Catching Up With the Last AHIQ Prompt of the Year

 *Remember! The Christmas Giveaway is still open through December 25th!* All year long I've felt like I'm back in junior high, always the last one to finish up the 5K run. Here I am though, finally running across the finish line! The last AHIQ prompt had to do with symmetry or asymmetry, whichever felt least comfortable to us.

The new baby quilt

So I've been thinking and thinking, wondering, 'Am I actually uncomfortable with either?' And yes, while symmetry comes very natural to me, attempting an asymmetrical design usually comes about as a last resort. Sometimes it happens by accident, other times I'm attempting to fix a problem, or perhaps it's another persons pattern. You can see from some of the finished quilts around here that it does happen, though not as often as the symmetry thing. Patchwork Garden, AHIQFlowers, Rhi's Quilt, Comfortably Quirky, Seedpod Flower, and Glory Be are just a few recent examples of asymmetry happening in my quilts. Most generally though, it's a gently asymmetrical look, nothing terribly modern, bold or overwhelming.

After much contemplation {and even a bit of anxiety}, I eventually had to completely leave off the idea of trying to start a project with the intention of using asymmetry as the ultimate destination. While it felt like a worthy goal, there was just too much going on in our life to set about attempting something 'off balance' and perhaps even a bit chaotic as the seed of the entire design. I need serenity and balance right now!! So I shrugged off the deliberate pursuit and decided to just write about it when and if it happened.

All fabrics from the stash....

This baby quilt {for a great-niece} needed to happen fast if I wanted to send it off with the grandma and avoid shipping costs! Digging through my stash as always, I stumbled upon the peachy pink mouse fabric {background fabric} and decided to base the entire quilt right there. It was cute, girly, and more importantly, needed used up! I gathered all the rest of the fabric together and quickly fleshed out an easy pattern, 4-patch units with alternating background squares. Honestly, this baby quilt came together--design idea to implementation--so quickly. This time I didn't slow down long enough to let doubts get in the way!

So sweet!

The background fabric is where I ran into a dilemma though. Not quite enough mouse fabric. Oh well. And that's when the 'asymmetry' just sort of happened. Why not go with a wildly different color fabric for those seven remaining background squares? It would have been quite simple to find a similar look/color of fabric and let it all blend, but no... So much more interesting to add a blast of energy to the quilt, which the unequal amount of darker fabric accomplishes in a heartbeat. 

After making that particular decision, then I ended up rearranging the pink/yellow 4-patch blocks into a more obvious 'chain' pattern, rather than placing them willy-nilly around the quilt like intended. With those blocks now providing a certain amount of directional 'flow', it made it easy to randomly place the large dark squares within the boundary of the missing background fabric squares. It was a fast, simple quilt to sew together and then machine quilt in a basic crosshatch. Altogether, it took maybe three days start to finish. Yay! All it needs now is a label and we're good to go. Crossing my fingers the new mama likes yellow 'cuz I think it looks super sweet!

Finishing up Ode to Joy, Big Basket #4

This Big Basket #4 project has been floating around the quilt room for a long time. It was started impulsively, late in the day as an addendum to my Big Basket Series. All along I had this vague idea of trying to play with a bit of asymmetry in the final applique touches. However, it seemed problematic to announce it on the blog as part of the AHIQ challenge. What if I boldly asserted that THIS quilt was going to go a little off the rails as per 'perfect' balance {one side of the quilt to the other}, and then the quilt decided it didn't want to cooperate? lol Wouldn't be the first time!

This quilt is having a great time

All along the way, this quilt had a mind of its own. I thought the flowers in the basket were going to be lush looking tulips, but nooooo. They wanted to be spare and more Scandinavian in look, mimicking the print on the darkest blue fabric in the basket. Several times throughout the making of this top, I almost ripped them off and started over. Seriously, they made me nervous. Originally, I attempted to make the basket surround sashing a red fabric, then maybe a blue fabric? Not having it. Had to be the charcoal text print. Which ultimately made for the perfect framing for the heart flower applique, but at the time? Woo! Totally feeling boxed in and a bit limited as per addressing the potential applique block border.

