Wrapping Up 2019 So We Can All Move On

I always think this end of the year retrospective should be a quick post, but somehow

it never quite works out quite that way. Oh well. Time for a glimpse of whatever finishes 

managed to come to fruition during the past year! It always surprises me how it stacks

up. Never quite what I imagined somehow!

2019 Finishes (1)

It's been a surprisingly productive year. So many times it felt like I was just sort of spinning my wheels, or at times, chasing after ever single squirrel that popped around the corner. Some of the oldest quilt tops did get checked off the list, but it felt arduous at times. 'I don't wanna' was not an uncommon feeling at the start of some of these quilting/stitching finish-it-up endeavors.

2019 Finishes (2)

A surprising amount of larger quilts were completely hand quilted. Well, maybe not so surprising.as it was a terribly stressful year here on the home front. So happy to see 2020 roll around with the all the possibilities of a fresh new year! When life's troubles start to get extra heavy, I tend to have a habit of ending every evening nose deep in the quilting hoop. Well, right after finishing off the popcorn and catching up on Blogger and Instagram.*wink  Helps me sleep ever so much better, that hand work. Seriously therapeutic. If I didn't have so many hot flashes, I'd probably pile on about six quilts every night when I go to bed. Just bury myself in them. You know, for the good vibes?

2019 Finishes (3)

Lots of baby quilts were made and finished up, plus quite a few little bitty ones. Very fun, fast quilting sessions which felt kind of rewarding. I don't think that would be good for me full time though. The feeling lasts only a little while and then it's gone. Poof! Almost like it never happened.

2019 Finishes (4)

So now it's time for the stats. 23 Total Quilt Completions last year! Woohoo! {If you count the Barbie quilts.} But lets not. Leaving off those smaller, quickie quilting projects, it's really more like 18 for the true total. Not too shabby. And because I like to break things down even further....

• 9 Bed sized quilts finished up
• 5 Lap quilts
• 4 Baby quilts
• 5 Doll, Table Runner or Barbie quilts
• 9 of these quilts were completely hand quilted
• 8 quilts were completely machine quilted
• 5 quilts were a combination of both machine and hand quilting
• 1 quilt was a combination of machine quilting and hand tying

It was a good year. Also a good year for giving quilts away! 20 different quilts, including the 5 mini quilts, but not limited to completed-in-2019-quilts, were gifted to a hopefully happy recipient.Two or three other quilts should have been given as well, but I'm sort of dragging my heels about those. Not quite ready to give them up just yet. Still having pangs about a couple of the quilts I gave to my daughters!

Some thoughts about looking ahead:

I'm still very invested in keeping lists as per usual. The most important one is for the quilt projects that have been started, but are still in the works. These are ongoing, in many different phases, but most importantly, they have fabric cut out though not yet a completed quilt top. Its not just a fabric stack of dreamy potential! I'm committed, hopefully engaged and generally always pushing forward toward a conclusion. 

There is also a list for the finished quilt tops that are not as yet quilted. Totally separate lists for different categories of UFO's. That's because the 'in progress' quilt project list fluctuates all year long. What I've finally found to be an optimal balance {for the way that I work} is somewhere between 6 to 10 projects. Anything over that and it inevitably starts stressing me out. Anything under that and I start feeling incredibly bored. Good incentive to cross projects off the list and then promptly dive right into the new!

The 'finished quilt top' list has been slowly shrinking from a high of 28 several years ago, to this past year where I seem to have regressed. These tops are listed in order of when they were completed with a vague idea toward quilting the oldest one firsts. Ha. For now I'm going to ignore the fact that quilt tops are multiplying like rabbits and just keep on doing my thing. I really don't know what else to do.I tried severely limiting quilt starts, but that was stifling. There's only so much a person can do to put the breaks on creativity/new starts/inspiration before all momentum comes screeching to a halt. Some day maybe I'll be able to afford having a few tops long armed again, but what probably needs to happen is for me to work a little harder at {being open to} combining machine and hand quilting. That's where I seem to gain the most ground.

