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

You Really Need to Try a Textile Art Party Too....

Our family 'Wattle & Loop' inspired, textile art party went so good! I grabbed a design off the Net and tried to make my own version--not super original. I wanted something very simple to work on while helping others figure out the process. Still needs lots more stitching but I'm pretty happy with it. Very interesting approach using all the raw edge fabric, embellishments and prim stitching. Not my normal at all. I can totally see why it's so addictive though. All the layers of texture that are possible. The mind boggles!

Slow Stitching

Below is a picture of most of the stitching efforts after the first night. We're missing about three of the original attempts. Two of my sisters and I gathered together all the background muslin, fabric scraps, needles, #8 Perle Cotton thread, random embellishments, paper for sketching, batting scraps, plus fabric glue etc. All they had to bring was an embroidery hoop and small craft scissors, and even that was optional. We had some simple textile art pictures to show them on our phones and several inspiring Instagram sites to check out. 

The stitchers ranged in age from 9 to 54 yrs old. Several of the teenagers enjoyed it so much that they made a 2nd block in later days, after they finished up their first try! Isn't that so cool to actually get the teenagers off their phones and busy with their hands? Wish we could have gotten a picture of those later blocks, but it never happened, such a busy, busy weekend. Lots and lots of stitching, snacking and visiting all weekend at mom and dads. Good times!

Most of these blocks aren't totally finished {obviously}, but you can see how easy it is to let your personality shine through. The totes of scrap fabrics that I donated to the cause were a big hit, with many of the gals and even teenagers taking a baggie of scraps home for later attempts. The fact that this thread and fabric play feels very forgiving to imperfection helped everyone relax and just enjoy. It really was the perfect craft for a mixed age gathering. After the first little bit of 'overwhelm', everyone just sort of dove in and got busy being creative.

We had a textile art party...

I think we're going to have one more stitching party for the ones who couldn't make it. They were very sad to miss out and of course we have many more ideas to explore. More threadplay? Or more fabric play? It's all so open ended and fun! Now I have ideas for the 'little quilts' I've been wanting to make for a 3 pane window frame decor thing. Just need to decide how to finish up the first block and learn a few more tips and tricks.

On an interesting note, I showed the picture of all the stitching to my husband and then asked him if he could pick mine out. He just kind of huffed, then he laughed and set the phone down. I was like 'what?' He just looked at me with this expression and then said that he knew I thought he never paid attention to my quilting. {Which of course is true.} He barely glances at any of it, and if he does comments {which he rarely ever does}, it's most always favorable. Very sweet, but then that makes me think he's just being supportive 'cuz it's the nice thing to do. Right? And it's not like he's ever truly enthusiastic. It's my deal not his blah, blah, blah. I don't need him to hold my hand about this. Yes, women are weird. Anyway. In less than 15 seconds he picked out my block. Seriously, it really was that fast! Isn't that the sweetest thing? I just love that guy.

More progress on Worthy quilt

I did manage to get some more work done on the 'Worthy' quilt. Had a good several hour cutting/sewing marathon one evening after getting in the proper flow of things. Had to stop what I was doing right in the middle of sewing these strips of wedges above. I don't often leave projects right in the middle of this kind of work 'cuz then how do you move this? Ugghh..  Really need to get these sewn together and out of my way.

Another 2024 quilt finish!

Finally finished my commission quilt! Binding on and all the threads cut. Just waiting on the label to be delivered to me and then I can sew that part on and be done. The deadline was Christmas so it feels wonderful to have this much done and out of my hair. Ended up trading the work for a roll of batting so that made it all worthwhile. It's kinda hard sometimes to work on something that doesn't feel quite as creatively challenging, but it's also nice to help someone finish up a longtime project....

Completed BBII quilt tops!

And.... Both BBII-A and BBII-B are completed quilt tops! Got the last stitches in them today. Huge sigh of relief!! Will try to get the linky part up later next week or perhaps Monday the 16th? We'll see. We have a family wedding in Oregon this weekend and then some of our kids are coming into town for the week after so yeah. It's already hoppin' holidaze....

Bramble Blooms Quilts are Progressing and A Couple New Starts!

Though I try to keep the open ended projects at 10 or less, a couple projects just demanded to be started this month. First off is the barely-there start to a very large improv. style Log Cabin quilt. It's going to be golds, cream, brown, black, green and rusty reds. Had to start it before the snow fell or it might end up being another year!