Loving the scrappy, low-key strip additions

One of the absolutes, I thought, was that the log cabin-like strips {puzzle piecing the pear blocks together} were going to have to be mixed greens. You know, in order to make those pear blocks pop? Uh huh. So appalling to see those colors in that position in the quilt. Ughh! So then I started trying to use up all the remnants of light gray fabric that was leftover from the pear backgrounds. I was loving how soft and light hearted it looked while still being scrappy, but what about the overall look to the quilt??? My bold and bright quilt that I previously imagined was turning into a shadow of itself...

The bird is feeling pretty good about things too

Nothing else appeared as a better solution though, so onward progression continued. Might as well go with what seems to be working even if I didn't understand the how and why. When I stumbled on the idea of throwing in those patchwork, scrappy-look cornerstone squares {with the hint of red?}, everything just started making perfect sense. Ahhhh... I could suddenly see where the pear blocks needed to be part of the background symphony, not have a starring role in the overall impact. 

In my opinion, the little square fabric pops of color were needed to gently lead the eye around the edges of the quilt and then back to that fun center again. Well, I was hoping it was going to be a fun looking center! Anyway,.... So very glad that to find that specific bit of fabric and I can tell you that every bit of it was used up! Basically, the initial auditioning was showing that because of the light, light gray fabrics used, if there was absolutely no color at all between all the pear blocks, then everything at the outside border would come off as choppy and disorienting to the eye. And adding darker gray, except in a very few areas, just made everything look dingy and dull. Gotta love finding those unexpectedly good, problem-solving-fabrics in the totes!

Just had to use one darker square in the upper corner

From there, it was easy, peasy to attack the asymmetry idea, in a bold, red, applique sort of way. Those heart-flowers that I had doodled onto my rough draft drawing? Why not try and make them as-is? So many times the doodle is a general representation of a flower etc. and really, anything works. 

This time I studied the drawing and then earnestly tried to replicate that naïve style to the best of my ability. I carefully drew them out on paper in the scale needed, one after another, then trimmed or fussy cut as needed. They were traced and cut out in fabric and after that, placed onto the quilt in appropriate areas. I played and played, trying to get the look just right. Tipped the flowers this way, that way, a little bit of space here, more there and so on. Maybe if I add one more? It took a bit of time, but it was completely worthwhile. So happy to see the heart flowers cheerfully dancing off the edge of the quilt now. Whew! Love it when a plan {hair-brained idea?} starts coming together!

This part makes me smile!

A bird had been drawn onto the rough draft and placed high on the right side of the quilt. It was a bigger bird than what I would normally think was necessary. Though I knew the bird needed to be a bright, solid blue, the template I made looked terrible on that specific side of the quilt. Okay, leave it off. Nope. It definitely needs a bird, but where??? And it all fell into place when I determined that what it really needed was a bird with something in its mouth. Aha. Well, that changes everything! It took a little finagling and yep, wasted bits of cut outs of stems, flowers etc. until the little heart finally, finally made itself known. Hmm... So very sappy.... Sometimes I am just scratching my head at what the quilts finally end up looking like! 

The 'Joy' word was the final wrap up to totally finish things off. I had originally cut it out in a white/gray fabric and while I loved the word on the quilt, the coloring was way too cold. After figuring out the bird, it was simple to see that the same, exact fabric was perfect for the lower part of the basket. I don't know why this quilt needed a word added, but somehow this quilt has renamed itself 'Ode to Joy'. Maybe that's why. Whatever. The quilt needs what it needs! 

Such a good vibe!

So yeah, that's why I've been hiding most of the ongoing progress of this particular quilt. Some of you were gonna love it and some were gonna go 'Meh!', and probably want to hate it. I wanted so badly for this to fall into the AHIQ Symmetry/Asymmetry prompt, that I didn't want to jinx it by letting you get a peek. Sometimes, rarely, the constructive criticism, advice and/or fond comments of affirmation can make me second guess the entire creative flow. Then I have to let things sit and stew until it's all properly sorted out in my brain. Not usually much of an issue, and as you know, I'm generally all about sharing the process. That's what I do! In this case I hesitated simply because this quilt was on the finish-up-before-the-end-of-the-year list and I am resolutely trying to clear the decks!