Last year saw me taking an even more intentional look at the fabric stash. Many of you know that I truly love digging deep and coming up with interesting or unexpected combinations of fabrics and colors. I'm super pleased to have a 20-30 plus year range of quilting fabric colors/prints, but to be frank, some of those fabrics are stale dated now. Over time there are fabrics which have somehow become bland or completely and totally uninspiring. It's kind of sad, but mostly it irritates me because every single time I've tried to earnestly address these dated 'colors', the ideas crash and burn. The quilting plan seems lackluster and pointless so I give up.

On a whim late last year, I tore through the green fabric totes and pulled out most of the worst offenders. Some of them really aren't that bad. Truly. They're just dated. They've sort of gotten lost in the trends of colors changing. Marketing.That sort of thing. When digging through for fabric choices, they are easily pushed aside and ignored because they don't always play nice with the new additions and then, of course, the situation compounds itself through time. Take a look at the Sherwin-Williams 'Color Through the Decades' to see what I mean. I'm totally stuck in the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's in regards to over half of the fabric stash! What to do?

At somewhat of a loss, I took these annoying {green} fabrics and put them in largish clear plastic bags and purposefully left it all out where I couldn't fail to look. See. Be reminded and think about solutions. Eventually I came up with a personal challenge that involves using these 'So Tired' fabrics. The first phase of that saw me making a really weird {okay, it's ugly}, purple and green comfort sort of quilt top, and since then, I've incorporated quite a few of these less-loved fabrics into the Christmas quilts. Other than the first quilt {totally an experiment}, I don't really intend to waste a lot of time making ugly quilts though. Finding a good place for them is the ultimate goal. That and using them up so they aren't in the way anymore!

The most awful of all these fabrics have already been sewn into a large quilt backing for one of the recent Christmas quilts. Extra time, but hey, the fabrics were put to good use and I save money on a backing. One way or another, I totally intend to sneak these troublesome colors/fabrics into quilts and find a way to love them again. Maximize their potential. Then I'm going to move on to a different color and start all over again. Yes! Loving this challenge so much. Look for the 'So-Tired' label at the bottom of  posts moving forward. This challenge could last for a long time.

If somehow the hours can be found, {crossing my fingers}, I plan to put together a 'Hand Quilting with Perle Cotton' tutorial this year. Yikes. So intimidating. Several people have inquired and seem to want to know how to get the 'Quilty Folk' look and feel to their quilts. Deep thoughts here. Please don't get in a rush expecting anything. My life is full of crazy ups and downs and I often barely have time to proofread current posts for misspelling, much less organize an intelligible tutorial.

Yay. This is also the year when I will be turning 50 years young. See how excited I am? Just loving the gaining-weight-at-warp speed and experiencing my lack of mind/mouth coherence due primarily to hormones. How is it that I'm thinking a specific name in my mind, but what comes out is totally different and sometimes I don't even realize?*sigh  My kids think this is hysterical and I just feel stupid. This has turned my thoughts to perhaps making a celebratory quilt such as Lori and Barb both did in years past? Why not make turning 50 into a good thing? I want to walk more and take better care of myself for sure. Will keeping thinking about Jubilee quilt ideas though. It's not a terrible idea.

And last but not least, I plan to keeping on making interpretations of antique, utility style quilts and also, continue to follow along with the AHIQ prompts. Both of these challenges, while difficult at times, seem to feed my creativity in a way that helps me to flourish as a quilter. As a maker. Very important during this particular phase of our life! Thanks so much for following along with me along the way. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you....

This One Ended Up Without a Name on the Label

As always, I get to the end of a quilt and am amazed and humbled at how different a quilt looks with added stitching texture. Blue Plumes was put into the hoop back in October. Notice how much lighter it looks before the hand quilting?

Blue Plumes is finished!

That's because I used a brown/black variegated #12 Perle Cotton in all the blue/white ticking striped fabric areas. The thread is super thin, but eventually, all that darker thread starts making its presence known in a very subtle way. 

It's been a little gloomy, but here's the full quilt

Over three-fourths of the quilt was stitched before I finally was able to sigh a huge sigh of relief. For the longest time, I was absolutely positive that it was being over quilted which always annoys me. Why waste all that time and effort when it doesn't seem to bring the quilt any benefit? While hand quilting is incredibly relaxing, I don't just do it to fill time you know!

A closer look at the details...