Feels good to start something new!

That put me at 10 projects, but then.... I just couldn't resist. So I went ahead and started what I'm calling 'This Old Friend'. The color palette is based on an old flannel shirt that I wore for years and years. Lots of greens, blues, creams, rusty reds and kind of a cantaloupe orange color too. We'll see where it goes but for now I'm just working on the beginnings of what will be a large basket. I really needed this. Feels so good to have something in these colors.

I could leave it like this

There has been sooo much hand work lately that I'm positively craving a little bit of mindless time at the sewing machine. Both of the new projects are improv. and virtually perfection free. Very easy to pick up and put down without worrying about making a mistake in piecing etc. 

As you can see from the previous picture, BBII-A is a completed quilt top. Or not. After getting the last stitch into the border, I decided it needed something more. So I added a couple little leaves next to the larger flowers. After lots more contemplation, I decided to try adding those little bottom pieces to flowers like what I had done with the first Brambles quilt. Maybe that would quell my dissatisfaction?

Auditioning the extra layer for the flowers

Thus far they are just sitting on top of the flowers waiting for a final decision and some stitching. It's probably not immediately obvious from the pictures, but they do seem to add a much needed layer of subtlety and value to the quilt. Not surprisingly, mind is mostly made up. I mean, I'm showing it to you, right? This new look absolutely gives me that feeling of quiet satisfaction I've learned to never ignore anymore. What's holding me back is the time involved!! Ughh. I just want to be done! And why oh why didn't I think of it before the borders were sewn onto the quilt? So annoying.

A closer look

It's one of those things that 'once you see' it's hard to unsee and would probably always leave me with a clench of regret if left undone.*sigh  Meanwhile, I'm hard at work stitching away on the borders of BBII-B. I've taken what's already stitched down, laid it side by side with the middle of the quilt and everything looks great. Pretty sure there's no last minute fix-it's with this one coming up, thank goodness! But then, this is the version that I've been happiest with all along. Funny since these are both made from the same fabric stack!

The BBII-A quilt however, might still see a little bit of fussy cut fabric placed over the top of the loudest red flowers in the sashing fabric between the middle of the quilt and the first border. They just keep reminding me of 'bleeding' and that's not a great vibe for this sweet, floral quilt. We'll see what happens. At some point I have to quit picking at and fussing with the quilt top--call it done and walk away! 

Three borders done for BBII-B

Another mindless piecing project that has been seeing a tiny amount of progress lately is 'Worthy'. August is probably the last time it's seen any love so it was way past time. I'm hoping to lay all the pieced units out this weekend and take a good long look at to what needs to happen next. I had thought to make some triangle units with a little bit of pink and cream or tan fabrics but will need to check and see if the quilt agrees. It's not that this quilt is uninteresting to me, it's just one that I'd prefer having a design wall to work with. It would make things ever so much easier as it's going to have be 'puzzle-pieced' together.

Starting to add up!

My daughter caught a quick picture of me doing some hand quilting late in the evening. She said that I looked very colorful! This poor quilt has been sadly neglected as I continue to devote much of my hand work time to the Bramble Blooms quilts. Still trying to have them done before Thanksgiving if at all possible! Don't worry if yours won't be done by then. It's early! Still tentatively planning on posting the link-up for the BBII quilts sometime after December 10th. 

Hand quilting for good health...

That's it for now. Our extended family is planning on having a crafty day during the Thanksgiving holiday where we will attempt to make a Wattle and Loop or Mandy Pattullo inspired {small} wall hanging. One of my sisters has shanghaied me into helping out with the bulk of it {like I know how to do this?} so now I'm scrambling through scraps and batting orphans etc. We're trying to keep it as cheap as possible and doing everything free-style of course, as it's our first attempt. If all goes well, I might even dig out that old window frame I've been wanting to frame little quilts in like forever....

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? 

All the Applique, All the Time

 There's a lot of applique stuff going on around here. Are you surprised?  First off, I went off on a little detour with the pear cut-outs. Was digging through the applique parts and pieces totes and somehow these just sort of jumped on the wall. All from left behind bits and pieces, including the background rectangles!

An impulsive start

Another project that just all-of-a-sudden starting coming together is this 'Wildflowers' quilt. The background was finished up sometime in 2023 and I really thought it was done. Yep. Until my mom gave me a piece of fabric with these gorgeous flowers on it. Just had to do something with them, so why not fussy cut them and find a background? Should have known I'd find an excuse to put some applique on this yellow quilt top. Never quite satisfied with the simplicity of piecing am I? 