There is much, much satisfaction in checking this one off the list. It seemed a little tricky at times. My own family is still a little doubtful about how cool this quilt is, but I'm immensely pleased with it. You know how difficult the color green is for me.... and then there is that weird pink background color..... It's got the pear blocks I've been wistfully dreaming about forever.... But I didn't let it end up being a PEAR quilt per se., it's still a BASKET quilt! Just wait till the hand quilting joins in.....*sigh It might just prod me to make yet another big basket quilt for the series. These are just too much fun!

A Little Bit of Applique and A Brand New Completion!

First things first, right? This past week has been for working on the Crazy Daisy blocks. Finally got the petals totally sewn down.*Whew! Thought that might never happen! Then it was time to cut out the flower centers. The bright citrussy greens just hit all the right notes so here they are, sewn onto the flowers by machine. No reason not to sew them raw edge style as the darker brown arches will be hand sewn down directly over the tops.

Crazy Daisy Blocks almost finished up!

Those arches are already cut out and ready to go. Gotta get the prep work done and out of the way to ever make further progress! This was one of those easy peasy phases that got taken care of while I was waiting in the car for my husband one day. We have to drive either 45 minutes or an hour and 15 minutes for most of our business concerns. Easiest to tag along with him occasionally and combine our shopping needs. Honestly, I think he makes me wait on him a whole lot more than vice versa, but as long as I have the applique bag along, it's hard to complain.

Getting the pears ready to stitch to the background...

Just as soon as the petals were finished up on the Crazy Daisy blocks, I jumped right into the pear blocks. I'm not sure where this 'half pear with applique' look came from, but if you get onto Pinterest, there are many examples. This one is probably my fave though it was too much trouble for this particular quilt. This fabric felt very retro and kinda sweet. Probably helped clarify the look that I wanted. Do you follow Campbell Soup Diary Blog?  She just posted about a shiny new pear project on her Instagram. Simply gorgeous! Mine are a bit more pedestrian but probably suits this project better, plus I already had mine prepped and waiting for the needle work. The background fabrics are currently cut out and when the larger pears are finished, I'll be ready to start hand stitching into place. Will need to get the stems and leaves cut out soon too I suppose!

A little bit of hand quilting soothes the soul

Always a bit of hand quilting going on around here most evenings. This quilt seems to be quietly absorbing the #8 and #12 Perle Cotton that I love to use. I've absolutely fell into a comfortable rhythm minus the occasional marking that has to happen. 

As most of you know, this quilt is NOT my original made-up-out-of-my-head pattern. It's called 'Patchwork Garden' by Jan Patek, an older, stand alone pattern that I've had for eons. A quick search on the Internet showed that it's still available here and there for about $12. As usual, I had to change up a few things to make it feel more me and of course, interpret the whole in an interesting color palette. My days of doing the duller primitive vibe are falling further and further behind. Very sweet quilt to spend time with though if you love baskets and flowers. Which I do. So glad the motivation happened in regards to this pattern, it's a winner!

Patina is a true blue finish!

Ah yes. The completed quilt. I am not churning out the finishes quite like normal {this is is only #9 for the year}. In my defense, it's been a busy, distracting year. I finally snuck in the time to finish up the hand work on the binding for 'Patina', its been ready for awhile now. Binding is not at all difficult to do by hand, I just never want to stop once it gets started! This is the second in an intended series of Quarter Log Cabin quilts. Somehow I've never made it past this second effort, but there are plans in the works! Ideas. Dreams. Intended interpretations. There will be more Log Cabin quilts in my future. Just can't resist.

Looking across the quilt

There's something about an improv. style quarter log cabin block that makes quilting seem like the most fun in the whole wide world. From the cutting out and sewing, to the hand quilting, it's such a relaxing way to enjoy our older fabrics. Who cares about the waste? No worries if it doesn't turn out. It's just a free flow of implementation and almost a 'reset' to our creativity. Though the look is a bit utilitarian on its face, it's almost always a cozy quilt look in the end. Love it! In this one, I even managed to include an off-color shirting fabric. Score!