This quilt is probably the closest to being a 'monochromatic' color scheme than anything else I've attempted in a very long time. Though the connector squares come off as brown in the pictures, close-up they are a very mixed bag of colors including plenty of blue. To be blunt, it wasn't the most exciting quilt to work on. I enjoyed all the different fabrics {love some of them to pieces}, but wowsers, where's the color?

All crumpled and inviting looking

I do adore how the background fabrics in the Fleur De Lis {or whatever these motifs are} pop so wonderfully now that the hand quilting is finished.*sigh  That was my intention from the very beginning {when piecing the quilt actually}, but it's always a mystery until the whole thing is done. Do you know how many times an attempt at 'glow' goes terribly wrong and ends up reading all mushy looking? This time it worked. Yay!

The binding is basically the color of the floor

Much to my dismay, the quilt demanded the rusty brown fabrics for binding. I have to admit that it was very cool to my frugal loving quilting person to use up some of these older languishing fabrics. Yes it was. But I was also mentally crossing my fingers that using brown wouldn't 'dull' the quilt down to the extreme level of boring. Not that I'm opposed to using that color in quilts, but it's sort of a love/hate relationship these days. 

Not a flashy quilt, but I like it anyway....

I think it used to be a safe color for me to use and was almost always a default decision. When in doubt, use brown. Nowadays, it needs to be very intentional and be used to uplift a quilt. Which of course sounds ludicrous to all you hate-on-brown-quilters out there! But yes, it definitely has its place in quilting and in this case, really was the perfect choice. 

Used in the binding area, brown softens the edges of this quilt without leaving it looking vaguely unfinished, something I'm not a big fan of. Plus it doesn't compete at all with the darker blue border and then inadvertently busy up the sides of the quilt. Which, in my opinion, would be a crying shame. The outside of the quilt isn't all that important here. Our eye needs to be looking at the center of the quilt and wondering what exactly was that quilter thinking anyway? Does anyone really know? lol

Oh hey, did I just make an old fashioned looking quilt? Now that it's completely finished up, I'm thinking it looks sort of yummy. All cozy and warm and very comfy looking. Never satisfied with the name 'Blue Plumes', I decided to leave the name off of the label entirely. Off it goes to celebrate one of my younger sisters 25th wedding anniversary! I think that's it for the anniversary quilts until 2028. Hmm... wonder what I'll be creating then?

Just Hitting the High Notes Then I Gotta Run

Life has been so busy lately, it almost feels like I'm in free fall, no control whatsoever. I know that's not exactly true, but with Thanksgiving right in front of us {and a litany of things going wrong lately}, it's definitely been hard to manage all the things that need attention. Quilting is happening in very random moments of time and blogging is all about the speed reading and smiles.

Joining the rows for Roman Stripe quilt

I'll catch up real quick and then probably disappear for another couple weeks. Whatever little bits of time I have for quilting need to be just for that, not for proofreading my babbling blog posts! Roman stripes, above, is a project that was started back in September. It's a super easy project that concentrates more on the fabrics than on design and will probably turn out just fine, if not the 'fantabulous' that I usually strive for.

I LOVED the fabrics back when first stacking the fabrics together, and honestly, if I would have made the quilt at the same time? I'd be over the moon in love. Now I just feel happy and pleased, but ready to move on to a different quilt. We just never know how quickly our tastes can change do we? Somehow I cut out a lot more pieces than needed for the throw quilt suggested in the pattern and now am committed to making two of them. Oh well! Comfort quilts always seem to find a home around here and it will be good to have a couple ready to go when needed.

Blue Plumes

Blue plumes is currently out of the hoop and the first phase of binding is sewn on. I'm not sure exactly why, but this binding is taking me forever. I've been hoping to get this one completely finished up by Thanksgiving so I can gift it to the intended recipients for an 25th anniversary quilt! Almost there....

My washing machine went kaput this past week and I'm so ready for the situation to be resolved. A part is ordered and we're all crossing our fingers that my 'jack-of-all-trades' husband can fix the current issue cheaply. If not, it's black friday appliance shopping for us! Thanksgiving week company means lots of extra laundry plus I'd really like to wash this quilt after the binding is finished up. Gotta get rid of the blue marking lines and also, what's a quilt without that lovely freshly washed and dried crinkle look?

