Dried Flowers Quilt Top is Finished!

Some quilts come about from sheer whimsy. Completely unplanned, nonetheless sparked  by something deep within our conscience, we feel there is no choice but to start stitching. Only later do we gradually realize that there needs to be an end to the story! Picture me scribbling madly on notebook paper, drawing up potential layout ideas. This of course after impulsively coming up with these flower blocks! Hmm.. What to do, what to do....

Dried Flowers quilt top

This quilt was one of those deceptively simple, but madcap sort of starts and no-one is more surprised than me at how it has turned out! I'm not sure if this is a end-of-the-summer-flower-garden or an ode to spring but, whatever! It's all good! I am loving the use-it-up feel of starting with cast-off circles and then winding my way through the depths of the stash totes, and then finally, having a play with a bit more formal looking applique! Where were the seeds of this quilt hiding and why didn't I even realize they were always there, lying in wait?

A closer look at the coin strips

Having slowly plodded through {most} of the details for the applique work, all that was needed was to add on the outside border strips. Then I impulsively decided to applique the small orangey squares at the corners too. The brighter coral flowers in the center rows were overshadowing the poor Dried Flower blocks. These little spots of color seemed to help bring a little more focus back to the sweet looking flowers. Plus, it felt whimsical and that's usually a win in my book.

The little add-ons at the corners....

I'm so pleased with the improv. cut coin strips in between the flowers. It's getting to be a default decision, adding in strippy free-cut piecing to so many of my quilts.  It might seem silly or maybe even pointless to sew them with such blendy fabrics, but the resulting texture absolutely thrills me on such an elemental level. How could I resist and why would I even want to to try....

Such a feel-good sort of finish!

Figuring out the side borders was always going to be a little tricky. I had a {perfectly perfect} brown fabric with a subtle stripe that hopped on board almost from the beginning. I knew it had to go somewhere, and eventually that 'somewhere' became obvious as an outside border. The horizontal applique border strips just kept insisting that they needed to spill out into that border. Okay, fine, but I didn't want to break up the flow up those subtle stripes either. So, yeah. Nobody was ever going to notice but me, and we all know how these things wind up. Gotta make it happen so it won't drive us insane later! Oh I should have, could have, knew it would have been better the other way.... Right?

Trying to decide measurements for the border...

It finally came down to cutting the horizontal brown strips at exactly the width of the sewn together flower block/coin strips; ie, the current width of the quilt. Then I measured {and measured again}, finally cutting the cream applique background just long enough to extend beyond, and over, into the outside border. So yes, I sewed the horizontal brown strips to the flower/coin strips in a huge big unit, then cut and sewed the outside borders onto the sides of the quilt. At that point, I then unpinned the folded up ends of the cream fabric and laid the excess lengths out over into the outside border. I used a paper template that I had drawn up to gauge where to cut the 'triangle' shape, and then finished appliqueing the rest of that strip down.*whew!  So much trouble for a a very stubborn idea.

Where the center strips extend into the side borders...

It looks a little ruffled in the picture, but in reality it lays quite flat. Maybe if I wouldn't leave my quilt tops laying around for awhile before taking pictures or even, better yet, ironed things more carefully? You wouldn't be scratching your heads at any or all of the quilts that do {amazingly} end up looking fairly square around here...

In the initial layout drawing, I had drawn two stacked circles where each of the black circles are, kind of like a colon, but it didn't look right. Eventually I determined that only one circle was needed but that it needed to be larger. Thankfully there was just enough of that particular fabric left to cut new, larger circles because for some reason that was the very best black fabric available from the stash. You know how black has so many different tones? This fabric was a super subtle woven, but spot on in intensity. With so very much brown represented in the quilt, I definitely didn't want a too-saturated black to come off as jarring and strident. And it couldn't be a modern or contemporary print. Fabric is important to the feel and vibe in a quilt. I care about these things quite a lot actually, as do many of you!

Now it'll be time to work on the baby girl quilt which was made up of the cast-off coin strips from this project. Only a week or so till the shower! Linking up with Wendy's Peacock Party!