This one looks/feels extra snuggly

I'm ever so glad to see more of these older, tired-green fabric find a lovely home in this quilt. You probably can't even imagine the satisfaction this quilt brings me! Why I even bother is probably a question for many. There was a few years where I was diligently trying to build up the stash. I didn't pay too much attention at first to which colors were bound to end up with a 'stale date'. It didn't even occur to me that it COULD someday be an issue! lol  And apparently there was going to be a lot of green quilts in my future.*sigh  Okay. What's done is done. I'm evidently enjoying the challenge to make something good and sweet with these oldy moldies now. And rest assured, when it's not fun anymore, it will all come crashing to a halt and you won't be bothered by these weird color palettes anymore. ha!

Improv. cut log cabin blocks

Quick follow-up to the stale date fabrics, I'm quite a bit more cautious in my fabric buying these days. Much, much more frugal overall. I buy fabric I LOVE, find useful or am super intrigued by. Most fabric is bought without a single project in mind because I still believe in making projects from the stash. The shopping is spread out waaay farther between than it used to be, and yeah. I spend less and less every year because I can, now that I have a solid base to work with. And... lets not forget that there is an awful lot of stash fabric around here that has been gifted to me through the years. 

The challenge in using it up {or using it at all}, has absolutely changed the way that I approach many ongoing projects. Personally, I think it's a good thing! With the help of Kaja's influence, I'm not even above adding in cut up shirting fabrics. So interesting once you give it a try! Given the opportunity to go back and do it differently, would I? Well of course! Who wouldn't? I'm pretty sure there will always be fabrics that I just wait around too long to use though. That's just the nature of quilting. Too many ideas, not nearly enough time!

Loving this look!

It's a fact that this beautiful 'Patina' quilt would never even have come into being, if not for that annoying, lid-won't-hardly-shut, overflowing green stash tote. Can't/won't regret that for a minute.

One Little Decision at a Time

Lets take a meander through the latest applique work going on around here. For whatever reason, that's what has seemed the most interesting of late. Plus, there are a couple projects that really, really need the attention so they can move on to final quilt top stage!

Positive  Vibes getting the attention

The main project that has been getting my complete and almost total attention is the Positive Thinking one. It's not a super long term project as it's just barely a year old. The clamshell borders ended up being easier than I expected once in the groove of hand sewing.  We won't get into the initial angst and nerves of getting started, but I will say machine sewing two-three stiches at the join of each clamshell helped me out tremendously. Just don't go looking for perfection! The borders lengths were not cut 'exact' as I was quite, quite sure that my measurements would be all over the place, and well.... I was right about that. 

The right side applique templates

That means that I will have to either cut all the clamshells off at the ends of the borders or potentially add a narrow border around the centerpiece of the quilt. Right now my brain just freezes up at the math, but I might try and get that worked up so I can at least make an informed decision. If I do add in the narrow border, it will probably be a cream fabric so as to look like it's part of the centerpiece.

The left side applique templates

What I always did know, is that there needed to be some flower applique to the side of the words. Don't you know those open spaces were meant for applique all long? The shape of the flowers have always been an iris shape in the imaginings of my mind, so that part was easy. Sometimes I grab fabric and start cutting, other times I use the leftover pieces in the applique orphan totes for auditioning and other times, I jump in with the free-style drawn paper shapes that I love to play with.

Auditioning all the wrong fabrics

Most generally, that saves me from ruining lots of pieces of good fabric. Not this time though.*sigh  I worked on the colors and prints of these flowers for almost 2 hours! Then I put it all up and went downstairs for the evening, telling my husband that all my creativity had apparently left me for good. It was all looking and feeling very much like MUSH!

More of those wrong fabrics

The next day I tossed all the lousy looking colors/prints and deliberately went searching for things that might 'pop' more. It was very annoying because in the end, I had to raid a couple marinating project totes for the better colors. Makes me very twitchy when I think those fabric stacks might be losing a very important fabric.

Finally getting it right!

But all for the greater good, right? And my final version here is much, much better than the previous attempts. No doubt about that at all. After cutting, I realized that the floral vase fabric had never been soaked for possible fabric bleeds, so those parts are currently resting in hot water and Dawn dish soap, sure enough, bleeding out a little bit of red/pink dye!

And even more right....

