All the 2023 Quilty Finishes {Finally!} & A Little Bramble Blooms Progress

 A belated look-back at all the 2023 finishes here at Quilty Folk! Once again, life has gotten in the way of my quilty forward progress. What a shock and surprise, right? I must be human.

2023 Finishes--A

It was a very slow year for quilt finishes, coming in at 10 quilt total. Considering all that went on last year though, I feel like it was an amazing feat. 

2023 Finishes--B

Since I'm throwing this up on the blog for my own benefit, it's probably best to keep it brief.

The 2023 Finished Quilt Details:

• 3 Baby Quilts
• 1 Lap sized Quilt
• 6 Bed sized Quilts
• 9 Quilts totally Hand Quilted
• 1 Quilt mixed Hand and Machine Quilted

As a note of interest, I gifted 12 quilts last year, which is more than I finished. Hmm... You'd think the stacks would be smaller by now? But no. That's not how it seems to work. Gifting quilts is really good for the soul and making friends though, so I guess I'm fine with that! Another item of note is that the quilt top drawers are getting easier to shut. By the end of 2023, there was only 20 tops left and 2 of them were donations from my sister a few years ago. Not really something that I'm stressing about ever finishing if you want to know the truth of it. Like I've mentioned before, they will probably end up as quilt backing some day. I'm just not that invested in them!

Another interesting thing is that I finished quite a few larger quilts last year. With lots and lots of hand quilting. Even if hardly anything else got done, I still managed some hoop time. That's NOT been the case this year. My hand quilting time has dropped to just a couple evenings a week the last couple months. So many things are getting in the way of my quality hoop time. Just drives me crazy, but what do you do? 

Just for the record and journaling purposes: I started out 2023 sicker than I've even been and of course that took awhile to power through and catch up from. Then we had our youngest sons wedding at the end of April. Our oldest daughter had her first child in August and somewhere in the middle was two wedding weekends for a niece and nephew who we feel quite close to. Lots of family shenanigans to attend to as well.

Unfortunately, the year also ended with my husband being sicker than he's ever been and now, somehow we're already in February of 2024. Whew. I'm still right smack in the middle of caretaking, which is not nearly as fun as quilting. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and feel thankful for any improvements as they are all quite hard won. Thank you all once again for your many messages of love and encouragement in this hard time. Priorities definitely ebb and flow throughout our lives don't they?

Moving along

Starting the Bramble Blooms QAL seemed like an exciting adventure back when the momentum was carrying me along with the inspiration and initial drive. Now, it's one of the few quilty things that I can think about without feeling completely overwhelmed and uninspired. Most days. Maybe just a little bit blank around the edges of my brain sometimes? Or panic that I might be letting you down? Uggh. There's so much to appreciate though: Using up the Oldy moldy fabric, an easy-peasy medallion quilt plan of attack, Improv-ish, open-ended, loosey-goosey style? Nothing to fret about or bother getting overly excited about, right? Except for the issue of time.*sigh

So yeah. Time is definitely problematic these days. Both for finding enough time in the day to do the applique work and then the computer time for posting. Wowsers, has that been a tough one! I keep telling myself that I did in fact warn everyone about the slower pace of this QAL. It's either bag the whole project or just keep plugging away at it and find the joy where it comes. You know me. Gonna keep after it until the challenge runs cold.

The picture above is the current state of my BBI. Both the top and bottom borders have been stitched down and all that is left for stitching on the side panels is the leaves. I have them pinned where they will probably stay. Still deliberating whether or not to remove a leaf or two from the top and bottom border and thinking yeah. Might as well leave them alone now. Afterall, it's extra work to take them off! 

Also, I keep making these flaky little mistakes {so surprising considering my state of distraction these days}. Right now the quarter triangle corner blocks are just a wee bit too small for seamlessly sewing onto the centerpiece. I've already cut the coping border down once, but may have to trim a little more off. Or maybe trim a bit of fabric off of the outside of the applique borders? Regardless, this phase of the quilt is very, very close to being done. 

I don't know about you, but I'm really liking the end result thus far! As per usual, I am a little shocked and dumbfounded by how interesting this older fabric can be made to look. It's nothing new to me as I've had this result before. But it always, always amazes me because in the fabric stack, the whole thing just looked pretty dismal if you know what I mean! 

