Are You Still Following Along With the Bramble Blooms QAL? Here's the Third Part--BBIII!

Okay, I've finally figured out how to do the BBIII part of the QAL! Life happenings are a little uncertain around here for an undetermined period of time and this approach will best match the posting requirements from me.

Fabric pull for BBIII

Bramble Blooms III Prompt:  Now that we've established the basics of our series, it's time to get more personally creative! Make a fabric pull, whether from the original, older fabric color palette you've already been using for the QAL or a bright, shiny new one that feels more inspirational. Think about all of the elements you've previously incorporated into your BBI and BBII quilts. Take the time to consider which elements have felt especially good to play with. Have any of these blocks, motifs or color blends unexpectedly piqued your curiosity? What if you tweaked them just a little? What if you really pushed the boundaries and made them much bigger/smaller or even potentially a lot more improv. and quirky? Which elements do you particularly dislike? Perhaps it's time to drop those and move on.

Now take out some paper and an ink pen and draw up a potential design for BBIII using any or all of the previous elements. Consider this a 'doodle', not something that has to be perfectly in proportion or laid out exact as to measurement on graph paper. Let your ideas flow as with the ink from the pen. Draw one or several drawings and then choose your favorite or the one that looks most intriguing at the moment. Perhaps you will pick the design that your fabric pull will feel most at home with. Or would you rather choose the design that will feel the most challenging to combine your fabric pull with? Either way is totally fine. Finally, sew up your design and get ready to see it in quilt top form. You can totally do this!

Design doodle #1

Don't feel like you have to use every single element from before, including the medallion layout. Go somewhere that feels fresh and interesting to YOU. Do keep at least one of the elements though, and concentrate on keeping some similarities there. This will add interest when comparing BBI, BBII and BBIII.

Design doodle #2

Add applique or not. In my case, I am somewhat obsessed with the flower, leaf and yes, even the bramble-ly thorn motifs. So of course that's where my imagination continues to take me! What if I do this? What if I do that? Make notes for clarification rather than trying to draw a 'perfect' design. You can always come back later and fine tune the one that you've chosen out for making.

Design doodle #3

Don't worry about the proportions of each individual part of the design and how it might all fit together properly together or not. Just doodle what your mind is envisioning in a very simple and basic way. Draw relatively quickly and let it be primitive. Your rough lines should easily convey the general feel of your idea as it's being created in real time because your hands are in fact, connected to your brain. It might feel forced or tricky, but believe me, this works. 

Design doodle #4

Don't be afraid to draw several doodles and maybe even throw the worst of them away. {It actually feels really good to crumple up a terrible design into a ball and throw it away!} As you are drawing, things will probably occur to you to that might not even fit into the current doodle. Finish the one you're working on, and then go ahead and explore the next idea directly after. 

If your brain feels fuzzy and sluggish {because of the implied pressure to be creative}, make yourself draw at least one overly stilted and perhaps unimaginative doodle, and then just walk away. {It is oddly helpful to force out one pitiful rendering rather than nothing at all.} Let your brain cogitate and ponder over the next couple hours or even, days. Then, whenever a random QAL design idea pops into your mind, hurry up and draw it out on paper immediately so you don't lose it.  

Keeping the odds, ends & orphans just in case

When you've got a design that feels right, then feel free to dive into the making part of the equation. Don't rush into micromanaging how you're going to implement every single, little part of the quilt! Simply start from the center like we've done before with BBI and BBII. Basically, I'm urging you to FORGET about the other parts of the quilt until you get there {except for maybe assigning potential colors to those areas}. Please don't stress to the point of positively paralyzing yourself! And remember, there are lots of tips for border making in this post here. You can also check here for a list of all the posts in the QAL if you need to refer back to other tips and tricks I might have dropped.

Start by making the center or possibly making blocks. Concentrate on that alone. Now, how does that section look and feel? Good? Move on. If not, fiddle with it for a bit. Does it need a coping border? Applique? An addition of improv. piecing? Remember, auditioning is your friend. What's next? Decide on the components and colors for the next phase, and then sew up each and every part of the quilt as it connects to the previous portion. Listen to your quilt and pay attention to the feelings in your gut of 'something is needed' OR 'something isn't right'. Take plenty of time for pondering if you're unsure. 

All the leftover fabrics to date from the original 3 quilt fabric pull
Enough fabric left to easily make a couple more in this series!

It's very important to understand that your chosen 'doodle' isn't set in stone. Ever. Consider this just a starting place! At any point along the way, you can change things up or even eliminate part of the design. Play with how to interpret your design so that it has the very personal vibe and voice of YOU. That could be as simple as choosing out special fabric prints or mixing areas of formality with make-do backgrounds. It's completely up to you how closely the lines are followed in your original drawn design.  And yes, if you really, truly, positively want to make up one of my designs, then feel free. Go ahead if you have to! Give me the design credit of course, but seriously, wouldn't it be so much more rewarding to make a YOU quilt?