Autumnal Tulips

It felt really good to get all 30 tulip blocks stitched up to the point of needing leaves. First opportunity to lay them all out, I was busy trying to figure out the rest. The first leaves reminded me of slugs so that was a no-go.  All it took was a quick trim-up though and I felt satisfied with the resulting shapes. After a lot of time dithering, I finally decided to cut out the leaves in the rust, dark browns and also some navy fabrics. These are colors that I absolutely want to include in the quilt and in order to not lose the 'lightness' of the quilt, the sashing needs to be similar in color to the block background. So that's it. The leaves have to be dark. Decision made, time to trace and cut out the pieces!

Freehand applique

Lots of inward panic here with the holidays so quickly approaching. We've had different times of company being here with more to come, and in just a couple weeks there will be a Christmas tree in the house taking up room too. These are things which radically hinder my ability to sandwich and pin quilts, which of course, is a major problem. How can I survive the holiday season without a quilt in my lap Every. Single. Evening! Oh, you thought I was panicking about holiday preparations? haha  A person needs to have their priorities firmly in place!

Next quilt tops for quilting

I've desperately wanted to work on quilt projects 'in progress' but it seemed more expedient to get a couple tops ready for hand quilting. I sewed three {mixed fabric} backings together and then got two quilts pinned and ready for the hoop. That ought to be enough to take me clear though until January! If there's a good chunk of time between now and when the tree arrives, I might even get the third quilt sandwiched and pinned for machine quilting. Pushing my luck there, but it'll be nice to have it ready if somehow there's a window of opportunity.

Gather Ye Rosebuds getting sandwiched and pinned

I ended up choosing this 'Gather Ye Rosebuds' quilt for next-up-in-the-hoop. It's not one that I've been super anxious to work on, but the flowery vine is slightly reminiscent of Christmas Cactus and it's been in the drawers for ages now. Hmm... I can actually see this one becoming a quilt that only comes out during the holidays in years to come. Why didn't I think of that earlier?

Should be a good one for working on during the holidays

We made several trips over to Spokane in the last couple weeks so I took advantage and made a list to stock up on Perle Cotton thread that I might need for the next several quilts. Sew-EZ-Too on Garland street {where I take my Bernina for annual maintenance}, has Finca threads and now, a nice little section of Valdani too! Hey, hey, hey! Look who has less money in the bank account now! lol 

Love quilts with words

For the harder to find Valdani threads {usually the variegated}, I generally shop an Etsy store called 'NeedleCaseGoodies' first. After that, I will browse other Etsy stores and then, failing there, go to larger quilting stores if I'm looking for a specific number/color. And yes, I will use DMC threads or Presencia too--it's all good. I don't feel exceedingly picky, just preferential?

And baskets...

A couple of the quilt stores that I used to pop in occasionally have closed up shop in the past couple years. So disappointing, but it's not like I've been a regular customer myself, living three hours away. The good news is that the new quilt shop on main street, Reardan, Washington is a brand new fave. Check it out if you get a chance! I finally got to pop in an take a look about a week ago and am so happy that I did! Such a fun store. Love the exposed brick look and wow, really lovely fabrics and everything displayed in a wonderfully engaging way. I'm quite determined to dig deep and clear out some oldy moldies in the next year, but it's amazing how much easier it can be with some new lovelies mixed in. Okay, that's it for now. Hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving! I'm so looking forward to the family and food. The kids and granddaughters arrive in two days!! Still pinching myself over that term. Granddaughters. I'm not even 50 years old yet! Super sweet though. We're absolutely loving it! As my late father-in-law always used to say, 'If we'd have known how great it was to have grandchildren, we'd have had them first.'*wink

Never Time To Get Bored

It's been a hand work sort of week. There are now 10 out of 30 of the Autumnal tulip blocks with flowers ready for leaves. The shape, size and color of which is totally up in the air. I'm loving the sweet look to these, but wondering why I settled on 30 as the perfect number to make? Might have to ratchet it down to 20 in order to ever properly finish up.

Starting to get an idea of what the Tulip blocks are gonna look like

Still plodding along on the quilting for Blue Plumes. It seemed like it took forever to start seeing the stitching texture come alive in this quilt! Usually it starts presenting within six or more frames and this one has just been being stubborn. I'm very bemused by how the blue/white ticking fabric seems to be darkening {must be the dark brown thread} and the light cream and tan background fabrics look to be popping. There are some things that are impossible to know until we can 'see' it in front of us. Still unsure about how to quilt the darker blue thin border, but am sure something will occur to me. I never do anything majorly complicated, that's for sure.