I managed to squeeze in enough time to scroll though all the blogs and instagram accounts that have been linked up to the QAL. Very exciting work! Many lovely, exciting creations to contemplate and be inspired by! Wish I could be more present on the blogs especially but maybe later. I'm very encouraged by the creativity and courage many of you have displayed in branching out with this strange little QAL.  I'm hoping that if you manage to push through with the details in the first quilt, then my thoughts pertaining to inspiration and the connection to series work will start to coalesce in the 2nd and 3rd. It's a bit of a slog at first I know, but we have to get some foundational work in place before we can begin to build on anything personal.

  

I can't promise any hard and fast date, but my plan is to move directly into action with the next border phase of BBI. There is quite a bit of organization involved so please bear with me. Crossing my fingers I'll have all the details together before the end of February at the very least if not the six weeks I was originally hoping for. Don't be afraid to email me if you have a late start and want to be added to the link list!

A 2023 Finish!

 It's the first finish of the year! Yoohoo! All washed up and nicely crinkled, just like I prefer them.

#AHIQStringTulipQAL

This was an Adhoc Improv. challenge involving string piecing and tulips. I didn't actually do much string piecing {only in the tulips}, but challenged myself to use a difficult stack of fabric instead. There's something about these particular tones of blue that I've always balked at using and they were starting to pile up!

First completed quilt for 2023!

That's the problem with me and challenges. Sometimes the challenge itself doesn't end up being what kickstarts my brain and I end up having to do a little end run around it to even get started.

Loving the outside border

Oh well. This stack of fabric had been simmering on my counters for a long time and needed some tender loving care. I ended up having to go back into the totes and add more of the blue just to make the quilt large enough. Nice way to pare down the problem fabric though. Don't you like all the odd fabrics that I've thrown into this quilt?

Looking across

If you were to ask me, I'd say the quilt has purple in it, but no... it really doesn't. The periwinkle blues mixed with the pink just trick my mind into thinking there's purple included. I set out thinking this was a guaranteed 'give-away' quilt, but somehow while working on it, I sort of fell in love. There's just something so sweet and spicy about the orange, pink and blue together.

A close up of the border stitching and binding

That last applique addition of the mixed salmon pink basket handles wrapped the quilt up so nicely! And the pink and white Hawaiian print fabric used in the border makes me smile so big. How could I have found anything else that would have worked better?

The 25-Patch top is done!

On a different note, the 25-Patch HST quilt top is finally sewn into a top now. It looks better to me after adding on the sashing strips to the outside.

Got a slightly childish vibe

Though I intended to use a lot of cheddar on the outside, the quilt had other ideas. Boohoo.

Must be the crayon colors!

I'm satisfied overall with the random placement of hst's, but I can't say this was an easy quilt to put together. Mostly I tried to balance overall instead of block by block.

Does it look vintage-y at all? Hmm.. Maybe not.

Whether this ends up being the front of a quilt or the back is the real question! We'll see. I'm super happy to have used up some of these languishing fabrics in such a carefree looking top, so there's that. Over and over I find myself amazed by how much potential the stash totes truly have. Still. After a couple years now of digging and digging and digging through them....

Progress on Several Fronts!

It was a good week for quilting around here. The #AHIQTulipQal quilt is finished being hand quilted and the first phase of binding is already sewn down. I didn't expect to like the wavy stitching in the outside border so much. Just has adds a bit of whimsy that funnily enough, makes me like the quilt better!

Binding all ready for hand stitching

The next quilt in the hoop is 'Ormes Inspired', an impulse quilt started clear back in 2019. Most of the work was completed in the early days of the Covid lockdowns and finally, the bulk of the quilt top was finished up by May of 2020. Later on, I went ahead and added the word at the bottom of the quilt and that was that!

Ormes Inspired getting sandwiched and pinned

This was probably the trickiest all over applique that I had ever attempted to do for a quilt. It still boggles my mind that most of the placement was done by eyeballing positions and sort of working backward from large motifs to much smaller ones. When I go out on a wing and a prayer with the quilting efforts, I just don't know when to quit! Oh well. Look where I ended up! On a totally different note, this was supposed to be my January quilt in-the-hoop and thankfully, it has been sandwiched and pinned since sometime in early December! 