The tentative plan is to host the BBIII link-up party sometime in the middle of June. This will give five months for putting together a quilt top. I will be posting about my own Bramble Blooms progress along the way, along with any other quilting progress made around here as well. As the link-up time gets closer, I will try to post a heads up as to the actual posting date for the third part of the QAL. Don't know how many people are actually interested in this particular part of the QAL, but everyone is welcome, whether they have completed BBI or BBII quilts or not. Lets dig into this from a slightly different approach and see where we all end up. I bet some of you are going to be surprised! 

For myself, I can already see that I'll probably have to make more than one of these designs eventually.*sigh  Will probably continue to hang on to all the leftover fabrics from these Bramble Blooms quilts until I can get this series properly worked out of my head. {Could be interesting to see how much of this fabric could actually be used up and how many quilts that would be?} 

Thanks so much for coming along on this oldy, moldy fabrics adventure with me. Some of you have even left a tip in the tip jar! Not necessary, but very sweet! The more I play with older fabrics, the more intriguing it is to see if I can truly end up with a quilt top that looks 'intentional' as to fabric choice, and not just a sorry use-it-up story. The resulting quilt tops from all of you has been absolutely fascinating to see. I love how much personality I'm seeing, the random bits and pieces you've gleaned from my tips about making your fabric work for you! Love it! And hearing about your struggles with the process. We've all been there before or will be eventually. It's all good stuff. Hope you've learned a valuable tip or two in the journey to making your own very personal and unique quilts. It's a lovely, sweet thing to know our finished quilt is the only one like it in the whole entire world! Fingers crossed this hasn't been a huge waste of time for anyone. I know I'm still learning something with almost every quilt made....

Bramble Blooms II Link Party is Ready!

Time for the 2nd Bramble Blooms Link Party! This is a quilt top that should be similar but different to the first one. I want everyone to feel comfortable posting whatever progress that's been made, whether it's a completed top or not quite there yet. It's also okay to post your previous BBI quilt top or total completions as well! Just make sure to let us know which quilt top we're viewing. We'd love to see all the details!

BBII-A quilt top

First up, for my efforts, is the BBII-A quilt. As mentioned in an earlier post, there was a lot more fussing with this last border attempt than the quilt probably warranted. One of the things that I think improved the overall look of the quilt, was to fuss-cut a few lighter half circles and applique directly them over the top of those bright blobby red flowers in the left hand sashing fabric. See? They don't even look blobby anymore. Mission accomplished!

Looking at the flower detail and
vines that don't join up at the corners

Another thing that was bugging me, was the brash look of most of the flowers on the outer border vines. As you can see, just adding the smaller little detail to the bottom of most of the flowers seemed to work wonders. I know it doesn't look like much, but the entire quilt just acted relieved. Don't be afraid to chase that feeling of getting everything just right. The key is to know when to quit and let the quilt be. 

Closest to actual quilt color

The last thing this quilt got, was a narrow brown outer border. So surprising, but it totally made sense when it occurred to me to try. It probably could have ended up being the binding fabric, but I just felt that the quilt center needed somewhere to connect at a deeper, almost unconscious level. That chunk of brown at the outside of the quilt really helps balance the quilt out in a way that make the vine border work better now. The flowers settle into the quilt as though they were always meant to be there, instead of looking like they just got slapped onto the quilt.

All these simple details work to make me so much happier with the look and feel of the entire quilt! It actually feels like a success now instead of just another reason to sew older fabrics together!

BBII-B quilt top

Next up is the Bramble Blooms II-B quilt. The afterthought. The experiment. The why-not-try and see what this fabric can all do together? This quilt always had the more compelling energy, to my mind, but in the end I don't think it actually looks better. It just looks different. Love that!

Simple vine border work

I'm very happy with the stripey 'coping' border. Glad that it was worth the effort. The subtle way it adds depth to the quilt also gives a nice transition place for the applique border to come next.

Close look at the vine going around the corner

The flowers on this particular quilt seemed pleased enough with the fabric and design, no extra fussing needed here! I did second guess using the darker green vine for this quilt rather than the other one, but it all worked out in the end. Probably too dark a shade for the other quilt to accept it gracefully!

As you can see, both of these quilts have used all of the same elements that were introduced in the first Bramble Blooms quilt. Everything is simply rearranged in a different order, dimensions are altered here and there, and blocks are changed up to fit the new quilt vibe. 

Are you starting to feel your creativity 'turn on'? Do the available options make you feel frustrated, or does it make you think about possibilities? Series work should hopefully give you lots to think about in terms of trying a new direction. {I've done this so now maybe I'll try that.} And the fabric. Has it been easier to play knowing the fabric has been hanging about for years? For myself, I'm finding it a bit of a roller coaster. One minute I'm quite bored with the fabric options and the next, really pleased there's no real expectations attached. For some reason, that gives me an extra bit of leeway with creativity. I'm much less stressed about doing the wrong thing. Which... usually leads to taking risks with design that I might not take when I'm super attached to the fabric.