At first I thought all the flowers needed to be cut very close to the shape/color of the printed flower, but after a bit of play, I decided, no. Will just sew the rough shape onto the quilt and let the colors and impact of the flowers tell their story. Don't think a bit of black behind the flowers is going to harm anything. The leaves were interesting to cut out, mostly it was just freehand work. I wanted something a bit larger and flowy looking, but it's always a delicate balance between looking a little contrived and like it was meant to be! It's going to be a bear to work all the hand stitching over the top, but I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do. Will never be happy with the quilt now unless the flowers are added.

Starting to look more put together

Also decided to make a couple basket blocks. Will be using more parts and pieces from the leftover applique totes. They are a little brash looking for now, but hopefully will calm down with the right background....

Lets see if these go anywhere

Started cutting out more flowers for the Bramble Blooms II-A quilt. Decided that since I was already playing in the applique parts and pieces totes, I'd take advantage of the short, skinny little pieces of green vine available. If the color works, why not? They'll make perfect little stems for this quilt and then I won't have to make even more bias vine. Love having the orphan totes so much!

Very simple floral border work

I went ahead and laid out the borders to Bramble Blooms II-B quilt again, this time focusing on the colors of the green vine. I think the darker green fabric vines look better on the B quilt and the more medium greens look better on the A quilt. 

Mostly at this point I'm finding myself a bit annoyed that the border on the A quilt isn't wider. Proportion-wise it looks fine. Fitting the vine and flowers on the way I desperately thinks looks better is a whole 'nother story.*sigh  I'm half tempted to figure out a way to bump the size of the border up about two inches wider. Hmm... do I have enough fabric left to make that feasible? Will have to check it out before I get any of the applique sewn into place. Sometimes taking the extra steps makes everything look soooo much nicer. Just not sure I want to make the effort with these oldy moldy fabrics though. Please tell me it's not at all worthwhile...

Wrap around vine a little more complicated

For this BBII-B quilt, will have to come back and lay out the vine properly on another day. Right now, I'm suffering from a severe lack of sewing pins. I seem to have used most of them up getting other applique securely in place. Obviously need to get things sewn down and free up some of those pins! For now I wanted to show {for those of you who were curious} how to affix the vines in order to sew the applique on one border at a time. Sorry, not the best picture, but hopefully you'll get the general idea. 

Always good to have extra length

Yes, my vines are lying on the quilt rather sloppily. You'll definitely want to lay the vines out exactly as you wish to sew them. Pin them into place. Best to start the end of  the vine overlapping on a corner, leaving plenty of extra vine. On the other corners, pull extra vine, just kind of bunching it up on top of the quilt, so that you have enough to cut later. I like to have enough extra to leave an inch or two hanging out over the edge of the border. When you pin the vine into place, remember that you will not be sewing the last inch or two of the vine onto the border fabric until after the entire quilt is sewn together. Yes you will have to nudge the unsewn vines completely out of the way at that point and pin them so that they don't end up creeping up into your new sewing machine seam allowance.

After the all the borders are sewn onto your medallion quilt, you will free your dangling vine ends, carefully overlapping each pair. Trim each of the vine ends to land where it's most discreet and fold down the raw edge at the end of the top vine. {You don't have to fold down the edge of the bottom vine, just maybe scrunch it a tiny bit more narrow.} Then, make your last hand stitches. Just a few minutes of stitching with the entire bulk of the quilt laying in your lap. Totally worth the effort, prepping the corner vines in this way!

Easy enough to cut the vine and have extra
at each end

The last applique project prepped and ready, is one that has been patiently waiting in the stacks for at least two years. I never got anything going because I was quite sure the 'sun' needed to be yellow. As you know, I often pull the marinating fabric stacks out throughout the year and contemplate various design ideas. Always waiting on the right inspiration before diving in! In this case, it was a matter of pondering why exactly my brain was resisting having a yellow sun. Oh who cares what color it is, just get this party started! And so it goes... This one will eventually have some bird blocks thrown in if all goes well. Probably not doves, though the antique 'doves in flight' quilts have absolutely been a huge inspiration for the overall feel of this quilt. We'll see. Sometimes the quilt changes its mind and all the ideas go out the window anyway.

The yellow is much prettier than the picture shows...