Almost ready for the hoop...

One of the things that I really wanted to get accomplished in the past week was to work on the 25-patch HST quilt. I was crossing my fingers to get to 'completed quilt top stage', but count myself fortunate to at least see progress in a serious way. This picture below is a stack of all the completed blocks. They are trimmed to size and nicely stacked into rows according to the layout that was deemed appropriate one late, late evening. 

A little nerve-wracking to be working on a quilting project so late in the day as occasionally my judgement does gets a bit impaired. There comes a point in most all layout auditioning sessions where we are just DONE with all the what-ifs and what abouts. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean! There's something here in this particular layout that is still bugging me but not enough for a do over. For now I will sew it together and just wait to see if or where things might have went sideways. It's not like it's a precious quilt with tons of hours wrapped up in the decision making or stitching. Who knows? It might just end up being a quilt backing some day. 

Getting ready for sewing

A couple more applique blocks finished up with the Herbs and Berries quilt. I'm still really enjoying the laid back feel of these blocks. And since auditioning seems to be in the cards this past week, I went ahead and rearranged the blocks on the wall to make way for potential sashing. Because this quilt was always meant to have sashing and I wouldn't dare try and cheat it out of what it expects!

Auditioning for Herbs and Berries

Another thing that caught my attention almost immediately since getting back into the quilting room on a regular basis? This orphan block project {plus fabric pull} from almost a year ago. There has been the odd, random moment of trying to gain traction, but somehow it never amounted to anything solid. So easy to  just give up and walk away rather than feel like I was beating my head against a brick wall.

Hourglass Improv.

The thing is, I have this idea that will NOT go away. It haunts me. There's a longing here that feels kind of important though the entire project itself has felt overwhelming. Or totally underwhelming? Boring at times. Or maybe just a hair above my creativity level? And I'm so tired of that particular mental block. What a waste of time and energy to go there and think things like that. Uggh. 'I'm not good enough.' Seriously, what's the harm of trying? 

So here I go, mentally picturing something about making an 'intentional' background piece and then perhaps absolutely going over the top with a big 'ol applique design. Nothing formal of course. There needs to be lots and lots of glorious imperfection in order for me to properly connect with the flow. If there ever actually ends up being one. Somehow I rather suspect that part will come fairly rapidly if the irritating background would ever get busy and properly manifest itself!

Here's the latest plan. Instead of trying to put the smaller abandoned hourglass units together first, {as seems perfectly logical but wasn't getting anywhere in almost a year}, I will now switch to making these slightly larger hourglass units first. A small but important change that looky, looky! is translating into sewn units and good things happening!! Then.... I will most likely try to puzzle piece the new units with the smaller ones until there ends up being a largish, potential background piece. I may have to make more hourglass units than what are currently cut out. No way of knowing how many will be needed! And this process will probably include having to incorporate various pieces of gray, beige or white/cream fabric into the layout as well. Hey, whatever gets the project moving forward, right?

Diving Back into the Deep End

It felt like a slow start getting back into some sort of quilting groove. My brain was very foggy and I struggled to focus properly. Looking at my quilting list just caused instant blankness and a general apathy toward all current projects. It was really quite sad.  Finally, I had no choice but to start a brand new project.*wink

Herbs and Berries quilt project

Well, in all honesty, this was sorta, kinda started back in late fall. I've had the stack of fabric forever and even had things narrowed down to a basket quilt idea in terms of design. Sometime during the end of November, I remember cutting out the nine background pieces of fabric, roughing out a couple basket shapes on freezer paper and then putting it up to percolate for just a bit longer. The main thing holding me back was trying to decide which fabric color to use where. 

Anyway.... when I couldn't deal with any of the current projects here in the past couple weeks, I fell on that project like a drowning sailor. I mean, it was so obvious that the baskets needed to be cut out of the darker cranberry red fabrics! Right? And it was a very soothing project to hand stitch on overall. Very easy to pick up or set back down, nothing jarring or too demanding in wanting solutions for further design dilemmas. Perfect project and place to pick for a 'restart'.

