Catching Up

Somehow I've managed to drag it out to a solid two weeks between posts again. My dryer broke down, my good Bernina has been having problems and oh yeah, we left town to attend a very good friends funeral. Ughh. That pretty much knocked the wind out of me as she was very close to my age. Such a good person. We were friends for years starting with the fact that I happened to share the same name with her mom. Then our husbands were wild and crazy friends and somehow that brought about an introduction. We got married the same year, had kids in the same timeframe, etc. etc. So many shared life experiences. Sometimes the world is just not fair.

4-Block Tulip Medallion quilt is a true blue finish!

In the realm of quilting, which I know you're really all here for, things have been plodding along in fits and starts. Finally got the 4-Block Tulip Medallion all sorted out and finished up. Yes, the flowers in the baskets are much more 'Carolina Lily' than tulips, but the outside flowers are more tulips than lily.

Loving the plaid basket

I can't find the exact starting date to this quilt, but it was probably in the year 2019. {The top was finished up last year}. The fabrics were stacked up and waiting for love for at least two-three years before that, so yeah, it's an old project. Goes with that old fashioned vibe, right? Totally don't regret putting in the time though. I am in love with the end result. So sweet looking.

Lots of older fabrics used up in this quilt!

I could always tell that there was just too much goodness in that mix of fabrics to give it up completely--as I randomly do sometimes. It's not uncommon for there to be 10 or more stacks of fabric marinating all at once in the quilt room {sometimes 15!} and how can I possibly get the point of using every single one of them? After a long period of time with zero action taken, then I often find myself questioning the potential for ending up with something amazing. This time my reluctance to give up was a good thing.

Still happy with the graphic-look border addition

I've been especially slow this year in brand new quilt starts so I know it's probably time to throw a couple of those percolating stacks right back into the stash. Must make time to dig through them all and start second guessing how good some of those ideas are. I'm just not sure if it's the fabric stacks or the endless amounts of distractions slowing me down recently. Will look through the stacks soon and see which ones still have sufficient zing in them to continue taking up prime real-estate in the quilt room. And in my brain? No sense pondering for ideas if the fabrics aren't doing it for me anymore.

Tulips are never a bad idea

This quilt looked so good hanging out in the quilt room that I almost didn't get the binding on it right away. Such a cheerful view when I first walked in. Too bad it's not smaller or I'd definitely be putting it on the wall! I wondered about putting the year '2021' on the quilt top when finishing up last year, but I'm not unhappy with it at all. Just gives it a nice little folky touch.

Sometimes I just wanna take a nap in my quilting room

We had also had made plans to fly out to Oklahoma to visit our daughter before everything got sidetracked. Totally a bummer that isn't working out for right now. I was well on my way to getting the applique prepped on the #AHIQColor Palette challenge though, thinking it might be a good visiting project. Oh well. I probably wouldn't have gotten much done anyway, other than in the airports!

Doesn't look like much, but it's a start!

These blocks are quite large and so I kept raiding the newspaper basket for templates. At some point my husband noticed and offered up a roll of protective sheeting he occasionally uses in his construction business. Umm, really? This could be a mistake when he can't find the roll where it belongs in the garage! It's a super nice product though and worked really well for my purposes. Who knew?

These flowers will NOT be brown

One of the highlights of the past two weeks was this package that arrived in the mail one day. Terry from California sent me oodles of perle cotton #8 and #12 for use in my quilting. Some partially used and lots of them brand new. Apparently she has moved on to using another thread and offered these up if I was interested. Uh huh. VERY interested! I'm telling you, it was like Christmas, I was feeling so enthused. Just couldn't quit smiling that day! Thank you Terry, you are the best!!

Quilters are so generous!

A while back one of my nieces posted a pic on Instagram of her new decor in the hallway of their new-to-them little house. I'd always sort of worried that this quilt might be a bit 'too yellow' for gifting, but this just made my heart sigh with pleasure. Now I want a sunny quilt hanging in my hallway too!

This is one of the reasons why I gift quilts to 
the right people. She did not do this for me!

There's currently two quilts with the binding machine stitched down and ready for the hand stitching effort. One of them will be gifted fairly quickly after finishing up, but there's no rush at the moment. I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of doing another set of quilt meetings at our church, starting in January 2023. It feels like a ton of extra work, but I always come back to the camaraderie involved. That part is fairly irresistible. I'll probably try to find out what the level of interest is before I wade in too far.

Getting closer and closer to the finish line!