Please link up your BBII quilt top if you have some progress to show!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Always Playing Catch Up!

So it's been one thing after another here, like always these days. Our washer broke down and two service calls later, we might as well have bought a new washer. Well, 15 years ago. Now it's half what we paid for the thing 2-3 years ago. But seriously. What are they making anymore? A bucket to rinse our clothes in and if we actually use it, then it breaks down and costs hundreds of dollars?

Almost finished up!

Yeah, yeah. We should have bought the extended warranty but honestly, we just couldn't afford it. So now we're crying cuz actually, yes. That would have been cheaper in the long run. Never gamble with the newer appliances. They are not made to last. Anyway, lots of everyday, but heavy drama going on over here and I'm just trying to keep my head above water and keep posting a couple times a month about quilting. So crazy when I used to post three times a week no problem!

Next up in the hoop

It's still my sanity saver even though it has slowed down so very much this year. {The quilting and the sanity. Don't even hardly know who I am anymore!} Anyway.... Flower Power is sitting in a basket waiting for the final hand stitching on the binding. I had a hard time knowing what quilting motif to put in the dark blue border, but finally went with freestyle X's. I really like the look but one side has more X's than the other which makes me laugh. Oh well.

A closer look at the daisies

Next up in the hoop is Crazy Daisy, which came to a quilt top completion in 2021. Think it was started that year too? Who knows. Sometimes I don't link things like is best for future origin questions. The pics of this quilt are not quite 'right' somehow. Just a little more orange than reality. It will probably go to one of my granddaughters. She's three right now, but next up in line for a 'grown up quilt' from Grandma. I'm thinking this will make her very happy as it's so bright and busy, but also, hopefully grow with her for a few years.

Bramble Blooms II-A

Bramble Blooms II-A has seen quite a bit of applique work lately. Thought the pic only shows two of the border units, I actually have all four stitched down now. Had to go back and add in some little basic leaves here and there as it looked a little too spare. I'm crossing my fingers to have time today to sew the borders onto the main part of the quilt and then there will just be a bit of applique to finish up on the ends of the other two borders. Bit of an overlap {on purpose}, though it doesn't completely wrap around the quilt like the applique in Bramble Blooms II-B will. 

Don't know who else is still working on Bramble Blooms quilts these days? I know many have dropped out or put the quilts off for later in order to concentrate on more inspiring projects. Totally okay. It's pretty difficult to power through three quilts in a series, back to back like we're doing. I myself can get very down on the project at times too. Sometimes it takes quite a lot of effort in order to start seeing the good stuff happen when you're primarily working with old, tired looking fabrics. If you have to take a break, don't get down on yourself. Some of the best stuff just takes time and lots of pondering!

Friend quilt

I hesitated to post about this project, but it's really been taking up the bulk of my time lately. Kind of a favor, kind of a commission, mostly trying to be a friend--this project is an answer to all of that. Blocks are from 2016. The person who organized the project is mentally not up to the task anymore and I was asked to finish up. I haven't made a formal looking sampler quilt in years and years so it's been difficult to be excited about, though the colors are fresh and lovely in their own way. I'm finally nearing completion--just taking a break now and working on some of my own projects for a bit. Will be soo glad to get back to a list of whatever-feels-good-to-work-on-today sort of mentality!

Joy Basket

I had all sorts of ideas for making the Joy Basket quilt larger, but each and every one has fizzled out. Then, a couple days ago, I saw the lovely green floral fabric in the project tote and felt like it needed to be attached next, but perhaps not in a complete surround. It happens to be a little bit clashy with the rest of the quilt, but wowsers, I am just loving the look! Can we call it a completion already? hehe  I stuck the 'joy' letters up on the quilt and it just looks like they belong there as to attitude and spirit. The white and gray of the letters are not quite the thing compared to the yellow creams in the rest of the quilt, so will have to think on this for awhile yet. So far so good with this project. Haven't managed to ruin it yet! You probably won't believe this, but I have been worried about pulling the vibe of the quilt down with generic looking borders. I mean, who does that? 

Coronacrazy Made it to the Totally Finished Up Stage!

Finally got the Coronacrazy quilt completely finished up! It's one that I started just after the lockdowns happened in 2020. Basically just went out on a limb with the rows of arcs or 'hills'. Really no clue what was going to happen from there!

Another 2024 finish!

Lots and lots of applique in the quilt. It was so very time consuming. But what else did I have to do at that time? ha!

The outside flowers are my fave

Later on, after adding on the leaves in the outside border, I discovered that one of the fabrics used was a bleeder. That didn't make me very happy. After struggling with all the ways it could be addressed, I just went ahead and took those 5-6 leaves off and soaked them until the dye was done bleeding out. Very annoying to have to 'redo' any work at all, but much better than ruining my quilt over something so simple.