#AHIQColorPalette

Then, much to my surprise, the 'Revised' quilt started popping into my head once again. Hmm... what if I did this, or that? All those holes in the puzzle of how to fit the loud, obnoxious tulips together in a somewhat harmonious way began to slowly make sense. And I found myself getting the blocks finished up to a point where they could be laid out on the design wall floor for further design work. I played and contemplated and just generally enjoyed the feel of healthy creative flow. Ah! Where have you been my old friend? I've missed you so...

The brighter yellow fabric stack

While the sewing machine itself has barely been used of late, I have definitely been in and out of the quilt room. Mostly to pull out stacks of marinating fabric and take a good, long look. Refamiliarizing myself with old ideas and wisps of some sort of concept that may or may not end up being something wonderful. In all my overdue blog reading the past couple weeks, I stumbled upon this little snippet that greatly resonated, 'I have this constant tug, a yearning even, to just dive in and sew without a plan.  There are so many styles I want to explore, so many fabrics I’d like to combine.  I feel a pent up energy trying to break free.' Isn't that just the way it is for so many of us? That was from Hopeful Homemaker, a quilt blogger who I've followed for a couple years now, enjoying her unique outlook about quilting, creativity and life in general.

The mellow yellow fabric stack

As most of you know, for several years now, I've been slowly addressing overflowing stash totes in various colors. Yellow has been the latest and greatest to gain the spotlight. In July of last year, the Adhoc Improv. blog that I follow along even had a timely challenge concerning my over abundant color. But did that help? Nooooo. It simply paralyzed my thinking completely. Because now I was thinking 'improv.' and super creative and interesting etc. etc. I kept trying and trying to get a good group of yellows together, but every time I thought 'this is it!' then, basically nothing would happen with any of the fabrics or ideas or glimmers of greatness. 

Okay, long story made a lot shorter. After being sick for so long and then coming back into the quilting room looking around at everything like a newly hatched bird? I have come to the conclusion that I need to make a very basic, mellow looking yellow and cream quilt. Old fashioned looking and sweet as can be. Ditch the brighter yellows for now and then sort of work up to something that includes a more creative and interesting thought process. This feels like a breakthrough, a keeper of a plan and I'm actually sort of excited about it! And, wouldn't you know it, as soon as I decided on the plan {with the more mellow yellow fabrics that I'm currently crushing on}, and then tucked the brighter fabrics away? I stumbled upon the perfect idea for the improv. challenge. Or at lest the beginnings of the challenge! All you can do is laugh at that point. It's just too funny. 

But I'm still committed to the idea of making the more traditional, older looking quilt first and then diving into the improv. one next. A sequence or series? I really, really like this. Better get crackin-alackin' on getting those blocks cut out though before I lose the spark for the rest!

#AHIQStringTulip quilt in the hoop

I also managed to get enough hand quilting done {on the current quilt in the hoop} to finally reach the outside border. Whew! I was starting to think my get-up-and-go might be gone for good. As you can see, I'm stitching a wide echo stitch over the top of the basket handles. It gave me a bit of anxiety about overall look and vibe, but now that I'm on to the second border, it's looking pretty good to me. Am crossing my fingers that this quilt will be totally hand quilted by the end of February. Just feels so, so crazy that my first finished quilt of the year will probably be accomplished in March. I don't even know how many years it's been since that has happened around here!

In the event you've been wondering where I have been, it's nothing overly serious at the moment, just a bad case of bronchitis. Apparently I was more run down than any of us realized and so... it just seems to be something that won't shake easily.

#AHIQStringTulips

I was pretty sick for awhile, but now am just mostly doing the coughing thing that will NOT go away. After trying to hand quilt off and on for a couple weeks and just over-tiring myself, I finally just took a break from it all. So sorry for being MIA on the blog browsing and commenting etc. All I am doing at present is trying to fully recover and not drive everyone in the household stark raving made while doing it. Sitting around twiddling my thumbs, taking extra care with my health and being 'patient' {so as to regain some strength} is definitely not one of my stronger personality traits! Will probably still be off-line for another couple weeks so don't worry if this takes awhile or I don't return a message. And just for the record, this has been a lousy way to lose some of that weight that I've steadily been gaining for the past several years....