Will need to get the motif more centered onto the background and see if it still lays flat. These circle things don't always play nice! And that's exactly why I intend to square things up later. After all the stitching has taken place for the centerpiece. So that's that. Lotta applique stuff prepped and even more needing more details here and there. Should really try and find a project or two that doesn't require hand work. Sometimes I just want to sit down and sew at the sewing machine....

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!

Bramble Blooms QAL--2nd Quilt in the Series

Here we are, starting in on Bramble Blooms II already! We began working on the first quilt in the series last October, so as predicted, it's been a fairly laid-back QAL. If you're still working on your BBI, that's okay, you can still jump in with the rest of us, we don't mind! In the first Bramble Blooms, we lined up all of our elements, or in 'creative speak', planted a few seeds. Now we'll take those freshly planted seeds, shake them up a bit and explore some options for making a variation. As Andrea Balosky says so well in 'Transitions, Unlocking the Creative Quilter Within'; "Working in a series is the best way to exercise creativity; each project is an extension and complement of the other." Hopefully, along the way, something personal and wonderfully unique will start to blossom!

BBII Fabric pull

MAKE A FABRIC PULL:  

The first thing I suggest you do, is to gather your second fabric pull together. Hopefully using copious amounts of your older, languishing stash fabrics! Many of you made three fabric pulls initially, so you might already have this done. My BBII fabric stack color palette is very, very similar to the fabric pulled for BBI, something done very intentionally. In fact, I grabbed a couple leftover fabrics from the previous fabric stack and inserted them directly into this 2nd round, no problem. If you recall, I started this entire QAL with the feeling of, 'Wowsers, there is sooo much of this stale-dated {and similar colored} fabric hanging around in my stash totes! What am I ever going to do with it?' You, of course, can choose any color palette you like, no matter what your first efforts included. 

CONTINUING THE CHALLENGE: 

Something I've discovered through the years, when I'm totally out of wanna-be-great ideas, is this: a self imposed challenge can totally kickstart brand new thinking. It starts by breaking us free of our normal habits and gives us permission to forget about imagining the totality of the final result. Isn't that where the pressure usually starts? Making it about a challenge totally changes the goalposts. All we have to do is meet the challenge, we don't even necessarily have to be 'in the mood' to get started.

A lot of times a quilt series comes about because there are many more ideas than can fit into one quilt. In this case, there have been very few ideas, or why wouldn't the fabric have already been used up many years prior? With the Bramble Blooms QAL, we are attempting to prod our creativity awake. Within a guided Improv. setting, we are using all the artificial restrictions necessary to trick our brains into thinking 'This is easy, all I have to do is this one thing.' And then one thing after another, we have literally made a quilt top. Right? All out of previously overlooked, ignored and/or neglected fabrics. And it feels good, even if it might not be the most amazing thing ever made. 

I mean, maybe it is! I've seen some fantastic quilt tops over here. Definitely already picked up on a couple great ideas to keep in reserve!

Just start

Sometimes though, we just can't quite engage. That's when we have to purposefully activate our curiosity, however clumsy the attempt. By making this challenge a combination of series work, using less-than-precious fabrics, structuring the whole endeavor with a medallion layout, and leaving room for improv. opportunities, it somehow makes it all the more playful in my opinion. Series work gives us real opportunity to turn the page and start over. "See? That was just our first attempt!" Using older fabrics? We can hack into it and be less fearful about making some huge, catastrophic mistake plus, it often endues a quilt with a humble, comfy vibe. Then there's the medallion quilt layout--not everyone's favorite, but it's quite easily broken down into phases of starting and stopping.*whew! Sometimes it helps to back off and take a moment to breathe. 

And last, is the Improv. aspect--making things up as we go along. We love it and hate it. No doubt about it, the unpredictability of finished outcome is extremely difficult for many traditional quilt lovers. That's because we want our efforts to be worthwhile and not be a waste of time, money or resources. It isn't! Whatever the final outcome, we at least made it to quilt top stage with Bramble Blooms I. At this point, whether we realize it or not, most of us have unwittingly planted lots of little seeds for our own creativity. Just waiting for a chance to come into existence! Let's take our simple piecing and/or applique motifs, reframe them, and see what happens next, shall we?