Will probably have to keep this one for myself...

Although I generally wash my quilts directly after finishing up the binding, this time I've decided to wait till later. Just want to enjoy it for awhile and not have to worry about something else giving me problems. Like maybe one of those orphaned flowers stitching into the center of the quilt? Ughh.  Don't want to take the chance right now! 

So awesome to see all the orphans being used up!

It's such a sweet quilt. Hard to believe it was started during a time when my mind was practically exploding with worries and stress!

Never know where I'll end up these days...

Love seeing the texture from the hand quilting take shape and give it all a little bit more depth. It's definitely a quilt that needed the little bit extra time and effort.

Still love the quilt colors too

I've also got my Gold Crossroads quilt ready for the last bit of binding stitching. I ended up doing a crosshatch pattern throughout all of the quilt except for the circles. Love the simplicity and old timey charm it brings to the quilt! And the colors of this quilt just kill me. Love how soft, sweet and cozy it feels to me. This is a quilt that I just sighed into every time I was adding quilting stitches. Very relaxing to work on!

A cozy look to this one

I've also been working a little bit almost every day on the Old Fashioned Wildflowers quilt. Have all of the vine work stitched down and am working on the flowers and leaves now. I thought {so optimistically} it would only take a week to do all of the hand stitching, but it's going to be tough to even finish it in two weeks and three is more like it. Really wanted to plow through this before getting to the hand work on my Bramble Blooms quilts.

Still enjoying the background blocks for the base

Which have actually seen a bit of work too. There is now an extra 2 1/2" on each of the outside border rows of the BBII-A quilt. It's a very subtle cream and lt. tan, every other square addition but I think it works well for basically expanding the area for the vine detail. 

An easy way to make it larger and not detract

It's one of those things that I didn't want to do, but now I'm thinking it adds something special to the quilt. Will definitely lift the overall look of the quilt. Bonus!

Now for the applique!!

Lots of quilting stuff on the list and mustn't forget, a quilt project for my SIL too, which has a Christmas deadline. Why oh why do I do these things to myself? 

Second Border Prompt for Bramble Blooms QAL--{BBII} & Eek! a Bias Vine Tutorial

Here we go! This is the second {and last} prompt for Bramble Blooms II. It's taken awhile to get here and the pictures are abysmal. Ughh! Sorry for that, lots of late evening quilt play. 

Second BBII Border Prompt: Short and sweet, the prompt is as follows: Piece together an outside border as simplified or as complex as you like. Add floral applique motifs similar to what was used in your first Bramble Blooms quilt. These motifs can be exactly the same as the originals {BBI quilt} or not. Feel free to size them up or down. It's all up to you! Just try and keep the shapes relatively similar so as to keep good continuity going with the series. If you want to end up with a floral vine look for your quilt, scroll down through the post for tips on bias vine making.

BBII-A with borders cut to desired measurements

As per usual, you can add an additional 'coping' border in between the last border prompt and the newest one. As you can see in my BBII-B quilt, pictured below, I am in the process of adding a thin, striped coping border. Not for any specially intended whole-quilt size, but more for overall interest. Totally optional. If you need one, go ahead and make it happen! We want our quilts to be happy, right?

BBII-B with border fabrics still being auditioned

When adding borders with applique, don't actually sew them onto the quilt until after the applique is stitched down. {Unless that's your preferred method!} It's much easier to stitch applique motifs to your quilt on these smaller border widths than to wrestle with the whole bulk of the quilt. Measure out the proper length of the intended borders and maybe add 1/4-1/2" extra for stitching shrinkage. Butt these border lengths up against the quilt and play with the applique design until you're satisfied, then pin or baste the applique elements you choose into place. Sew them down in whatever method you like, and then after all parts are secured, sew each border onto the quilt in the proper order. I generally add the side borders first and after that, the top and bottom. 

Label your measured border units

Thoughts on my BBII border work:  Obviously still a work in progress, the applique on both of my BBII quilts will include vines. One quilt will have vines that completely wrap around the borders and the other will have a flowy individual vine at each border side. I love including vines and flowers in my work! Bias vines are a really easy way to include a bit of sweetness and whimsy into our quilts and also, create a bit of movement and energy. 

You can use large single pieces of fabric or even incorporate a purposely pieced background look behind the applique--perhaps more of the patchwork. Another, oft used design element around here, is to piece together somewhat scrappy, complementary colored fabrics instead. This is a deliberate choice because it helps use up languishing fabrics {something that sorta thrills me}, and also keeps me from making mad, panicked runs to the fabric store. And I love the look, so yeah, there's that. Do try to think about the little details that will add to your emotional response when later viewing the quilt. 

