Connecting to Creativity

Well, that month went by in a screaming hurry! I ended up spending most all of August with my daughter in Oklahoma. Waiting for her to have her baby and then helping out afterward. So thankful to have the time and opportunity to make it all work out.

The sweet new grandbaby

Meet Miss. Gracelyn May! We just love her so very much. She's a little sweetie and definitely kept us all hopping for the first couple weeks. You know how some babies just take a little more time getting adjusted to the real world. Gotta get the mom and dad trained up properly! The picture below is with Ellie, another one of our {four} granddaughters. She was sooo fascinated with her new little cousin. We loved having her help too!

Lots of love from her older cousin!

Finally made it back home to my tired and grumpy husband. It's the longest I've been away for all of our married life, but he was totally on board with what I thought was needed. He actually survived fairly well and the house wasn't too terrible. Our youngest daughter had kept tabs on that. {If I could add heart emojis here, I would!} Still, I had mountains of laundry to do and some things that needed set to rights. Still do actually, but one thing at a time!

Probably won't be using the scrappy circles after all

I didn't get hardly any quilting done during the month of August {tiniest bit of hand quilting}, so you can only imagine my longing to dive right back into quilting. After a quick perusal of the quilting WIP's list, I decided what was needed most was something completely carefree. 

Working on the centerpiece

On impulse, I grabbed a bag of orphan blocks, bits and bobs that I had grouped together a couple months ago. The entire bag was thrown together based on color compatibility and not much else. Basically, I just started throwing things on the wall, moving things around until there was some good energy.

Top and bottom border sewn on, working on the sides

Then I started figuring out how to sew it together! First the middle improv. strips went together. Lots of partial piecing and trimming up in order for it to lay flat. Had to introduce one similar-look light tan fabric and then later, a couple darker prints in the border, but otherwise, this entire quilt top is strictly made out of orphaned parts and pieces!

This is the completed background centerpiece minus a 
thin piece of purple I'm gonna add up on the right corner

After the middle part of the quilt was sewn together, then I made an executive decision to trim it to straight. I waffled about that for all of ten minutes or so and then finally flipped the top over and bit the bullet. Why flip it over? Mostly so I didn't have to worry about what was being cut off! ha! Just couldn't face trying to sew the outside borders onto the quilt if I had to do too much easing and coaxing. 

Adding the applique bits that look interesting

Now I'm in a frenzy {a very slow, methodical frenzy} to add leftover applique bits and pieces to the center of the quilt. The whole process has felt amazing. I can't really adequately explain what this has meant to me! Very free spirited and fun just because of the loose, open ended determination for the outcome. It feels like it has woke up my sleeping creativity in just the right sort of way. Not sure what it's supposed to be or do or even end up looking like, but I'm totally okay with that. How about that? We're all good over here in this corner of the quilt world after all!  Maybe by next week I'll have my head above water enough to finally go check out all the blogs I've been neglecting....