Moving Things Along

 Trying to get a couple more finishes in before the end of the year. Moody 9-Patch has the initial phase of binding sewn on, all the clips on and now is waiting on the hand stitching time.

Moody 9-Patch getting a binding

It was a huge relief to get Country Stars all finished up and ready for gifting. I even managed to get the label stitched on! 

Country Stars all finished up!

Next up will be making the time to deliver it. Gotta wait on my husbands schedule as we want to do it together. Sort of a 'Merry Christmas' and also a housewarming gift. 

The compass stars are never a bad idea

It's kind of funny how it ended up with a vaguely holiday vibe, which was never intended at all. I just hope our friend likes traditional look quilts as much as she proclaimed to. Kind of a trip down memory lane for me and though I don't LOVE this quilt, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

So happy the hand quilting grid proved out

The applique could have been a little bit more exciting, but then it would have been difficult to give away. Right?

Should be a good couch throw!

Next up in the hoop is the #AHIQStringTulipsQal project. This is the top that I thought was done and then  months later, had to pull it back out of the quilt top drawers and add on an applique border. So much better looking now. I thought surely, surely I would want to hand quilt the one and only Christmas quilt top left in the drawers, but nope. Absolutely no interest at the moment. For some reason this one thinks it needs to be next.

On to the next quilt

Oh well. It should be very easy to jump into and get started. I went ahead and machine stitched in-the-ditch around the large center area and also, at the outside border. Not necessary, but something that will make the overall stitching move just a little faster. And it won't ruin the look of the hand quilting one iota. Win, win.

Ready for the next step

All the applique for the thirty Primrose Path applique blocks is done now. The little flower centers went lickety-split. Now I will be adding little corner triangles to the blocks. Just need to decide on the right color for that. Originally I thought to do a white texty fabric, then I moved on to a mixed palette of pastels. Now I'm leaning hard toward shades of the med-pink used in a couple of the blocks. I never intended for this to end up a 'pink and black' quilt, but hey, what do I know?

A quilt that refuses to be taken seriously

You can see that I've sewn together eight of the nine blocks necessary for making the 25-Patch Hst quilt. Of course it doesn't seem like nearly enough {color me shocked} and so I will be changing it to a sixteen block quilt. I started out following the original quilt look for block colors but eventually just sort of gravitated toward changing things up here or there. Now I'm in good shape to make up the next eight blocks willy-nilly and then afterward I'll probably have to mix all the blocks up to make everything make sense once again. 

I'm crossing my fingers this will be a joyful, happy looking quilt, not a sad hst vomit type thing. I went ahead and cut out more of the darker brown and medium blue fabrics for more units. So far the green is the very hardest to introduce into the quilt which is pretty on par for normal around here. Don't want to leave it out though as there will be more green used in the sashing pieces. Probably. It's been a lot of fun though and coming together without much trouble. In my head, I'm calling it a 'palette cleanser', but I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's a quilt that refuses to be treated as precious?

Finished Quilt Tops Always Feel Good

It's been a good week. I wrapped up two more quilt tops and dropped the number of open-ended projects down to three! Yessss.... That means I can start some new ones now without any guilt whatsoever!

A little bit moody with the gray-text backgrounds

This quilt top was started in the 2021-22 winter. I got motivated to trace the wedge segments and then they just sat for a very long time. Finally in July, the sewing started happening. Some quilt projects progress very slowly, sit for awhile, progress slowly and then seem to come together all in a rush. This is one of those kinds, but it always surprises me when the end comes together so quickly!

Not the strictly traditional layout

Last Saturday found me doing the auditioning for layout and let me tell you, it took hours. I couldn't believe how unsatisfied I was with the overall look to this quilt! Though I adore almost every Grandma's Fan quilt that I've ever seen, for some reason this was the actual impetuous for starting on my own. I know, I know. So modern looking with all the white backgrounds! 

Too much?

It seemed like a great use for my text print fabrics, and also some of those brighter fabrics that I often find so hard to use. Altogether these particular blocks just hit me as very 'bland' and fairly underwhelming though. Cue the disappointment. I kept leaving the room and coming back to fiddle with blocks until something made me decide to turn a couple of the blocks into partial or even full circles. Hmm... Now we're talking!