People sometime comment on the 'Quilty Folk' aspect. I truly believe a large part of the overall picture is this utilitarian, improv. style of making. Incorporating lots of random {hit-or-miss}, smaller cuts of fabric. It's crazy how cozy and sweet it can suddenly feel when the right fabrics start playing really well together. But why???? I don't know. It's not like you can plan for it. Or can you? 

It doesn't make sense to stress about not having larger pieces of yardage for borders when the workaround time and again, ends up looking better. So make yourself do the workaround. Take your bland and unassuming fabrics and just start playing with a purpose. We're only talking about one border length at a time! How hard is that? Don't be shy about putting it all to work {no matter how small or odd the fabric} if the color seems right or perhaps not too wrong.

Puzzle piece various potential fabrics together until you have a good looking unit. You'll know if it's working or not and yes, some fabrics may have to go! Then cut each of the chosen fabrics to the desired border width. This may simply end up being the width of your most narrow piece of fabric. You might choose to sew 'make-do', much smaller fabric pieces instead. Or you might determine the border width based frankly on the fact that you can get two border lengths if you cut the fat quarters in half at the 18" side of your fatquarter. Whatever works best. There are no rules!

It's usually easiest to figure out the scrappy border backgrounds while these fabric bits are laying in place alongside of the larger part of the quilt. One piece of fabric at a time, take it over to the cutting mat, make the cuts and then promptly return it in place. Keep doing this until there is plenty of fabric to make up the entire border surround.

Audition for satisfactory look and feel, as to subtle color flow and fabric print pairings.......,  THEN go ahead and cut and sew to the intended total border length measurement--per side. If you look closely at the above pictures, my BBII-A quilt has each border side cut and sewn to the precise border measurements, just waiting for the applique stitching. The BBII-B quilt borders are only cut to proper width, and you can see where I'm still playing with where to cut and trim the fabric pieces {as to length} for good overall appearance. 

Always label your sewn, measured-to-length border units. Left, Right, Top, Bottom. The last thing you want to do is sew applique onto the wrong border or potentially sew a border length onto the wrong side of a quilt.

Playing with applique

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR MAKING A SIMPLE BIAS VINE:

Okay, you know me, I'm all for free-wheeling and making the best of what is available. That also goes for making a simple bias vine. You don't need any fancy tools and it's totally doable with third of a yard cuts, fat quarters and even smaller cuts of fabric. Loosely gauge how many inches of bias vine you might need for your entire quilt. Add another 20 inches or so for good luck and then grab a couple pieces of fabric to get started.

Gathering the vine fabric

Scrappy is good, nothing to be scared of. And don't be confused by the amount of fabric pictured above. Remember, I'm making two BBII quilts, plus, options are fun! Definitely helps with keeping the auditioning momentum rolling along over here at Quilty Folk. And.... all of the extra just goes into my applique 'parts and pieces' totes.

So... To get started, cut your chosen vine fabrics so that they fit inside of your cutting mat--on the vertical length--up and down. If you have an 18" x 24" mat like the one pictured, your fabric needs to be cut to approximated 17 1/2". Shorter is fine if that's all there is left of a piece of fabric. Note: The fabric can extend longer than the 24" mat--however long the fabric is {42", 60" etc.}, absolutely no problem there.

If you have the much larger cutting mat, it's the same premise. Just ensure that the vertical measurement of your fabric fits inside of the very top and very bottom cutting lines, usually something like 23 1/2". 

Determining width of the Bias Vine:

Basically, the width of the bias vine is a personal choice. Just play with some folded fabrics or discarded bias bits and pieces until you find the best look for your quilt. Take that measurement and double it. Then add 1/4" to 3/8" for the seam and folded edges of your vine.

I wanted 7/8" bias vine which doubled is 1.75 + .375 = 2.125 or 2 1/8" for the cutting measurement. I always err on the larger size as wider bias vine tends to be my preference. Note: I could just as easily only added 1/4" extra and ended up with a 2" cutting measurement, probably the better choice as I later made a sewing adjustment anyway!

Making the first cut:  

Before you make your first cut, trim the fabric to the straight of the grain on the top and bottom of your fabric and also the left side. Lay the fabric on the cutting mat where ever, it doesn't need to be lined up with the grid. The important thing is to line the 45 degree line on your rotary ruler up with the bottom edge of your fabric--as straight as possible! Move the ruler over to where you will end up with about an 8" cut line on the diagonal. Cut that corner of fabric off. Discard or save for making applique leaves later.

Placing the ruler

Next, move the ruler over the larger piece of fabric until the right side of the ruler is exactly your cutting width, in my case 2 1/8". 

The first strip cut

Cut your first strip of bias vine and move it out of the way. {Don't be confused by the picture below, the fabric wasn't pressed super well, so the tip popped up after it was cut.} 

Careful placement of the ruler

Keep cutting strips in the desired width, continually lining up the ruler on the large piece of fabric. Important to keep the ruler very straight. You might even eventually have to take a cut just for the purposes of straightening the fabric, something that often happens when you use a very large or very long piece of fabric.