GETTING STARTED WITH BBII:

The first prompt is to make a totally different style of centerpiece than the previous BBI quilt start. This one will be focusing on the pieced look rather than the applique.  Refer to your own BBI quilt and choose out one of the pieced elements to make a centerpiece for this second quilt in the series. My suggestion is to use the {corner of the border} quarter triangle blocks from the first border. If you included those. 

Whatever you choose for this pieced block, make sure it's an element with solid connections to your first quilt top in the series. You can make these blocks in the exact style and size as before, or change everything up, including the method or style by which you made them. Can make your centerpiece with as little as one block or as many as makes a decent sized centerpiece! Sashing is completely optional. The colors in this new centerpiece do not have to mimic the colors in the previous attempt at all.

Chunky improv. blocks

MY CENTERPIECE DECISIONS: 

As previously stated, I have deliberately chosen to stay in a similar color palette throughout the duration of the QAL. Overall, I'm intending to mix the colors up, back and forth, from centerpiece to centerpiece, border to border so all the quilts don't end up reading exactly the same. For this centerpiece, I started with mostly medium to dark colored fabrics and cut 12 improv. blocks ala Sujata Shah in 'Cultural Fusions' book. This is a stack method with free cutting. Needless to say, I got distracted, and cut the first set of blocks with the 'x' quite a bit wider than intended. Oops! 

1st Centerpiece

It shouldn't have been a big deal, I do love the chunky x block shape. The problem presented itself when I tried to lay them side by side without any sashing dividers. Yah. It looked like total mush! After playing around with the blocks for several days, I finally settled on the very light, cream colored, wide sashing strips as the solution. I so did not want to ditch these blocks! This cream floral is a tiny bit busy for the look I was aiming for, but I've been wanting to make use of it for years and years. It's quite lovely in person, but always seemed supremely unwilling to work in any other quilt I've attempted. Just finding a spot for it in this oddly large {at this point} centerpiece feels like a win! There's also part of a special fat quarter used; my mom brought it back from a visit to Georgia over 15 years ago. Just for me. Gotta love that!

2nd Centerpiece

Both of those 'wins' helped me feel better about the centerpiece as a whole, but it's definitely not what I set out to do. Nope. So weirdly proportioned to comfortably settle into centerpiece position. Whatever, I am not a quitter! haha

 

In an atypically extreme reaction, I set about to make a very simplistic block as my 2nd BBI centerpiece attempt. Only one. I've decided after much reflection, to have two BBII quilts on the go. One with too much centerpiece and the other with only the minimum required. That's actually why my fabric pull is so oddly arranged in case you were wondering! I've been playing with the stack, trying to think which fabrics should go into each of the BBII quilts or which might even overlap? Hopefully There's enough fabric to see it all through! 

REMINDER:

Don't forget that this is a guided Improv. QAL. All of the prompts are just that--prompts. Not rules and regulations. If your creativity sends you off in a different direction, by all means, please follow the mojo! Once again, this is intended to be a Medallion style quilt. If it helps to anticipate the bare bones of where we're headed, it will have two more borders--as before--give or take any coping borders. The first border will probably be piecing with possible applique. The second border will definitely ask for applique and also have some guidance for making a freestyle bias vine. If you don't want to include any applique, that's unequivocally your choice. I don't hardly know how to make a quilt without it,*sigh but I do get it! Also, it seems crazy to have to say, but... just because you joined in with the first quilt, doesn't mean there's any obligation to make all three in the series. Make 1, 2 or 3 or none. It's all good. Seriously. I'm doing this anyway!

ARE YOU CURIOUS?:

We never know when or how a spark might flare to life when it comes to exercises in creativity. It's perfectly reasonable to feel like we're soldiering through, just making the minimum effort. Then, at the oddest moment, something tugs at our conscious minds and demands attention. The quilt gets a little bossy. That's our instincts and intuition trying to speak up! Remember those seeds of creativity? It probably won't happen much at the start of a simple pieced centerpiece, but afterwards? What we do next will be about reacting to what came before. Series are about connections. Let's see what blossoms and takes shape with BBII! Will probably try to come back with the 1st border prompt by the end of June or first part of July. 

p.s. I'd totally promise that this quilt will look even better than BBI, but series are kinda odd ducks that way. Sometimes the last quilt is absolutely the best, sometimes it's the first, and other times it's one in the middle. We just never know. The one thing that I'm confident in, is the more we make space for creativity, the better our odds get at ending up with an incredible quilt. None of the effort is ever wasted though. We carry our experiences with us into future projects and you know what? That feels priceless.