Looking at the stitching texture on Blue Plumes

Another thing that I've been working on this week is the final touches to my daughters t-shirt quilt. I had told her that I was willing to help her figure out how to put one together, but she had to do the work herself. After dithering over it for most of a year, she finally just decided to have it commissioned. Quite the relief to me as I honestly had no interest in making one myself! When it came back {looking very professional, no complaints there}, we both felt that it needed a proper binding and perhaps a few yarn ties. Because of the addition of sweatshirts in the quilt, I ended up cutting the binding strips 3 1/4" in order to fold them in half and still have enough to fully cover the seam line everywhere. Double folded sweatshirt fabric and double folded fleece can be very thick!

My daughters Glory Days T-Shirt quilt

I only wasted a couple hundred inches of binding cut out in a different fabric, not properly thinking it through! I suppose the binding isn't truly a wasted effort as it will no doubt find a home with another quilt some other day. Still, it is so annoying to have to re-do. Thankfully I hadn't sewn very much onto the quilt before realizing the normal width of binding would never, ever work. 

My daughter also asked me to sew several patches onto the quilt which wasn't difficult except for the slippery backing. The quilt is backed with a nice, quality polar fleece {which feels good}, but managed to slip just enough for a good sized pucker behind one of the patches. Ughh.  Even though I thought it was pinned very well! Thankfully the fleece is black and so the pucker hardly shows, making it unnecessary to rip out and start over.*Whew!  Was not looking forward to digging tiny, same-colored stitches out of a fleece fabric! Oh did I mention the backing fabric was black? As was the binding fabric? As was the thread used to sew said binding down? Uh huh. Complete and total Insanity trying to see well enough to hand sew a neat looking binding.

Finishing up with the details to the t-shirt quilt cleared up the current stack of have-to's in the quilt room. Yay! I ended up spending one entire afternoon rifling through all the simmering stacks of fabric and barely started quilt projects. So much fun. It's been awhile so it felt very overdue too. There were a couple projects that ended up having quilt design ideas swapped, and several fabric stacks saw some new fabric additions incorporated into the mix. That always feels amazing--fine tuning the fabric stacks until they start 'clicking' better!

You know what that means though.... Yep. Gonna be some new quilt projects popping up here any day now! Right now I have good intentions to bring one or two already started projects up to completed quilt top status FIRST, but we'll see. No promises! Some of these fabric stacks are really starting to call out for a little play time of their own.....

Checking Some Things Off the List

The little table runner is totally completed! I'm not sure there is enough hand quilting in the borders, but it's done. Not going to add more at this point.

The fall table runner

Next up in the hoop is Blue Plumes. It's kind of a different quilt for me, but other than admiring a similar shaped element in a shirt one day, the whole project idea is mine. 

Blue Plumes getting sandwiched and pinned

I can't believe this one has been at completed quilt top stage since 2017! Wowsers, does time fly! These funky looking fleur de lis {or whatever they are} were supposed to go with another quilt idea. Didn't work out and you know me, shortly after, another layout idea came along to the rescue. Funny how that happens with us tenacious types!

I think this one is going to be hand quilted

Why waste a perfectly good quilting inspiration? If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! You know how I love a challenge....

Trying to figure out the stitching pattern!

The binding is patiently waiting for me on the Playing With Scale #2 quilt. Honestly, you probably wouldn't believe it, but I've been off having a play with another baby quilt instead! lol

Binding ready for hand stitching!

Yep. I am a great aunt once again! My mom and dad agreed to find room in their suitcase if the quilt gets done in time and so I'm busy, busy. Postage is terribly expensive and I'd be very grateful to avoid having to pay for that plus risk the quilt getting lost in the mail. Best get back to it!

Blue Plumes, the Quilt That Snuck Into the Lineup

Another quilt top brought to the completed stage! I'm guessing this is a close to a monochrome color palette you'll ever see around here and I'm happy for the experience. It's very intriguing {in hindsight} to build a quilt completely around the applique too. Will have to think on more those possibilities for the future!