All in all, this quilt is pulling together and projecting a lovely positive vibe. Finally. Those old tired blues are gonna be the death of me though. I just don't know what to do with them to properly wake them up! For the past couple years I've been raiding the stash totes and earnestly trying to deal with some of the older colors that have fallen into utter disfavor. This is my second endeavor with similar looking blues taking over the med-dark blue stash tote. Maybe I'm just biased, but this version of blues, purples, orange, and hot pinks looks a whole lot better to me than the previous attempt! And bonus. I'm using up some older oranges with the blues. That's definitely helping to keep the lid stay on those totes a little bit better--always the real goal.*wink  It's not like I enjoy playing with odd color palettes or anything strange like that...

All starting to come together!

So yeah. There's that. Making good progress here! Also in the works is this other tangent of mine. I'm making pear blocks. Uh huh. There are part of the next border for Big Basket #4, another one of those impulse projects started late last year. I wanted to make a quilt that seems a little bit disconnected with itself, but somehow achieves a common vibe. All the while using up mostly older, less interesting fabrics as a whole. I was really wishing that my green fabrics had more value change-ups than what I'm achieving, but honestly, this is the best that I can do without buying new. Not happening for this particular quilt!

Three sizes of pears for different sized blocks

Okay, prep work accomplished, moving on to something else. I'm not in a huge hurry to get them hand stitched down yet, so I turned my attention to Crazy Daisy. It is one that has received almost zero attention since the original mad dash to get it sorted out and prepped for stitching. I'm thinking that if I can just get five blocks stitched a week?  Can I, can I? There will be more to stitch over the bottom of the flower later, just haven't made up my mind completely about those particular colors. Regardless, I'm tired of it haunting me and making me feel like a slacker! One block down, 24 to go!

A start. That's gotta be worth something!

I also started a brand new project. Ha! I bet you're not even a little bit surprised either! No pattern, just a picture to give me inspiration. One of the things that I did in the weeks immediately after our daughters wedding was to go through each and every simmering fabric stack--all of the dreamy project ideas. During those perusals, it occurred to me that I have an awful lot of good fabric tucked away and 'off limits'. Mostly. Unless there's a desperation search or something! 

Obviously gonna need a trim

So.. I determined that at least a couple of these needed to be initiated soon so as to get the good, yummy fabrics re-circulating back through the stash totes. Where they are currently VERY needed! lol  I spent quite a bit of time here and there trying to match fabric stacks with ideas that seemed logical based on gathered fabric. One stack got completely thrown back into the totes and another two were combined into one. You know how it goes!

Once these {grandma fans?} blocks are cut out, then all the prints, minus the white ones, can be cut loose. I am moving along on the cut-out of these 80 blocks quite slowly, in fits and starts as there's no real rush or intense desire to get right smack in the middle of it. This gold block was the mock-up to see if? how? the construction is going to work out. I'm thinking that I will machine sew the fan tips in an arc, then sew it onto the quarter circle, then, I will hand applique it all to the correct sized background block. At which point it will have to be trimmed down to that block size because I can never do curved piecing without some give and take in the stitching effort! All in good time. It will be great to have these parts ready for machine stitching whenever the handwork gets a bit tedious.

All for me!

And maybe there'll be another one or two similar quilt projects waiting in the wings soon. I do have a LOT of marinating fabric that needs addressed soon or dumped back into the totes for current use. In other news, I celebrated my 51st birthday with a brand new roll of Hobbs batting! Very exciting as I was running much too low for making it through the lean winter months. All of our children went together for the purchase and made this momma extremely happy. Not a boring gift at all no matter what they might think....

Getting Caught Up On the Big Basket Series

Gather Ye Roses is the first finish of the year! Yay! This quilt is the first in my big basket series, but somehow the last to be a true blue finish. For some reason, I was intimidated at the thought of quilting all that 'blank' cream space around the basket. After stitching on the other two though, then it all felt so much easier. Amazingly enough, procrastination does occasionally pay off...

These quilting lines are 'eyeballed', not carefully
measured out for accuracy and precision....

And though I liked this quilt, it had become the least favorite of the three. Why in the world? It looks ever so better with the hand quilting than it did as a quilt top! Not sure why that continues to be a problem for me after so many years, under-appreciating the effect that quilting texture can just generally bring to the table. A quilt top can look so well..., lifeless before the quilting. There's just no comparison and really, no possible way to imagine the entirety of the final results.