The New Quilt Top Finish and a New Addition To the Family

So I finished up the squirrel project that jumped on board all in a hurry. I can't remember the exact measurements, but it's around 56" x 72"? Something like that. Decent size for a lap quilt for sure.

I Am A Maker quilt top is finished!

It felt good to use parts and pieces that in some cases were over 10 years old. The most complicated new pieced units were half square triangles. Though I used every bit of the parts and pieces with yellow {no matter how green-yellow}, I ended up throwing out other units that had too much green fabric in them. And I didn't use the cut red squares at all, just the coral pink ones. Interesting how it all shakes out in a project like this!

Adding a little bit of applique, of course....

Yes, the applique flowers did end up staying for good. I just cut out similar sizes to what I was auditioning and made sure to add seam allowance. I kept the shapes very simple and naive looking on purpose. This isn't a quilt for fancy schmancy detail.

All the different parts and pieces...

The quilt states that 'I am a maker', but this last week I have been primarily a 'grandma'. Miss Reagan Anne made her appearance on Tuesday morning and we couldn't be more happy. Such a joy to be a grandparents to our sweet little girls!

Sweet little granddaughter

This is a picture her daddy took that I stole off Instagram. For some reason I always forget to take pictures and just concentrate on the snuggling! I love how he took off her little cap so we could see her fuzzy little hair. Ahh... My heart just melts. Since they live just up the road from us, we are trying to help as much as possible in the first weeks of trying to adjust to the new 'normal'. Don't expect to see much quilting out of me for a little while. Priorities!

Out With the Old, In With the New

This quilt was a great choice for putting in the hoop this time of year. I don't even remember the last time I had this much cabin fever! It's not that we've been housebound or been without electric etc., it must just be the long, never-ending winter getting to me. I'd obviously never survive living in Alaska like some of you hardy souls who seem to do just fine up north!

Improv. Postage Stamp Basket quilt is a finish!

Improv. Postage Stamp Baskets quilt has been like a breath of fresh air. The word I keep coming back to when thinking about this quilt is 'restful'. So very relaxing to stitch on this quilt. It's been much needed! I can't wait to throw this one one the bed and see how serene it makes our bedroom feel.

A little bit of basket handle stitching in the setting triangles

 As usual, the decision about what to stitch in the sashing part of the quilt was quite painful. I feel incredibly un-creative about sashings and one-fabric borders and just generally sort of panic at the thought. This time I went with my gut {although when do I ever really not do that?} and did what seemed easiest. It definitely helped when I saw that Lucy had made the same choice in her most recent finish. Her work is always so beautiful that no-one could possibly ever complain that she was taking the easy way out!

An odd color palette for me, but I'm loving it!

Though some say that these postage stamp baskets don't immediately show as baskets, I kinda like the subtle impact of the design. They were made in the improv. style which means they are not perfect at all. All the strings are varied in size which makes me like them all the more.

There's just something about hand quilting....

Originally I thought to mix up the baskets so that each block had baskets with all vertical strings or all horizontal strings. That just created a very confusing medley of conflicting blues and greens and so it seemed safer to keep all stringy baskets the same per block. In the end I found that I rather liked the way those aligning strings met up at the cornerstones, creating an indirect, secondary design. Not hugely impactful, but still, very noticeable when examining close up, such as when it might be lying across someones lap.

It acts like it needs a snuggle....

The only thing that I'm not sure that I like love, is the half cornerstone blocks on the outside of the quilt. They were deliberately chosen to sort of fade away, in direct contrast to the darker fussy-cut flower ones. There's just a question niggling at me, because it almost seems to leave the edges of the quilt looking undone. Or does it? I do love questions and mysteries in a quilt! Oh well! Keeping that in mind, I just doubled down on that particular thought and made sure the binding was extremely soft looking and wouldn't detract in any way from those busy, bossy looking baskets. Overall this quilt would readily go right into the success column, if I had any such thing. Not exactly what I started out thinking it would end up looking like, but now? I just want to cuddle up and take a nap with it. That's a very good vibe in my humble opinion...

Folksy Flower Medallion next up in the hoop!