My daughter almost talked me into making a spur of the moment baby quilt in the last couple weeks and thankfully I resisted. After working on the beginnings of the #AHIQColorPalette quilt and dreaming up all the applique motifs, it dawned on me that this is what I need most right now. Something new and challenging, open-ended and bright with possibilities. Nothing made to order or any pressure to please. Crossing my fingers for enough time to get something interesting going!

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. 

It's a Wrap!

Last week found me taking pictures in anticipation of another blog post and then life just got way too crazy. Still running very behind with household chores, errands, bookwork etc., so I'm doing this as quickly as possible.

Wing and a Prayer is done!

Wing and a Prayer is now completely finished up, including being washed and achieving that wonderfully crinkle goodness! Don't know why, but it's suddenly in the 'favorites' group!

Scraps a few plus a few orphan geese

Not exactly springlike, but still, very bright and cheery! This improv. quilt was a great project, start to finish. I look at it now and wonder, why don't I do this more often?

Lots of good color

And yes, it was challenging, in its own way. All the best ones are. The fact that this one ended up being so cozy looking {in spite of the black fabric use} makes me very happy. Scrapbin quilts need to make the scraps look irresistible. That's just their sneaky super power.

Hand quilting for the texture...

Finally got the Positive Thinking words all wrangled into a quilt top too. Once I found the time, it wasn't nearly as daunting as I supposed it would be. And despite anything you might think looking at the pic, it does actually lay fairly flat.

'Center' of Positive Thinking quilt

So, so happy with the pinstripe fabric used for the background. It's subtle, sure. But wowsers, up close? It's just makes me sigh with pleasure! I'm a little stuck from the overwhelming This-Is-The-Message look to the quilt, but there are a few ideas competing for the next step.

Had to use every scrap of the backing fabric in order
to properly float the words...

Next up will probably be an applique border of some sort. Color us all SHOCKED! Still pondering the messy details of what that might entail. And well, it might take awhile to unwind all the strings. Don't want to ruin the vibe of this particular quilt just because I'm in la la land with oodles of applique ideas right now!

A completed quilt top!

Speaking of which.... The 4-Block Tulip Basket Medallion quilt top is all finished up now! Yay!! Love it! Lots and lots of hand stitching time involved in making this happen of course. Never you fear, there's much more of this stuff on the list these days!

Making it up as I go along

So glad I kept the applique motif relatively simple. The curve of the flowers are very basic and I didn't bother to make deep, sharp cuts down into the flowers. Did you notice that every flower {other than the matching  3 tulips shapes in the center} are different? That was just too much fun trying to make the borders have a more organic and 'flowing' look than what I would more generally do. It's something that interests me more and more as time goes on and quilt projects tend to proliferate. 

A few more leaves than I intended, but 
gotta do what the quilt demands

And those smooth lines! Keeps the hand stitching part down to a much more doable time frame with very naive and simple shapes happening. Not an accident my friends....  And those corner 'wheels'? Leftover blue wedges to the rescue! Just had to fiddle around a bit to figure out how to get the specific look that I wanted. Or not! There's a bit less of the quarter circle thing that I was shooting for, but same impact and yeah, who's complaining?  I adore how easily they give a bit of interest to the corners of the quilt..

Had to applique a few of the flowers
on after the borders were sewn onto the center

The most complicated part of the applique was the addition of the year. I totally admit to dithering back and forth with that idea. Yes, no, maybe so.... I LOVE seeing a year on certain kinds of quilts, but we all know this won't be a complete and total quilt finish until at least 2022 and it will probably be closer to 2023. Which might annoy me when reading 2021 on the quilt? Or it might remind me that 2021 was right after we survived '20.... 

Too much yellow?

This quilt is basically the manifestation of a feeling that there are just some projects that don't need to be given up on. This speficic quilt idea has been haunting my quilt room for a LOT of years! Maybe it really is worthy of whatever time it takes?

Inspiration never gets too old for use...

My kids are united in thinking it's sort of a 'meh' quilt because it has a lot of yellow and looks kind of oldish. In my mind, it's soft and sweet with a bit of old fashioned charm. Like antique quilt sort of charm? Who knows, that's definitely all in the eye of the beholder. They did NOT hurt my feelers the least little bit. The pattern page pictured above is the original inspiration for the quilt, though of course I took many, many liberties with the pattern. Including changing the way the tulips themselves were pieced. Picture me shrugging. My way was easier! 

