Moving Slowly in the Month of May

I'm just sort of plugging along because that's what I do. Rain or shine, quilting seems to make up a little tiny bit of my day. All the scallops are quilted into the mid portion of this quilt. It was so simple and easy to do, I just sort of wallowed in it and didn't really rush at all.

Ah Ha quilt in the hoop

Now I've moved into the 'ah ha' section and that's going well too. Mostly I'm just having trouble actually getting the quilt into my lap these days. So many things are interfering with hand quilting time that I just wanna scream. Once the hoop is in my lap and the needle is doing its thing, we're all good. A completion should be coming along in a month or two at this rate.*sigh

Ring Around applique blocks

There are 20 'Ring Around' blocks to do in all and as of this moment, I've completed 7 of them. I purposely chose the off colored background blocks to stitch first and so then of course, I had to second guess what in the world I was thinking. Now I'm starting to see an overall pattern emerge and well, it's a bit stronger and bolder than expected. Hmmm...  The background with the center medallion pieces have been done since 2018 so it's more than time to do something with them. Especially since they were kicked out of the original project. Oh well. I'm not feeling panicked or anything, just sort of bemused. Definitely not unpicking anything at this point!

The back of the 'guy' quilt

When things get especially busy and/or stressful here at the home front {and boy howdy, have the troubles been piling up lately}, my creativity seems to go into a serious hibernation mode. One way of coaxing it out is to dive into open ended projects that are mostly about chain piecing.

Very little truly wonky looking strips

I started this particular project back in March when I was knee deep in improv. strips. Oh hey! Why not start another one! The idea was to make a quilt geared toward the masculine with my youngest son as the potential beneficiary. 

A little bit of interest going on

I'd been thinking about this for quite awhile and basically what I wanted to do was to make a very simple quilt with a compass like motif and the letters NW near it. 

Loving the addition of the old blue gingham
and red/blue shirting fabric

Simple, basic and something my outdoorsy, hiking loving son would appreciate. All made with the oldy moldie fabrics at the bottom of the stash bins though, which obviously complicated things. There was just not enough good greens to go with the true 'outdoors look' route. Gah. Okay, Just gotta 'make do' as usual, and that is why the quilt ended up being rust, blue, red and cream. Some day I am going to clear out the big 'ol pile of rust colored fabric, I promise you!

Figuring out the applique on the front

Anyway, long story short, I jumped into the BACK of the quilt first--ending up with the improv. strippy rows. Just sewing, sewing, sewing. That is not the front as you might have assumed, but the back of the quilt. And now I have the measurements for the front of the quilt and where to start thinking about how/where to begin. 

Confession time: I went and bought a chunk of the blue striped fabric for the largest piece of the background. Yep. It felt necessary in order for the applique to make sense. I'm starting with the plaid, slightly off-perfect compass and the red NW letters and then.... well, who knows what will happen next. There are still quite a few of the improv. strips leftover from the back so some of them might end up finding a home on the front as well. Everything and nothing is on the table for this project. So far it's not exactly thrilling me, but overall the look is comfy and comfy is good. If it resonates with my son then that's the real win. Not gonna spend too much time overthinking this one, that's for sure!

p.s. I might, maybe, thinking about still, putting one more wider cream/red strip on the far left side of the quilt. Just 'cuz it's looking a little too balanced for me. Might be good to shake it up a little bit? Even if it is the back..... lol