Next up in the hoop is the Folksy Flower medallion quilt. It was started sometime in 2015 and was in the works for about two years before reaching quilt top completion. The original inspiration was lost to me for the entire time that I was working on the quilt. It was terribly frustrating when starting this quilt as I wanted to reference the picture my brain was trying to re-imagine. Though I searched and searched, I could not find this stupid picture that I KNEW had been saved somewhere in my Pinterest boards! It wasn't until the other day that I finally stumbled upon the picture, way down in the bottom of one of my boards! So crazy to see the similarities between the inspiration and my ultimate interpretation. And I wonder, what would have been different if I could have been viewing the picture all along?

Looking at the center

I do think it very important to give credit to whatever and wherever our original inspiration comes from. If we can. Sometimes we really don't have a clear answer for that and that's probably okay as long as we aren't trying to gain profit from a potential 'copy cat' design. Maybe our idea is even a conglomeration of lots of stimuli. Being awash in social media influence definitely exposes up to lots and lots of different ideas, designs and approaches. Perhaps the seed of an idea is buried so far in our subconscious we begin to think the idea is completely unique to us! You know that could happen to any one of us!  Regardless, I find it fascinating to see how far inspiration can take us into our own spin on things, then turn around and view the two results side by side. 

Getting started with the stitching!

I wondered if this quilt was a little bit too fall-ish to be working on this time of year, but no. We're doing just fine. So far there's very little precision involved in the stitching and that always makes me feel happier to dive into the hand quilting towards the end of the day. Did you notice that one of my clamps on the hoop is cracked? I'm treating it very gently and hoping it holds up for a very long time. Interestingly enough, that's the best side to slide over the bulk of the applique work. Less stress on those stitches when it's not as tight!

Baby Quilts and a {Sanity Saving} Random Sampler Attempt

Making baby quilts is generally fun and easy peasy. This time I allowed it to stress me out a little because I am making 'for a special someone'. Not that I asked them for specific colors etc., but still, I'd like to feel that they will appreciate the final product.

Baby boy quilt

I used this photo as inspiration for my baby 'boy' quilt, but you know me. I had to add in a printed fabric somewhere. I also changed the look of the star and went with a sawtooth style instead of the pointier version seen in the original. Then later, just because I wanted to.... That little panda family didn't look quite right without older sister being included. Where's our little Lucy? 

I believe this is called Broderie Perse when you cut an element out of fabric and use it for your applique shape. The whole thing looks so sweet up close, but from a distance muddies up the look of the star a little too much. So disappointing. It might have to be unpicked and stitched onto the label at the back of the quilt whenever I get to that point. I've told you and told you before, that sometimes it's possible to go too far with applique additions? Now do you believe me?*sigh

With an added panda bear...

The little girl quilt {I had to have both ready to go just in case!}, was made out of leftover strings from the Dried Flowers quilt that I'm still working on. Trust me to get the secondary project finished up before the original one is even close. Though I measured and cut the string strips to equal sizes, it's obvious there is a bit too much 'ease' in the quilt. Hope it doesn't make machine quilting a nightmare. As you can see, a bit of applique jumped on the front of this one too...

Baby girl quilt

After wading through the baby quilt dilemmas I felt stuck in limbo land--not wanting to sandwich and quilt either one before I find out for sure which is needed! So the very next day I woke up and it was snowing. Ughh. No more snow! I think something inside me sort of snapped because I immediately headed for the orphan totes and started digging out parts and pieces. Yep, it's one of those 'squirrel' quilts that pop up out of nowhere.

Leftover sashing bits

Seriously, though Why not have a little fun with something that has zero expectations? I put together a nice little pile of leftovers, including blocks, fabric squares and hst units. Anything in this color palette was fair game. And don't ask me why these colors were chosen. It just was.

Orphaned blocks, units and fabric squares

I sewed leftover sashing bits together, finally put the letters for I am a maker into one unit {originally intended for the back of another quilt}, made four patch blocks, sewed units of leftover squares together, and just generally doodled with all the available bits. Some of these pieces could have long ago went into the scrap bin, but it's terribly hard for me to toss similar sized stacks of squares. What a waste of time and effort!