It Doesn't Feel Like Much

Got a busy weekend ahead so I wanted to throw some progress pics at you before things spiral out of control. It doesn't feel like much, but every bit of prep is another step forward! First up is the HST Medallion quilt, all quilted, first phase of binding sewn on and ready for the hand work. Woohoo! I didn't get it out of the hoop by the end of February like I hoped, but let me tell you, my fingers were burning up trying to finish things up!

HST Medallion ready for binding stitching

Next up in the hoop is the Scrapbin Improv. quilt, otherwise known as Wing and a Prayer. It's exactly what the name implies, a lot of scrappy scraps coming together in an earnest appeal for it to mesh and look right.

Wing and a Prayer

It most definitely appeals to me! And it's exactly what I need in the hoop right now. Having so much fun stitching on this quilt after the monstrosity that took up the past six weeks or so!

Loving having this one in the hoop!

Once I put my mind to it, the last border of Rhi's dress quilt came together relatively quickly. Simple, minimal and understated was what I was thinking, and of course, using up as much of the sunflower fabric as possible. 

The last border

I tried to add in several other small cut-off bits of the floral fabric, but it just made things look really busy. The bright floral yellow on the bottom was extremely hard to cut into. Been saving that for something special for a very long time. Then I thought, if my daughters quilt isn't special, what is? I am loving the black and white drawing-like motifs in this sunflower fabric though. Isn't it gorgeous? There's just something about it that melts me!

Such a good idea to rescue this fabric!

The backing is already cut out and sewn together for when I'm ready to sandwich the quilt. Probably gonna happen sometime in May? Have to take a short break first and focus on some other finishes though! These Melon Patch petals {below} have been sewn into four rows now, all ready for the next phase of the quilt. This quilt just keeps changing its mind about what it wants and now I'm leaning quite heavily towards making it a wordy quilt, intermixed between the petal rows. Been looking at available fabrics and pondering deep thoughts. So ready to move this quilt off the current UFO list, but ahem! So many appliqued pieces, it's somehow morphed into three quilts by now. I know. All will be explained in due time....

Figured out that I only need 4 borders, not 5!!

So easy to get going on the applique prep for 4-block Tulip Medallion. I've only been thinking about it for years! This quilt is starting to feel like an old and very comfy friend. Everything that I do to it just settles in like it was always meant to be. Wish they were all that easy, but then I suppose things would get terribly boring!

Getting these borders ready for the flowers

And then there is the squirrel quilt. I don't know what there is about this particular quilt, but I just can't seem to stay away. It's not even the right colors for the season, nothing springy about this on at all!

How bout some more tulips?

I've played with some quick drawings and doodles for potential ideas for this one, and occasionally I've even drew in a bit of applique. I mean, we're talking about me and my specific brain waves. Applique might possibly be part of how I'm hardwired? Anyway, always, without fail, I toss those ideas and go back to the idea of a medallion quilt in increasingly larger sizes of hst units. NO APPLIQUE. And then this happened. Seriously. Do I look like I need more applique projects waiting on me right about now?

From One Phase of a Quilt to the Next

Next up in the hoop is Autumnal Tulips. As most of you know, there is a lot of quilt tops to choose from and most times, I can't even tell you why the current top is chosen. Not the case this time as the seasonal look evidently drew me in! I was hoping to have this top completely quilted by the end of November, but that was a bit overly optimistic. What can I say? My head generally works much faster than my hands...

Autumnal Tulips next up in the hoop

Since I'm hand stitching primarily over the top of the applique pieces, the quilting is a bit tedious. Definitely not able to employ the rocking stitch quite as much as I'd like to! Overall the vibe feels very pleasant though and I wouldn't change this quilt out for any other!

Getting in some good progress with
the hand quilting

The quilt project below, Big Basket #4 finally saw some love in the past couple weeks. All the applique was cut out and pinned to the background, just needed some stitching. Now it's ready for me to address the next phase of the quilt whenever the proper mood strikes. I'm thinking about random sized appliqued 'pear' blocks in a surround border. For some reason that element sounds super intriguing at the present. We'll see. For now, I'm just playing with fabric and pondering.

Big Basket #4

Another project that I was itching to make progress on was the 4-Block Tulip Medallion. It has quite the old fashioned vibe which makes it very fun to take it out of the project tote. There's just something about the fabric blends and colors that make me melt. The scrappy make-do borders needed to be sewn together {tho not onto the quilt!} before I could even start to get serious about the potential applique work. I've drawn up a mock-up for the tulip baskets envisioned in my head and now it is just a matter of getting the pieces drawn up to size and then translated into the most impactful fabric/colors. This step will probably take awhile as other projects keep getting in the way.