Looking across

Not at all what I was hoping for initially, but definitely much more interesting than anything I'd seen before while attempting this layout. I like the whimsy of only having some of the blocks joined into circles so then of course that took awhile longer to figure all the details out. Where in the quilt? Which colors? Bold impact? Or a softer, fade-away look, where, if you didn't look closely, you might miss the fact that something else was happening in the quilt? So many questions!

A partial circle on the side of the quilt

Eventually I sorted it all out and then it was only a matter of getting the rows sewn together and finally, the quilt top as a whole. It's a super sweet looking quilt and right now, I'm leaning hard toward no borders ever. Or applique. We'll see. I'm not very good about sticking to those sorts of decisions! It was hard to sew the last bits of the quilt together because I was enjoying seeing it draped over the totes as I walked into the quilt room. Every quilt room should have something special to draw you inward, right?

Welcome home, it says!

Next up in the quilt hoop is the 4-Block Tulip Medallion, a finished quilt top since April of last year. Clearly, I'm in a yellow state of mind right now, so don't mind me while I positively wallow in it.

Next up in the hoop!

This is already a wonderful quilt to have in my lap in the evenings. So soft and warm with lots of good cuddle vibes. Why is it then, that I'm already trying to figure out who this quilt is destined to go to? Ha! Sometimes it feels like I have to justify all the reasons why a quilt might end up being mine, all mine....

A sweet, simple feel to this one

After lots of pondering, I'm probably going to mark some sort of cross-hatch for the outside border stitching. Just don't think I want to echo stitch on top of all the flowers {or just outside of them} and then have all that empty space left to fill up. Still thinking and thinking. Definitely don't want to do anything very fussy.

Stitching in the hoop

The other completed quilt top is one that I thought for sure was totally done back in May of 2021. So hard to believe that it's been hanging around for that long! It was an AHIQ Challenge that almost threw me. I'm still convinced that the color palette itself has been behind every difficult decision in the entire quilt!

Ooh, loving that darker blue border finish!

Needless to say, at some point this year, I determined that this finished quilt top was actually NOT finished at all, and instead, was stomping its petulant little feet wanting a border. Anyone following me for any length of time knows this is not the first time this has happened, nor will it probably be the last.

So much better now!

And now that the little basket handle appliqued border has been stitched down and added to the rest of the quilt? It's perfectly obvious something was lacking before. I mean, can you believe the difference in overall look and vibe to this thing? So much more rich and cozy looking now! Something interesting to think about--it took approximately two hours to hand stitch down each border, and then of course, it all needed sewn on by machine when attaching to the center part of the quilt. Would that have been worthwhile to you? And that's not even counting the applique prep time. Am I crazy or smart?*wink

Kind of a lacy-look border!

So next up for the ongoing quilt questions is a set of questions pertaining to 'Reasons for Quiltmaking'. The first three have a lot of the same answers, so I'm going to answer them all in a jumble.

1. Why do you quilt? What does quilting give you?

2. Why do you spend so much time on such a craft?

3. Why do you enjoy quilting? What do you like most about it?

I quilt because I adore the look and feel of quilts and I love the process. Might even be obsessed with the process in fact! There's just something so good and heartwarming about using our minds and our hands to think about and/or work with color and textiles. It's simultaneously relaxing, therapeutic, stimulating and comforting all at the same time. 

There's a puzzle to be figured out. The time and effort it takes our minds to work this out, can shut out all but the worst of the world has to offer. So that's a relief and balm to the soul. When our minds get finished sorting out the various and assorted details involved in making a set look or design, then there's a rush of satisfaction and all those happy endorphins to thoroughly enjoy.

People say that it takes on average, 10,000 hours of experience to master a skill. Whether that's true or not, there's nothing to take lightly about the journey of getting to a stage of proficiency in our chosen craft. Within those hours is a roller coaster of highs and lows--learning to trust in the core of ourselves and have a confidence in the things that we want to express through the makings of our hands. There's a great pride in being able to finally produce an outcome that resonates to the very depths of our being. When I randomly stumble upon one of my more favorite quilts {that I've personally made}, there's this leap to my heart. 'Is that one of mine? Oh, I know that quilt!' And of course I'm already smiling before the recognition even truly hits!