Blue Plumes a finished quilt top!

In the end, I left off the applique pieces which would have overlapped the top border. No matter how I fussed with the pieces, they just always came off as awkward looking when viewing the entire quilt. As a compromise to coming up with a 'finished' look, I migrated some applique elements to the corners. It's not obvious, but those pieces are actually two or more seam allowances larger than the rest of the applique in the quilt.

Once I placed the lighter blue petal in the center of every corner 'flower', then it all just sort of clicked into place.*ahh..  Sometimes it feels like nothing will ever work and then you'll find me pulling the quilt top out for weeks, trying this, trying that. It's a tricky thing, playing with color in borders. You never want it to overshadow the rest of the quilt, but rather use it in order to draw the eye around the quilt and provide a sort of balance. I love using it as an extension as to where the energy is being directed in a quilt. Border work can definitely help change the dialog. In this case, it firmly takes the power away from the very lightest blocks--they were shining a little too brightly--and says, 'No! Look at all of us, we're important too!'

Such a soft, different look for me....

I have a feeling this top will look better after some quilting. Don't they always? And I'd apologize for the rumpled looking effort on display, the bad pictures and the various bits of threads you always find in my pictures, but no. I won't.

So happy I didn't let this idea slide!

The other night when I went to bed the headboard & foortboard caught my eye--wouldn't that look amazing painted? And I just laughed. If there's time to be painting the headboard, you can believe I'll be quilting instead! As it is, the time it takes for photo shoots, no matter how lame, is generally just flat out annoying. Wait till the kids are out of the house, wait till the light is good, make sure stuff is out of the way in the background, etc. etc. etc. My heart isn't in that part of the process, which is oh-so obvious.*sigh  Now you can understand why I'm not leaping over to Instagram. Lots of pictures and little writing? The comparison with other quilty accounts would be deadly....

Blue Plumes

This applique was intended to be used alongside some wide coin sashing. That didn't work out and so I went in a totally different direction. Basically split that project into two and brought the blue applique into a lighter, more serene looking setting.

Blue Plumes getting sewn together into a quilt top

Some would say it's boring, but there's just something about the cream and blue, plus that blue/white ticking fabric that seems peaceful to me. After getting the initial foundation piece of the applique stitched onto each individual block, then I sewed sets of two rows together. This helped me to easier manipulate the long pieces of quilt as I hand stitched the 'plumes' onto the overlap areas. Saved me a lot of hand cramping if you want to know the truth of it! Once they were all stitched down, except for the top applique units, then I sewed all the rows together into one large quilt top.

At this point, it was time to determine the fabric for borders. Yes I know some of you most often vote for no borders, but this is my quilt. Most quilts around here end up with something extra on the outside edges. Once again I was drawn to that blue/white ticking fabric. Is it that old fashioned, vintage-like vibe? It makes me want to curl up with the quilt already and it's not even done!

Auditioning border fabrics

But it needed something more. I played around with options and finally determined that it needed a thin blue sashing. This peppered cotton isn't the exact perfect color, but I kinda like it anyway. It clashes just enough to give some much needed energy to the quilt. I do hate to be predictable, plus there was enough left without having to make a run to the quilt store. That decision always implies that there is something out there more perfect and 'making do' isn't good enough anymore. I hate that feeling. That making do has somehow become second class.

I had already took a dive into that shallow pool early on, broken one of my most steadfast rules. This is, quite seriously, the first quilt in a very long time where I had impulsively quite deliberately went and bought fabric specifically for a particular project. I mean a lot of it, like all the ticking and small floral fabric. Not that I'm judging what you do! And yeah, I do buy binding and border fabrics all the time, when absolutely needed, but rarely ever go buy a large chunk that helps make up the look of the entire quilt. It just makes me feel queasy. I much prefer piecing a bunch of smaller stuff together to try and make that scrappier look.

Normally, I buy {or have odd bits of fabric given to me} for the stash and then make directly from there, challenging myself to blend and use what is already loved. Around here, the stash is KING. The theory being this: I'm convinced that it helps me make more unique quilts. Also, I love the occasional odd result, which is what 'making do' often leads to! Making from what I have already acquired as 'fabulousness' or at the very least, 'interesting', will ensure that whatever is made will be appreciated down to each and every fabric included. That is the necessary connection to me--loving all the little bits and pieces, bringing them together into a brand new, hopefully more charming unit! Somehow though, this project seemed to demand a little more continuity than making from those random pieces of stash fabrics and honestly, I couldn't let the project go. No matter what. It was just too intriguing and different.