Keep going even around the corner at the top

When you are finished cutting strips from each fabric, you'll need to go back and trim the top left corner strips to the proper angle. You see where they will have a flat, squared off side to them? The easiest way to fix this, is to simply lay another strip right over the top and cut to the proper angle, no special ruler tricks needed.

Trimming the odd cut strips

If you are cutting from several different fabrics, you can sew together random strips and make a hodgepodge of your bias vines as to color order. Or perhaps line them up from lightest to darkest. It really depends on the individual quilt and what it might demand.

Getting strips ready for sewing

Okay, lets sew the bias strips together. Take two of them and make sure the angles will fit together correctly.

All lined up!

Lay them over the top of each other on the angle, right sides of fabric together and sew your seam. You will have tails at each end.

Sewing the angles together

Flip the seam open and make sure the strip edges line up. It's okay if they're a tiny bit off. {This will be hidden at the back of the bias vine.} Keep adding strips until you have a long row of bias vine sewn together. If you ever end up with two strips where the angles will not match up properly for sewing, just lay another strip over the top and cut the angle to the proper direction. This usually happens when you're trimming those strips with the squared off ends--they just get cut in the wrong angle direction, no biggie!

Do the strips match up well?

Fold the long row of strips in half at the width and line up for sewing underneath your sewing foot. Move the needle over to the far right if possible and then line up the fabric along the foot {or even possibly with the foot hanging partially off of the fabric.} Either way is fine, just do it one way or the other all along the fabric strip as you sew!

Placement of folded bias strips under the needle

When you are finished sewing the row, you should have one long tube of bias vine with a seam that is just barely catching the fabric at the right side.

The sewn bias vine tube

Take the tube of bias vine to your ironing station and carefully press it flat with the seam underneath. Use your fingers to carefully roll the fabric to where the seam continually ends up in the middle at the back of the bias vine.

Pressed flat

I don't know if you noticed, but I went back and sewed a second, slightly wider seam so as to change the width of my bias vine from 7/8" to 3/4", pictured below. It's very easy to start with a larger bias vine and make it smaller. Impossible to take a too-narrow vine and make it wider if you later change your mind!

The intended measurement!

I'm leaving town for a long weekend, but hopefully next week there will be time to prep one of my quilts for a bias vine that wraps clear around the corners. That way, I can show {those of you who are interested} how to place the vines so that you can still do all the stitching with the borders unattached to the larger part of the quilt. So much easier on our hands! 

This is the last phase of Bramble Blooms II so lets try to have this part finished up by early December. If we have a link-up party sometime before the 15th of December, then we can start the BBIII quilt in January. That will still leave time for enjoying the holidays. That is if I still have any followers left by then! I'm well aware that a three part quilt series is a whole lotta extra on top of our more cherished projects. No pressure whatsoever to continue onward. I will be doing this regardless!

First Border Prompt for Bramble Blooms II

I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to present the second Bramble Blooms prompt. First and foremost, it needs to be said that it's your quilt. If you already have ideas spinning around in your head and fabric to back it up, just go do whatever it is that the quilt is requesting. Series work that starts gaining momentum doesn't need outside help. Feel free to follow the muse! 

Bramble Blooms II--A

If you're here for the next prompt because the quilt hasn't spoken yet, then I'm all about that too. This is a QAL after all! What we're trying to do with this particular quilt is introduce most of the same variables from BBI, but in a brand new format. The point is to mix and mash and basically just throw things at the wall until something inside us says, 'Oh yeah'. That's the thing. I kinda like that!' It doesn't have to be this huge welling of excitement. A positive hum is perfectly satisfactory.

1ST BORDER PROMPT FOR BBII: This specific prompt is all about choices. Personal choices. Where do you envision this quilt going? The 1st border can include piecing, applique or even a mix of the two. Don't panic yet! This will be easier than you think to decide. Go back to the first Bramble Blooms quilt and take a look as to what elements might look best carried over into this border round of BBII. You're not going to want it to be an exact copy, but you definitely want to strive to keep the essence of your previous make. Something is probably going to settle into your subconscious. Think connections. Associations. Correlations. Or even echoes?  It's important to keep to the theme, however loosely that comes about. Don't be afraid to stretch the obvious boundaries while redoing a previous prompt.

PIECING OR APPLIQUE?: If you choose piecing, the logical choice is to go with a patchwork look because most of us addressed the quarter triangle or quarter triangle {X block} in our newly completed centerpiece. If you choose applique, have it be a spin-off of what you used before in the first border round of BBI, not the center. Go bigger, smaller or even more improv-ish, but at least make an attempt to pursue a minor change to the general look of your border or even the applique motif.