The journey {and joy} of creativity keeps me going, day after day and year after year. I can't wait to find out what happens next! In all the years that I've spent quilting, I would have never dreamed that I could make the kinds of quilts that I do now. Mostly because I couldn't envision where the passion would take me. It boggles my mind that my voice could so clearly be reflected back in so many of the quilts that I've made. How wonderfully real and warm and cozy that voice would be. It makes me want to cry because I'm such a reserved person. How is it that my quilts are not?

When I hand quilt, it quiets my mind and soothes my being. It sorts out the tangled mess in my brain. I've said it before so many times, but it's still true. Quilting makes me a better person. When I give a quilt away, it feels like I'm offering comfort, a hug, or perhaps a little ray of sunshine. And yes, we can buy or give other things to people to help them in their time of need. A quilt just feels extra special. Especially if it's made with heart and soul and not just out of feelings of expectation.

So that's why I quilt. Because I can and also, because I can't not make quilts. 

Sometimes the Applique Just Sort of Gets Out of Control Around Here

 I finished up all the Flower Power blocks so you know what that means.  'Next up' in the applique queue! I don't know if it was technically next, but I've been hankering to work on this add-on to the 2nd improv. strip quilt made during the quilt meetings last winter.

Added a quiet little bird on impulse

It wasn't strictly necessary to add applique to this 'Blue #2' and some people definitely urged me to leave it as-is. Which would have been fine, really, in the scheme of things as I don't have a major attachment to this particular project. The problem is when it comes time to do the quilting. If the quilt top doesn't speak somewhat fondly to me, then it keeps being pushed to the very back of the line. 

Gotta get the underside stitched down first

Why are we pushing ourselves to keep taking part in this quilting adventure if the end result doesn't tug on our heart strings? So yeah, it's ridiculously easy to talk myself into doing just a little bit of applique here and there. 'Cuz like it or not {the work entailed}, that's what usually does it for me. It doesn't take that long I tell myself. It's easy to drift off into all the unexplored what ifs? that might possibly make a quilt top shine just a little brighter. Or, maybe I'd like to experiment with this, or that, or the other motif... And on and on it goes till everyone is totally shocked {except me} when there's a finished quilt with zero applique included. It's not like I set out thinking that's the way it always and forever has to be.

I'm really happy with how quickly this particular applique is coming along. Always so helpful to have the prep work done and out of the way so when you're ready to do the stitching, it's right there waiting. Preaching to the choir I know, but all the stitching with the flower, leaves, the birds and even half of the scallops were done in one day. If I would have been having to do the prep work still? I'd have probably moved on to another project. 

Which brings us to one of my 'surprise' applique additions. Well, more like a border addition with applique touches. To be clear, I was NOT looking to purposely add more applique to this quilt at all. Uh uh. In fact, I honestly thought it was one of those magical, marvelous quilt tops that are actually completed. Truly, it has been cheerfully resting in the quilt top drawers for close to a year. No problems whatsoever with haunting or nagging at me for more! 

Loving this already

It was nearing the top of the quilting list so, as happens commonly around here, I found myself casually admiring it laying on the guest bed upstairs one day. Just for a few moments while I pondered potentials for quilting design. Hmm... And the more that I looked at it, the more that I realized that the quilt actually felt a little cheated. It was gonna need one more border to feel well and truly finished and that was that. 

So the short story is that I found this dark, midnight blue fabric in the stash totes. It works perfectly well to do what this quilt needs a border needs to do. The long story is that I wasted a couple hours online looking for a more perfect fabric because the first glance through the stash totes had me instantly discounting this fabric completely. I mean seriously, it was obviously intended to be a superior binding fabric choice some day! {Does anyone else have a mind that works this way or it is just me?}

Then there was the partially sleepless night thinking about how dumb a solid blue fabric was going to look framing this spunky looking quilt and was I really going to go for it? How about these other choices in the stash totes? and Oh NO's they are all the wrong color and/or much too little amounts to be of any use. How dull and traditional this was going to look with that almost solid look, blah, blah, blah. 