Gather Ye Rosebuds the first finish of 2020!
Big Basket #1

The whiter areas of the basket handle continue to amuse me. Should there have been an extra stitch or two down the middle of the basket handle in order to dull all that brighter area? I decided not to, time and again. Second guessing just gets tiresome. I decided that it makes for an extra interesting element, having the basket handle fade in and out of the background. In years to come, it will no doubt become another one of those 'what-was-the-quilter-thinking?' questions we all love to ponder.

Gather Ye Roses. Or whatever else flower you might love...

I quickly figured out that making large baskets for a centerpiece would create all sorts of problems in the border areas. Proportion, proportion, proportion! I emphatically did not want these quilts to all be king sized! In the first quilt, I kept to a simple, much smaller basket block repeat on two sides. The purposeful asymmetrical look resulted from adding 1. a different color border on two sides, 2. a larger border width on those two sides, 3. a distinctively different design application in the break from blocks to applique vines. Easy peasy, but yes, involving a lot of different design decisions.  Should do this more often. Love, love a good asymmetrical border application....

A few little flowers in the baskets...

Working with an asymmetrical design idea also totally ended the dilemma of what to do about a long gawky basket surrounded by too-narrow borders. Which just made the basket look even more awkward and weird. So what to do? More borders? One fabric add ons? Ugghh.. I just wanted it to look interesting and somehow maximize the effect of the super large basket. Seriously though, all along I was hinging the entire success of the quilt on the hope that the final quilting stitching would create important depth and texture there in the centerpiece. So, so happy when that came to fruition....

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but all the brown in the applique area is made up of several different brown fabrics. Very subtle difference, but something that I find much more compelling than using all the same fabric. From a distance, the change from medium to darker brown creates depth and movement in the quilt, and close up, it just gives it that utility 'make-do look'. In my opinion, that adds to the sneaky charm of this quilt, the overall coziness, not having everything come off as matchy-matchy.

Possible rosebuds on the vine?

Of course, the fact that I didn't actually have enough brown fabric in any one piece of yardage helped make those decisions come about more easily. However, if it was a truly awful idea {after carefully auditioning whatever there was available from the stash}, I do know where the fabric store is. Rare though it may be, I have taken that option once or twice before in my life! How much more rewarding {for me, can't speak for you!} to find a good use for fabrics languishing away in the stash totes. 

Mixing several different blendy-type, printed fabrics that have a similar color feel to them is a puzzle, but being able to totally use them up and maybe even have to search out more feels great. I love it! I mean, it's not like you'd actually consciously build a quilt around these fabrics, right? Ahem, yeah. Quick disclaimer, I might actually starting to do this very thing, just for fun? lol  For example though,  the brown fabric with the tiny white flower on the corner of the quilt was a 90's look print that I had been trying to use up for years. Why toss the idea of finally getting to use it, when it's an absolutely perfect match for this particular quilt? Oh, there's obviously not enough, bummer. Guess we'll give that idea up. No! Find some fabrics that play reasonably well with that one wonderful print  and make it work. 

Nothing helps out a red, white a blue quilt better
than the perfect amount of brown...

The sweetest thing about this quilt might be the words with the red flowers nearby. Not all the flowers are rosebuds of course, but the sentiment still makes me happy. Words to live by! The binding is several random lengths from the leftovers binding tote and a couple other scrappy pieces of red fabric that blended well. So easy to go scrappy on a quilt like this. Although it never really, truly reduces the sheer amount of leftover binding lengths does it?  Not in the long run. No matter how much I kid myself, there always seems to be just a little bit leftover to dump straight back into the tote.*sigh  Maybe it's like sourdough starter....

That soft, striped homespun was a bear to work with
but looks so good in the background position!

So there you go. That's the sum total of the Big Basket Series {thus far}. Gather Ye Rosebuds was the first Big Basket in the series to be a completed quilt top, but the last one totally finished up. Improv. Woven Basket, below, was the second quilt top and the first one totally finished up.