By this point in the QAL, you should be a little more accustomed to first checking in with your marinating stack of pulled fabrics. See if any of those fabrics spark initial inspiration. Nope? What do you have an excess of? Maybe start there. Is any of it acting desperate to be used up or perhaps is super sentimental to you at the moment? Is any particular color speaking to you a little more loudly in regards to cozying up directly side by side with your completed centerpiece? Try making easy change-ups such as using a 9-patch block in this quilt even if you used a 4-patch before, etc. etc. The point is to keep the general look and feel of a patchwork border, which should definitely help with keeping good connections going between the two quilts. At the end of this QAL, the goal is to be able to look at BBI, BBII and BBIII and immediately pick out the similarities or at the very least--distinguish the evolution of the creative journey!

WORKING THROUGH MY OWN PIECED BORDER FOR BBII: What I thought made the most sense here {based on my odd, clunky looking centerpiece}, was to take the 2nd border prompt from BBI and re-imagine that. If you remember, that specific prompt was as follows: Put together a border that includes adding 4-patch, 9-patch, 16-patch or even larger patchwork blocks. You can set your blocks side by side {continuous block layout} or 'on point'. This border can be any width you like. It does not need to have the patchwork blocks throughout--use as few or as many patch blocks as you think will look good! Totally up to you if the blocks are improv. style or traditional-look.

A closer look at the piecing

So that's exactly what I did, using a stack of medium green fabrics that were just itching to be used up. The colors were not glaringly right for the centerpiece, but justification came quickly. I reasoned that they could work splendidly to create a satisfactory transition space for the next border after this one. Remember? I told you previously that the last border in BBII was going to have some vines? That is code for applique in my world.*wink  So try to save your previous centerpiece applique motifs for the next prompt if you can.

Seeing as how this border isn't terribly important {in the context of things}, then the whole thing becomes easier--at least in our minds. Whenever we're deliberately making a 'transition' border for a medallion quilt, we don't have to stress about it looking AMAZING. The entire point is to simply create neutral space. If the intent is to have one fabulous looking {more detailed} border later on, then go ahead and take it easy on this particular border. The eye is going to glide over this area to yet another area in the quilt anyway. It only requires a little bit of texture and depth. Don't make dramatic looking blocks and definitely avoid anything that could compete with the potentially complex border coming up. Do something that shows that we care about our quilt without expending so much energy that we lose interest in the final result.

Another way to envision this transition area is to think of is as something that encircles the previous sewn area and somehow manages to say, 'There's that. Now lets get prepared to highlight something a little more special.' Which all happens in a blink of the eye, really. Without that transition area though, the contrast between the two might just be a little too jarring for our eye to properly appreciate. And a one fabric border sometimes just totally kills the sought after vibe. Joy will go there to die. I'm serious. We've all seen it happen! To keep the blocks less busy looking and the feeling to be restful, keep your fabrics few and the colors fairly well blended together or at least flowing well from one fabric or color to the next.

GIVE YOUR MUSE FREE REIGN TO TAKE A DETOUR: Because it's important if you want to see personality shine through in your quilt! As you can see, I ended up having to add a few little pieces of applique to my border anyway.*sigh  Is anyone really surprised? The quilt basically stomped its feet and demanded it and that's my story. Thankfully I was still at the mock-up, auditioning stage with the 9-patch blocks and the green setting triangles. Figuring out 'flow' in the layout and basically yawning at what I was looking at. Somehow it just wasn't enough. My reaction, as usual, was along the lines of, 'What little, tiny change can I make that will have the most impact?' 

I didn't really want to add a lot more color, thinking that would work better in the next border. So, the next step {working within the current prompt} was to think about adding in some applique. Mixing things up. Not replacing the border entirely, but working to improve it. Applique over the top? Applique in lieu of some of the blocks? How many? Going back to BBI quilt, it had to be the bramble motif, but maybe more stripped down? A lot of times, the sensible answer works just fine, so I don't overthink it. In all honesty, if I take too much time with 'improving' this border, I'm gonna get too bogged down in the what-if's to make any real forward progress. 

Annoyingly, I had the little applique blocks cut out and ready for stitching when it occurred to me that actually, I wanted them in the size of the cut-out pieces after stitching. Grrr... Time to cut out a new, slightly larger set! Oh well. Much better than having to add endless applique repeats to the entire border. {Which was fine once, but I don't wanna do it again unless the quilt HAS to have that!}

You can't tell from the pictures, but I will also admit to making the on-point, pieced border waaay too wide. I did it sorta, accidentally on purpose, because experience tells me that it's a great way to play with proportion when you're dealing with improv. Make it too wide and cut it down. Make it too narrow and cry about lost fabric opportunities. I've done it both ways and this was the right choice for this particular quilt. Once I could 'see' how wide exactly the border needed to be, then I went about chopping off part of the previous cream floral sashing strips to better fit with my patchwork and.... otherwise making things fit well all the way around. It's always a work in progress and sometimes it's more seamless than others. No pun intended!

