....

One more border for the HST Medallion

I am extremely pleased to report that this hst border went on together as well as the last one did! Yay! Improvements have been made and might be here to stay! {Well, for the life of this quilt anyway...} Lots of notes to refer to, but basically there are specific perimeters that make all the difference in precision. So proud to know that all that improv. work hasn't quite ruined me yet....

HST Medallion about halfway thru....

And because I couldn't bear to take if off the wall just yet, I simply piled all the quilting paraphernalia back on the counter like usual, pushing and stacking it way to the back. Can you believe I iron large quilt tops in this space? Without emptying the countertop first? If you've been following me for very long, you understand that my quilting room is quite small. There is absolutely no room for complete chaos and I often have to tidy up just to jump to the next quilt. Projects are almost all in small totes or the 'in progress' units piled right on top. I have to be extra efficient with all my under-the-counter-space and try really hard to always have my iron and cutting area board ready at a moments notice too. Seriously, I am not complaining! Anythings better than having to work from the corner of the living room, dining room table and/or hall closet like I did for so many years. Having a dedicated quilt space is divine. I'm imploring you, please make room for your own if you haven't yet! You'll never, ever regret it.

Linking up with Linda and Julie for sew, stitch, snap, SHARE!

When the Blocks Start With the Crazy Talk

I know, it's making you feel dizzy.

Getting the basket blocks sewn together and trimmed

It was making me feel the same way, no matter how many applique blocks I threw on the wall or how I changed the setting.

What's it gonna look like with the addition of the pineapple blocks?

This was one of those ideas that started out with a stack of gorgeous {to me} fabrics and lots of behind the scenes meditation on how to best use them. The bottom line always came back to trying to blend some improv. sewing with a sort of classic applique shape.

Those lovely basket blocks are just not doing anything good...

It was something that was hard to get started on. The idea seemed prettier than the final result could ever be, but oh so irresistible. And getting it to this point and seeing all that busyness on the wall was a wee bit frustrating. It wasn't all wrong, but the fun looking baskets were just not behaving well. There was a lot more crazy talk than I expected.

Hmm.. Could it get any busier?

My daughter popped in to tell me something and had to listen to me lament the situation. She hesitantly suggested using one of those 'strips of fabric that go between?' and finally the light bulb went off. These busy, busy blocks definitely seem to need some breathing room. The power struggle on the wall is real, but we quilters have our tricks too.

Okay, maybe the sashing will give everything some much needed space

I think it would help if I had about four design walls! This is most definitely going to take a little more time than I initially thought to settle. No point rushing anything! I finally took it all down and dove right into the scraps. Ahh... It felt like the wall had been yelling at me. 

Luckily, a good distraction was right at hand. There were these lovely. little, stripey bits that didn't want to end up in the garbage can. Did anyone else get the Maria Shell book, 'Improv. Patchwork: Dynamic Quilts Made With Line and Shape' for Christmas? 

Just having fun...

I've been pretty confident that this book was way above my pay grade. And hello? I don't exactly have a lot of solid fabrics, a must-have in the writings of this book. But the funny this is, a few snippets from the book have apparently been percolating in the back of my brain regardless. And guys, I didn't even read through the entire book, just sort of skimmed and gawked a lot, like we do when it's all just a bit too much to absorb in one setting. 

So yep, I'm here to tell you that somehow all these little scraps {some so skinny as to be ridiculous} have pretty much hi-jacked all those other important quilting plans/lists and want-to's. At least for the moment. They are currently making their way into a 'Railroad Tracks' sort of quilt based on Maria's yummy book. It's been open to the relevant page during this free-wheeling make time, let me tell you--trying to make an interpretation that won't come off as total garbage! Too, I'm thinking baby quilt size so it will be small and less likely to get overwhelming when the scraps run out. Which means I will probably be ditching that pink and blue baby quilt idea I proposed a couple months ago. How utterly boring that would have been compared to this....*wink

Another Day, Another Quilt in the Hoop

Chunky Crossroads is the current quilt in the hoop. I started it sometime in April of 2016 as an effort to play with improv. and maybe challenge myself color-wise. This color palette does not come naturally to me and it still amazes me how very much fun I've had working with it. Even now, getting it in the hoop, I am delighting in the mixture of colors staring back at me!

Chunky Crossroads getting some hand quilting on the border!

The entire middle of the quilt was machine quilted in a very simple wavy line crosshatch. Yep. I have zero originality when it comes to machine work. Love how it emphasizes the crossroads blocks though. This was one of those quilts where I grimaced a lot and worried that my feeble skills had ruined everything.  That's because I was an idiot and mixed in a small strip of cotton/poly with the rest of the backing and well, it caused a lot of puckering issues. Lo and behold poly/cotton does not stretch quite the same as the cottons.*sigh  Will I ever learn that using up just for the sake of getting rid of fabric {and not buying new}, is not always the best case scenario? Whatever. I used my trusty seam ripper and ripped out the worst of the puckering and then decided to let the other minor ones be. 