Improv. Woven Basket, Big Basket #2

Big Tipsy Basket was the third in the series and the second one to be completely quilted. It's interesting to see the overall comparison at a quick glance. The first quilt was started in 2016 on an impulse {really had no idea that I even wanted to make big baskets}, and that quickly led to the idea of series work. Kind of impossible to stop at one! There was supposed to be a fourth quilt, but somehow that particular idea never got off the ground floor. 

Big Tipsy Basket, Big Basket #3

Never say never! When Jolene shared her beautiful Tribute To Gwen Marston basket quilt earlier this year, it definitely got me thinking again. Hmm... Maybe. Maybe? I might just one more big basket quilt in me. Or two. The series is only over when I say it is.....

Some Quilts Are Easier Than Others

Big Tipsy Basket was a very fun quilt to hand quilt. Unfortunately they aren't all so easy. I had to mark the many echoing lines around the outside of the basket and of course the double lines inside the basket too. Totally eyeballing whatever I could get away with, because marking is a pain. I really, really hate marking. Yuck.  But the thing is, you do all of that, get it done, firmly behind you, and then the rest can be free sailing.

Big Tipsy Basket is finished!

Well, as free sailing as slow hand quilting ever is! So relaxing though. Can you tell that I thoroughly enjoy hand quilting? Especially when using Perle Cotton thread, which is all I use anymore. I'm possibly an addict. There's just something about that instant texture that still speaks volumes to my utility quilt loving soul! I've even started wondering about getting rid of all the usual Gutterman etc. hand quilting thread around here. It hasn't been used in several years now and thread does start getting old. Would anyone be interested in doing a trade of sorts?

#3 in the Big Basket Series

I do agonize a little when starting with a new quilt in the hoop. Wonder what in the world I can do to help make it all look better. This basket quilt had so much of the background fabric showing that it almost intimidated me. But like always, I picked a selection of complimentary thread colors, stuck the quilt in the hoop and just started stitching. {You can't let fear of the unknown paralyze you into inertia or you'll never have any quilts to show off.} If it didn't look good, then I took it all out and started over with a different thread color or maybe even a different stitching pattern. Whatever it takes. Nobody wants to spend eons hand quilting only to dislike it later!

Looking at the texture

Getting started is often the hardest part. So many decisions to make and me? I feel pretty inadequate because most of what I end up doing is just easy peasy stuff. None of those gorgeous feathers and entwined cable motifs around here! I mean, not that I really, truly want that for my quilts or it would probably be happening. But there is a little teensy part of me that sometimes tries to insist that those harder, more complex quilting patterns should probably be the default position. Right? Aren't we the funniest creatures! Building up this imaginary pressure in our heads because of what? Still scratching my head here.... 

After finishing up one or two hoop fulls of quilt though, making all those thread color and stitching design decisions, the rest is a breeze. Seriously, after settling into how the stitching is actually going to proceed, all those little doubts and concerns just melt away and I'm good to go. Maybe that's why I'm still here, quilting away. Those ideas pop up from time to time and I give them a little consideration. Of course I do, 'cuz I'm human! Then I take a good long look at MY quilt and just swat the 'should-do'ems' away. Poof! just like dandelion seeds. This is me, doing my thing, thank you very much. And I couldn't be happier with the end result! Don't listen to the haters, even if they're only in your own head.*wink

Still happy with the border solution

Next up in the hoop is the Make Beautiful Things quilt. It's pretty bright and obviously, has lots of attitude to boot. First off, I pinned it so that there could be some machine stitching in the ditch. Now it's in the hoop for very important hand quilting details. Ha! Not going to be a fast quilt. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the opportunity to take a closer look. And yeah... contemplating the next wordy quilt idea that may or may not be in the works.... 

Make Beautiful Things next up in the hoop

These rising sun blocks do have a few puckers that, after the hand stitching is completed, are proving much more difficult to see. Oh yeah. Totally what I was hoping would happen! The worst thing about stitching on this quilt is that all the blocks are about the same size as the hoop. So what is the problem? Basically there is a choice to be made. Go ahead and center each large block in the hoop and then take off a clamp on the side that I am stitching on, so as not to keep running into the edge of the hoop with the needle. OR, I can keep taking the quilt in and out of the hoop, so as to perfectly center about a fourth of each block at a time. Ughh.  Guess which one I'm doing? Yep. Centering the entire block and removing clamps as they get in my way. A little harder on my hands in certain areas, sure, but I definitely don't have an unlimited amount of patience! Once I get to the longer wordy rows and the borders, the entire dynamic changes and it should be business as usual.