The applique demo blocks

THE SECOND VERSION OF BBII: As you know, the first centerpiece for BBII ended up being a bit darker and heavy looking than I intended, even with the Sujata improv. pieced blocks. That propelled me to have another go at this part of the QAL, just to see if it might be possible to do something radically different with the same exact stack of fabric. There's just no stopping my curiosity sometimes! And that's why I ended up with the light colored, large X block for the 2nd centerpiece. I'm calling them BBII-A {see above} and BBII-B {see below}. 

WORKING THROUGH MY OWN APPLIQUE BORDER FOR BBII:  No, the previous border was not an 'applique' border. It was a pieced border with applique that inexplicably jumped on board. Totally different approach. So, for my 2nd version of BBII, I had a bit of a blank page to work with. Just a very simple, largish X block and nothing else there to help generate ideas. Hmmm...After carefully dividing up the potential fabrics for each version of BBII, then I started playing, all the while considering the overall vibe that I hoped to build on for this particular version.

The larger border background for my BBII--B

Keeping in mind the concept of trying to make this BBII-B quilt lighter and yes, quieter and maybe even softer looking? I had purposefully divvyed up the fabric pull to try and dictate just that sort of outcome. Yes, we can sometimes influence the outcome! Some fabrics might end up overlapping the two quilts here or there, but hopefully {crossing my fingers!}, it's the way the fabrics are placed that will make all the difference in the final look and feel.

All the applique pinned to the quilt, ready for stitching

I also hoped to generously expand out from the centerpiece. To try and make a much larger quilt area, especially before getting into the details of the second and last border. The easiest way was to just place chunks of fabric around the center until the overall blending {and flow} of fabric and color seemed almost organic. Which took several hours. Does it look like it did? Hopefully not! I was having too much fun to care! Though I mentally imagined sewing large patchwork blocks around, perhaps sewing a traditional-look border, it never completely fit with my feelings that this quilt needed a lot less formality and structure. I wanted blending and maybe some surprises in the joining up of fabrics. Purposeful, but not obviously so. Definitely more of a vintage utilitarian look than what was done in BBII-A.

As the play continued, over a series of several evenings, it became obvious that there needed to be a coping border around the X block center too. There was just no positive way to puzzle piece the larger border right up against the centerpiece background fabric without it looking somewhat awkward. That led me to experiment with introducing some darker fabrics for the coping border, and also think about intermixing a little directional fabrics for better energy. Piece by piece I finally got the layout for each figured out, and then it was just a matter of cutting individual fabrics to the proper measurements. Sewing it all together was interesting as once again, I put myself in the position of needing to do a little partial-piece sewing.*ughh... Totally worthwhile when I look at how it ended up, though! Really liking this quilt better than BBII-A at this point!

In a total surprise, the quilt decided that it didn't want repeat bramble motifs all around after all. I guess all that 9-patch sewing from BBII-A affected my thought process more than immediately realized. Next thing I knew, the larger, simple 4-patch blocks were making an appearance and taking over the 'applique' border. Clearly, I don't do 'either/or' very well these days! Don't you love how the lighter, almost white squares help to further lighten the entire appearance of the quilt? I'm just shaking my head how amazing that fabric choice is. One chunky bramble applique motif though and the quilt decided that was enough. Leave me alone. Still have to hand sew all the 4-patches and the berry bramble applique down, but this should go together lickety-split. I like it so much. Really hitting the sweet spot of cozy right now.

IN CLOSING: It just goes to show you that the Improv. method of making quilts is full of ups and downs, little detours and unexpected outcomes. Because our mind simply can't conjure up all the wonderful possibilities waiting in store for the adventurous quilter! When we let our instincts and curiosity lead the way, our improv. quilts become ever more personal and true. Remember, we're making a quilt that has never been made before! It's okay to take the time we need and give plenty of space for simmering ideas. If that's what is needed. Otherwise, do push on. {We will often feel a stubborn hesitancy when it's absolutely vital to take a considering pause.} In a totally unsurprising twist of fate, these quilts we are making will become distinctly ours in a way other people can begin to look at and immediately recognize. That's a Quilty Folk quilt or a Blue Elephants Stitches quilt or whomever it is that is doing the work. YOU. So much fun for all of us to see it happening!
 

So take these very open-ended prompts and let your feelings and instincts guide the way. Go be you doing your thing with the fabric. With the elements. With the gotta-get-this-prompt-done so I can get to the other side if that's what it takes. Whatever! However! In the DOING, you will find your way, I promise.

Next phase of the quilt will probably be posted sometime in September. That's what I'm shooting for but... yeah. We have two weddings to attend, plus another trip to Oklahoma and also, a mini vacay to Canada if it works out. All the distractions and busyness! Again, this next border will have an applique vine tutorial for anyone interested in learning the easy way to get all that figured out. No special tools required!