Yeah. Not showing you the back of this particular quilt, but my oldest daughter assures me that what's left looks sort of like it's been done on purpose. I guess us older folks would call it a mild shirring effect? The funny thing is that once I gave up on fixing the back and turned my mind to hand quilting the front, it's all perfectly okay again. I don't even care anymore and honestly, most people wouldn't even notice. The simple echo {hand quilting} is working wonders to pull all the applique elements together with the center of the quilt and I'm loving the whole thing again. No. That applique border was not overkill like I worried about and no, I didn't waste my time doing it. Sometimes it does cross my mind that I might be taking my applique love a little too far....

Trying to decide on colors

Which leads me to the next quilt I've been working on like a mad woman. There are so many projects that need some hand work done around here. To keep myself from starting the next couple that I'm itching to work on, I decided that at the very least, the foundation of this basket quilt HAD to be done first. No excuses! 

Playing with a vertical repeat as opposed to a horizontal one

After all the lattice applique was stitched down, then I needed to make a decision about the little 'button's. I had to figure out what colors and then how to do the repeats. You can see from the top picture which fabrics will potentially be used in the flowers, stems and leaves. I didn't want the little buttons on the lattice to compete too much with the flowers, but it seemed boring to not bring another color in to play.

And looking at all the basket after all the hand stitching is done!

So now the foundation is done, all except for the top horizontal row for the basket. And that can't be stitched down until the flower stems are put into place. My daughters had a young friend visiting yesterday evening while I was stitching down the last several buttons. She never said a word, but she definitely looked at my quilt like it was a foreign object. Maybe she's never been around quilt making before? This has been such an interesting project, watching it grow and change through every design decision. Sure, there's been some delays while I mulled and contemplated how to move forward, but never any regrets. Crossing my fingers the flowers will come together as well as planned and I can convince everything to stay in proper proportion....

The First Finish {or Two} for 2018

It's past time for a finish around here. I was seriously starting to get a little twitchy seeing my completed quilt top list growing and not ending up with any real finishes. Do you do that too? Blue and Gold Strings has been in the hoop for well over a month, so it ended up being the first true blue finish for 2018. Such a great quilt to be stitching on though, couldn't have planned it better.

Blue and Gold Strings

I have adored getting the hoop out and just letting my mind wander, while working with this free style quilt. It has such a happy feel to it that it always worked like a magic elixir in making me relax and unwind. Ahh.. just letting the tension and stress of the day slip away while enjoying some fabric and thread play...

Looking at the corner applique

Though hand quilting is rather slow going, it has so many benefits I cannot imagine ever quitting it completely. {Not to mention that I can't afford to have everything professionally quilted!} Getting to spend quality time with fabric in the hoop is like that extra bit of sweetness that we reward ourselves with sometimes. I've contemplated giving this quilt away, but honestly, it might not be best time yet. Most of my family doesn't appreciate this one quite as much as I do.

Just enough stitching....

Stitching on this quilt has really helped restore my flagging faith in my personal ability to make unique and charming quilts. I think anyone who regularly quilts knows very well the normal ups and downs of creativity. There is always the 'better' quilt just over the horizon if only we can just focus for an extra minute or two. Maybe next time we'll get everything just right! Haha  You can believe that I'm already in the quilting room diving in to the next three or four projects with much more enthusiasm than they probably warrant.

Hanging off the deck railing

So, no, you don't need to feel that I'm down in the dumps and need a morale booster. Some quilts just speak a little louder, tell the story a little better, and perhaps more importantly, reflect more perfectly what we feel that our muse looks like in our head. It's just a wispy feeling that doesn't always gel correctly in every single quilt that we complete. And that's okay. We get parts and pieces of it right all the time and that just propels us to keep moving forward.

Cannot even imagine this quilt without the border!

And not to bore you, but the second finish of the year was that quick little picnic quilt I pulled out the other day on a whim: The 70's Are Calling. I skipped the batting and put a flannel back on it like Beth so nicely recommended. I'd have never thought of it myself and it just makes me like the quilt all the more.

The 70's Are Calling

Just a bit of diagonal wavy line machine quilting and smaller than normal width binding and it was done! Easy peasy. It has a lovely weight to it and any stretch you see is from the blocks not being squared prior to sewing.

A fun flannel backing....

It will be used primarily for covering up cold groceries, throwing across a wet patch in the car, sitting on the grass at the park etc., and just generally making sure that there is quilt always available in the car. I'm not sure I would ever go out and specifically buy these types of fabrics for quilt making, but it turned out to be a fast, fun little project. Who knew where this quilt making addiction would be taking me 20+ years after that stutter-stop beginning! Linking up with sew, stitch, snap and SHARE #19!