Lots of area to figure out how to add in stitching

After writing that little bit the other day about 'labeling all my quilts once a year', I had a little pang of conscious. Did that really happen last year? Um, no, probably not. Only the quilt show ones and like always, the ones that are given away. So... I reluctantly decided to go through every stack and even the displays of quilts throughout the entire house. Just to check. Surely there weren't that many unlabeled quilts? 

A wonderful pile of guilt

About that.... This stack doesn't even represent the quilts that may have been given 'unlabeled' to my own kids. They're supposed to be checking and getting right back to me, darn it all anyway. This is a time-expired offer! How does this happen? On a good note, I was able to select four more quilts for the giving away pile {though two will have to wait until after the quilt show} and that helps me to feel better about continuing to keep making quilts. Though I fully intend to hoard the lions share, I wouldn't want anyone to start feeling, perhaps, suffocated? by all the mountains of quilts developing in our humble abode. Linking up to Wendy's Peacock Party.

Another Day, Another Quilt in the Hoop

Chunky Crossroads is the current quilt in the hoop. I started it sometime in April of 2016 as an effort to play with improv. and maybe challenge myself color-wise. This color palette does not come naturally to me and it still amazes me how very much fun I've had working with it. Even now, getting it in the hoop, I am delighting in the mixture of colors staring back at me!

Chunky Crossroads getting some hand quilting on the border!

The entire middle of the quilt was machine quilted in a very simple wavy line crosshatch. Yep. I have zero originality when it comes to machine work. Love how it emphasizes the crossroads blocks though. This was one of those quilts where I grimaced a lot and worried that my feeble skills had ruined everything.  That's because I was an idiot and mixed in a small strip of cotton/poly with the rest of the backing and well, it caused a lot of puckering issues. Lo and behold poly/cotton does not stretch quite the same as the cottons.*sigh  Will I ever learn that using up just for the sake of getting rid of fabric {and not buying new}, is not always the best case scenario? Whatever. I used my trusty seam ripper and ripped out the worst of the puckering and then decided to let the other minor ones be. 

Yeah. Not showing you the back of this particular quilt, but my oldest daughter assures me that what's left looks sort of like it's been done on purpose. I guess us older folks would call it a mild shirring effect? The funny thing is that once I gave up on fixing the back and turned my mind to hand quilting the front, it's all perfectly okay again. I don't even care anymore and honestly, most people wouldn't even notice. The simple echo {hand quilting} is working wonders to pull all the applique elements together with the center of the quilt and I'm loving the whole thing again. No. That applique border was not overkill like I worried about and no, I didn't waste my time doing it. Sometimes it does cross my mind that I might be taking my applique love a little too far....

Trying to decide on colors

Which leads me to the next quilt I've been working on like a mad woman. There are so many projects that need some hand work done around here. To keep myself from starting the next couple that I'm itching to work on, I decided that at the very least, the foundation of this basket quilt HAD to be done first. No excuses! 

Playing with a vertical repeat as opposed to a horizontal one

After all the lattice applique was stitched down, then I needed to make a decision about the little 'button's. I had to figure out what colors and then how to do the repeats. You can see from the top picture which fabrics will potentially be used in the flowers, stems and leaves. I didn't want the little buttons on the lattice to compete too much with the flowers, but it seemed boring to not bring another color in to play.

And looking at all the basket after all the hand stitching is done!

So now the foundation is done, all except for the top horizontal row for the basket. And that can't be stitched down until the flower stems are put into place. My daughters had a young friend visiting yesterday evening while I was stitching down the last several buttons. She never said a word, but she definitely looked at my quilt like it was a foreign object. Maybe she's never been around quilt making before? This has been such an interesting project, watching it grow and change through every design decision. Sure, there's been some delays while I mulled and contemplated how to move forward, but never any regrets. Crossing my fingers the flowers will come together as well as planned and I can convince everything to stay in proper proportion....