It all abruptly clicked into place the very next day when the little basket-handle-applique popped into my brain. Of course, problem solved! But you see how my brain works sometimes doing the applique end run on me! When looking at the quilt top right after pulling it out of the drawer, it didn't instantly scream out to me that it needed or even wanted applique. No sirreee, it was much, much sneakier than that, simply insisting that a dark blue border would be very nice thank you. Ah! Not so quick! Are you really not going to give us more attention to detail than that? Come on, just think of all the possibilities? Whereupon, we have currently arrived HERE. Right in this spot where I precipitously cannot even imagine this specific quilt without the immediate application of a pink, lacy-like applique border. It practically boggles the mind how quickly it went from thinking about the possible stitching texture clear to a brand new border with hours of hand work needed. 

Looking a little more perky

But wait. The drama continues. Somehow this churned up thoughts about yet another quilt top that was bugging me. Because I just can't leave well enough alone, here is the Roman Stripe quilt for your viewing pleasure. If you remember, there was two of these tops, with the smaller one being completed in July of last year. Though satisfying on a certain level, these quilt tops just haven't really resonated with me like I prefer that they do. Call me a snob, but they don't seem to have any extra redeeming qualities that would make them special. Initially I thought to give them away as comfort quilts, but now I'm rethinking that plan for the case of the 2nd quilt.

In this latest little burst of unexpected creativity, the larger Roman Stripe quilt found itself being experimented on too.*sigh  Do you recall the Ode to Joy quilt top? There's just something incredibly endearing about these heart shaped flower {or leaf or whatever they are} elements, and I want/wanted to make more of them some day. They've been calling me. Seducing me. Enticing me. Yep. A couple hours of mad, crazy drawing, cutting out and then the subsequent auditioning, now there's a strange yellow flower with larger-than-life pink leaves on top of this quilt top. And it feels so very right. It's quite bold and a little sassy. A bit of folk with that sunny, happy vibe that says, 'Don't take me seriously'. Now I can only think that his quilt was not meant to be merely comforting, but something a little bit more perhaps? Not to mention, it definitely needs a new name now. I'm thinking 'Chrysalis' in honor of the new look and feel!

Ready for the next step

The machine stitching for the brown binding on Seedpod Flower quilt is all done now. I'm thinking this could be a good project for when the kids are here later this week and next week. Hard to make a mistake from distraction if all you're doing is hand stitching a binding down. If I even find time to quilt, sometimes I don't ever bother!

Glory Be next up in the hoop

Next up for the hand quilting hoop is Glory Be. This top was completed two years ago and I've been crossing my fingers it could be in the hoop in time for this years 4th. Nope. Just too much taking up time and energy around here and the hand quilting has been sloooower than usual. Oh well. That's what happens when your husband tells one of his customers that, 'Oh, did you know that my wife sews?' And next thing you know he's bringing home pants for me to hem. Groan....  

Looking across the quilt

Anyway. I am already enjoying this quilt tremendously. Still in love with the asymmetrical layout and all the different fabric print play. Spent one evening marking the sashing with a white fabric pencil for a basic grid and yeah... It's already disappearing into the ether. So frustrating, but I should have known. Much better to mark each frame as I go!  

In the hoop

There's just enough residue left on the blue sashing that I can see little wispy bits of it here and there so I've decided to 'wing it'. Which will make the grid a little funky and off the precisely marked measurements. And you know me, that is making me smile and enjoy the quilt even more. Why didn't I think of that in the first place? 

Trying new needles

When ordering new applique needles off-line the other day, I impulsively added some Size 9 Straw Needles by Jeana Kimball's Foxglove Cottage. I've seen them recommended by Jen Kingwell I believe, and thought to give them a go. After about 3 or 4 stitches, I promptly decided that I do NOT like them and put the needle back in the container. I don't know why I even bothered, straw needles are not and have never been something that feels 'right' to me. Anyone wanting a free container of these? Will mail them to the very first person who requests them IF and only IF I can access your email so as to learn your mailing address. Otherwise, they will have to go to the second person etc. I'm sure they are wonderful, just not my style and you know how that is! 

Okay, that's it. Will probably be missing in action for a couple weeks here. Gonna enjoy our kids and grandkids and then when they leave, will have to rest, recoup and relax. Oh. And clean. Never can get out of that part for some reason!