Keeping Up With 6and6in2018

I'm running a bit behind this week, thought this post would be up by at least Friday. Nope! Too much going on here to sit at the computer long enough to type out a post. What we have here is progress on the 6and6in2018 over at Meredithe's. It almost feels like cheating to 'get' to start six new projects, but really, I wouldn't have joined otherwise. Finishing stuff up feels good, but starting is better.*wink

The Big Basket quilt

So I finally knuckled down and figured out the next step for my Big Basket quilt. I wanted a lattice look in between the basket slats and had to decide how to do it best for efficiencies sake. First I laid some freezer paper down on top of the basket and cut them exactly to fit inside each of the slats. Then I took some quick measurements to determine the number best divisible by what I had to work with length and width wise. That all went swimmingly and it was drawn up lickety split. Then I ironed the papers onto the fabrics chosen out for each slat and started cutting. Oops! I accidentally cut the seam allowances off where they join up on the vertical. Guess I'll just have to add a 'button' of contrasting color at all the joints now, probably where the seam allowance is intact as well. Oh well. That's what happens when I make things up as I go along!

Then I jumped into the Solids Challenge project which has been in progress for well over a year now. This is a project that I never really want to work on until I'm knee deep in the fabric. It's cute and feels good while in motion, but otherwise doesn't seem very exciting to me. The fabric that I had picked out for sashing looks terrible as does most everything else that I auditioned. In desperation I turned to the black/gray fabric tote and started looking there, hoping something {anything!} would help keep the applique blocks in the forefront and not busy the whole quilt even more. The fabric that I finally selected is a very small gray/white pinstripe and seems to do a good job. I know some people would have went white, but that just leaves me cold. A little bit of white goes a very long way for me.

Solids Challenge quilt

And then there's the new project: Melon Patch. I think there will be 20 blocks as that seems to be the latest magic number when it comes to block amounts in current quilts. One of my friends suggested I have a bit of OCD and I started to get very annoyed before shrugging it off. If I do, then it's working very well for me, thank you very much! As you can see, the circles in these little centerpieces, are quite a bit wobbly in places and definitely not centered. I am NOT a Kay Buckley perfect circle type of quilter though I know a lot of you like very sharp looking circles. Each to their own is what I say.

Melon Patch

Our life gets very hectic, a bit messy and oftentimes feels like we're just a leaf in a fast moving stream. We have things like mice invasions and when I get to the end of my rope with the mice licking the peanut butter off the traps and running away without getting trapped, then my husband and son get out the pellet gun and find a way to kill them while {the mice} hide under the furniture. Very redneck but hey, it works. I cannot handle the idea of living peacefully with mice while having so many lovely quilts lounging around. Ughh...

We also have things happen like our heat pump going out in the dead of winter and our electric bill skyrocketing from the emergency strips running full blast. Ouch! When we figured it out. Finally. {Remember the November fire scare? It apparently caused the heat pump to start failing too....} We brought in several little heaters that are supposed to keep the living room temp. balanced out enough to not trigger the thermostat into making the furnace work. You know, unless it's really, really cold out. Meanwhile, I sit on the couch and try to do hand work with freezing fingers and hello? My stitching gets a little bumpy occasionally. This will all get sorted out eventually but winter is not exactly our best time of year for big dollar expenses. Ughh...

And then we had a friend borrow my suburban to go see a gravely ill relative. They got left much later than expected coming home over the mountain passes, and yes, wrecked the truck on the way home. Thankfully they are fine, but now I don't have a vehicle to drive because, while the insurance paid out, it's a pretty old suburban and the money didn't come to much. Probably shouldn't have claimed it really, but why else do we pay insurance? You know what I'm most upset about? Now we don't have any vehicles with seat heaters and also, I'm desperately afraid my husband will take this opportunity to replace that sturdy winter-driving vehicle with a dinky little car that gets better gas mileage. Ughh...

So.... the moral to my long, sad story is this, if my applique looks a little on the sloppy side, you know, it really doesn't bother me a whit. If my quilts could talk, my oh my, the stories they'd tell. There is a lot of stress, anxiety and just plain old dealing with life's little ups and downs stitched into everything that I do. You do the same! There's joy and there's tedium and so very much determination to create something beautiful with our own two hands. What I see is the human touch and it makes me so very happy. What are your quilts saying about you? A Legacy of Stitches is a great poem that says it very well. My favorite though, is the story of  'that quilt' in one of my old quilt books. I really need to embroider it, put it in a frame and terrorize my family just a little bit. They'd never, ever look at my quilts the same again.