Sewing together the parts

While working along, I quickly realized that I was trying to force it into rows much like the Patchwork Doodle went together last year. No! Not going to work in this case at all. This is more of a Random Sampler, utility sort of quilt, going together like a big 'ol {fiber} puzzle.

Trying to figure out a piecing layout

The next day, I took everything off the wall and started over. This time I approached the layout exactly in a random sampler way, taking care not to gallop off into medallion quilt territory--my current comfort zone. I tried to work quickly and intuitively, mostly aiming for a measure of balance and calm. Charting the unknown is hard enough without over thinking things, lets not go there!

Starting over

Ahh... This felt so much better. Okay. Time to divide the quilt into sections and address them one at a time. I started on the left side of the quilt, at the top floral fabric surrounding 'I am a maker' and have worked through to the section directly underneath that middle statement. That leaves me with two sections left to figure out: straight across the top of the quilt and down the entire right side. Though I want to fill in the quilt adequately, I also don't want to spend weeks on this particular quilt. Honestly, the only real goal is to have fun and not let the sewing get too complicated.

Sewing the pieces together in four sections

I always have to laugh when my readers wonder where the applique is going to go in the latest quilty attempt. Why does everything have to have applique? Not every quilt looks good with it {as my baby boy quilt earlier in the post suggests}. But yeah... you know me too well. I almost always have to at least try....

Contemplating some applique

I have to admit, the flowers did made my heart go pitter patter immediately. If they end up staying, then I have to unpick the applique circles from the centers of those blocks. That might be a deal breaker.*wink  I kind of liked having four of those red circles contrasting with all the busy piecework in the rest of the quilt  too. Hmm... When those are gone, it does changes the entire balance. Probably gonna have to finish filling in {sewing} the top and right side of the quilt before I make a final decision. Some it just comes down to what we like best, no other rhyme or reason required! Linking up to Wendy's Peacock Party!

Lattice Quilt at the Quilt Top Finish Stage!

So this is what I finished up with for the #AHIQRED and combined #UANDUQAL challenges. It's been difficult to get a good photograph of this top as all the very lightest of the green/blues and grey fabrics end up looking white. In reality, there is only one fabric used that is truly white based.

Red is a Neutral challenge quilt top

I spent quite a long time rearranging all the blocks and trying to get a good 'flow' going. There was a brief space of time where I almost tossed one complete row of blocks just because the corners weren't playing nice. That's the inherit risk of making limited repeats of each block--how hard it is in getting similar blocks to cozy up to one another in a sort of seamless look.

Looking a little closer....

Finally it got to the point where it felt like this is it! Overall, I'm happy with the shade changes in the background of the quilt and the lattice design definitely keeps the eye happily moving around the entire quilt. That's always an encouraging sign!

Really enjoying the background color variation

Now that it is sewn together, there is a velvety look that has sort of surprised me. I was really crossing my fingers concerning how smart it was to try marring tomato reds with deep crimson and cherry reds. In actuality, it seems to help create layers of interest and a lovely, subtle background play. At least in my eyes! I suppose I'm too deeply invested in the idea of making truly scrappy quilts to want single fabric backgrounds for every single quilt.  It's even hard to believe how much the more obvious printed background fabrics disturbed me before, as now they are just part and parcel of the whole.

Looking at the upside down view

Though picture number one is what I consider the 'right' view of this quilt, I turned it upside down and looked at it from another angle. It seems like everything works nicely from this view as well. Just asking out of curiosity, but what do you think? Did I make a mistake adding the large floral gray print like a couple of my kids questioned? Does it need a border? Does the red truly function as a neutral? The more I thought about that question, the more confused I was!

I'm very much inclined to call it good, fold it up and put it away until it's time for quilting. As always, being directly inspired by the 'Unconventional and Unexpected' quilts is always a wonderful adventure. I especially love that there's no way to know what the outcome will be until we're finally staring at the finished product! So very glad that I went with my instincts and drew directly from the depths of the stash totes, including using fabrics that were marginally {or completely} 'iffy' in terms of that sly, sneaky question our creative subconscious loves to throw out: 'Is this a good idea?' So much to learn about playing with fabric and color. On to the next quilt.....!