4-Block Tulip Medallion

On a whim one day, I decided to go ahead and cut out the first part of a brand new project. This fabric has been stacked up and marinating together for probably well over two years. My concern is that the fabrics will start to look dated if I don't get moving on them fairly soon.  There are just some fabric pairings that appear to have an expiration date attached! You know that I didn't actually go looking for something new to start. Oh no... Me? Why would I purposely start a new project when I already have so many in the works?

The new project

The inspiration came from an old quilt book and is deceptively simple looking. I fully intend to use more oranges than the original quilt shows and also, add some brownish purples. No applique planned at this time, but of course, anything is possible in the future. My quilts definitely have a habit of getting bossy and starting to demand things that I never, ever intended! For this project though, I'm thinking the biggest draw is the fact that it should be a great change-up from all the other projects needing hand work. Maybe if I keep telling myself that??

Inspiration from an antique quilt

The Melon Patch quilt that has been in the works for years and years suddenly took a big detour. Last June I had stitched the melon parts to this point. Not entirely happy with them, I nonetheless determined to forge ahead and in fact had finally placed them at the head of the applique project list. After spending well over an hour trying to get started stitching my first block, I just gave up, ripped out all my stitches and went to work figuring out a different solution.

Freezer paper template for Melon
Patch background

Honestly, if I hadn't spent so very many hours layering the applique parts, I would have just tossed the whole kit and caboodle. They don't look like what I wanted them to look like and quite frankly, I've fallen out of love. Yeah, I'm kinda stubborn though, and now it's become a challenge of sorts. Late that night, just before falling asleep, I conjured up an idea which involves stitching these petals into 'chains'. After that, I will further stitch those chains onto perhaps a burgundy colored background? and then into a row quilt.  So that's the new plan of attack and all the next prep work is ready to go. Whether it will look good or not is totally up in the air, but regardless, I won't be any more disappointed than I already am!

Melon Patch Rows

Of course, that was exhausting. And because I was such a good girl {not ditching the entire project forever}, decided it was time to reward myself. Why stich on the problem child when something else sounded like so much more fun? Coronacrazy is the applique project that has been most loudly calling my name of late. Quite shamelessly bellowing for attention actually! Anyway, it was altogether too easy to fold the Melon Patch project up and move it totally out of sight once again. I can only console myself that it has NOT been neglected. Merely left to marinate and simmer until we all reach a better conclusion!

Coronacrazy

This Coronacrazy quilt looks a little bit busy for one of my quilts doesn't it? I still don't totally understand the pull of this particular, oddball project and I'm not sure that I ever really will. The charm seems to be partly in the fact of using up so many abandoned applique parts and pieces, but that's not the sum total. When I start stitching, there's such a feeling of accomplishment with each new added element, I can't even explain it. It just feels good.

Starting on the bottom right side and moving up

For this particular year, it seems especially smart to work on at least SOME projects that lend themselves to joy. Right? If it ends up being a crazy hodgepodge mess in the end, oh well. Maybe I can turn it into a body pillow cover or something!

Enjoying the quilt on the bed

Thanksgiving was a little quieter here at the home front this year, namely the fact that we did not get to see the grandkids. Very sad. Hopefully we'll get to see them at Christmas! We did have a niece staying with us and I quite enjoyed visiting with her and of course, getting an occasional glimpse of the quilt on the guest bed.*wink  

Lots of family gathered at mom and dads this year {per their request} and many of my siblings came and went throughout the entire weekend. Lots of new happenings including a brand new great-niece {10 1/2 lbs!}. They had Thanksgiving with just immediate family though I did end up spending half a night helping out with the baby just before the holiday and lots of friends/family helped by dropping off food. My youngest sister and children recently, unexpectedly moved back into the area, other extended family were off checking out another state they fully intend to move to, our youngest son is working out of state until lockdowns are lifted here in Washington, we had to get two brand new appliances {why do stoves break down at Thanksgiving?} and on and on. Most of the normal Black Friday shopping was done online and a few ventured out in support of the struggling small businesses. This year seemed to be very tightly focused on being thankful, having good conversations and inhaling lots of food. 2020 has changed many of us in a myriad of ways, some for the good and others, unfortunately, for the worse....