Considering sashing fabrics

Okay, sorry about the sidetrack. So then I was back at the question I've been mulling over and over in my mind. Do the top applique pieces need to be continued even if they extend over into the top border? For the entire time the stitching has been happening on this quilt, I've been convinced they would need to just like the other blue plume units.

Auditioning having the applique extend into the border...

Now I'm not so sure. It feels forced to me and makes the quilt look a little awkward. Maybe if I leave off the plumes on those top blocks and add a few plumes in the corners of the quilt? It's definitely something to think about while I fuss about with adding on the sashing and outside borders.

Or maybe doing something altogether different!

There is just enough of the blue/white ticking fabric for outside borders if I make them narrow, which is really all it needs. Just enough to tie back into the center of the quilt and make for a more cohesive looking quilt. This has turned out to be such a surprising departure from my usual quilting, such a quiet looking quilt. And it all started from a motif I saw on a piece of fabric. So interesting where we get the seeds of our inspiration!

Linking up with Linda and Julie at Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share #7! They asked an interesting question this week 'What's in a Name?'  We often wonder don't we? I first started blogging with my family back in 2006 and of course had to come up with a name for my blog. Everyone had these cute names that tied back in with their individual interests and personalities. They all knew I was the obsessed quilter lady in the family and so 'The Quilty Folk' was an obvious choice. Later on when I wanted to start a blog strictly for my quilting, it simply became 'Quilty Folk'. You can read my first Quilty blog post here. I obviously STILL like to talk and talk and talk about quilting. It seems pretty funny now, but I didn't start getting regular comments until two years in. Who says blogging is easy?

Saturday Odds & Ends

When we jump from project to project and then back around again, it often feels like {watching} a chicken peck, peck, pecking away. That's the way I like to approach my quiltmaking--little bites. Thank goodness I have lots of lists. They help keep me on track so that my inevitable restlessness will eventually add up to something of substance. The Marsala quilt below currently has all the hand quilting completed, a binding attached and is now awaiting the final hand sewing stage. Which I will do later 'cuz I'm just not quite in the mood yet!

Marsala {An Unexpected Crossroads} ready for binding

All in due time. For over a year I have tried to sandwich and pin two quilts at the same time. It's such a hassle to get help moving the dining room table out of the way and finding that block of time when the whole clan isn't tromping through the room. Next up in the line-up is the scrap-bin tulip quilt and Learning Curves, where I challenged myself to get drunkards path units figured out once and for all!

Next in line for quilting!

I stitched-in-the-ditch in between every 16-patch block and now I'm coming back to hand quilt the quarter circle units. It probably didn't need the machine quilting, but it was fast and easy to do and now I can hand quilt without any pins in the way. This is a large quilt so the hand quilting may take awhile. We'll see how motivated I get!

In the hoop...

After much contemplation, I finally settled on a solution for the blue applique heart blocks that had been shown before. Sadly, they will not be residing with the brown coin units anymore. This idea has completely separated itself into a new project that makes a little more sense. When I distilled all the elements down from the project before, it seemed like the two blocks {blue applique blocks & the coin units} were both equally determined to have their own way. So different directions here we go! I found a classic, ticking fabric to use instead of the coins and a Liberty look-alike voile to use as the cornerstone squares. Together, alongside the blue applique blocks, it starts taking on a much more serene look. Hopefully that doesn't mean boring!

Preparing Blue Plumes project

My rough drawing pattern has been edited and changed so much it's starting to get thin in places, but it served well enough to allow the basic rows to be sewn together. So far I'm leaving them in 2-row sections. This will keep the units small enough to manipulate while I applique the blue 'plumes' into place. Most of them at least! The ones at the top of the quilt will have to be attached after the entire quilt top has been sewn together. Ughh. Hate that. But there's no way around that as the plumes will overlap the seams above.

Units ready for more applique work

In the end I just couldn't discard the 'plumes' or exclamation marks as one person called them. It feels whimsical and fun. Right up my alley and it always seems worth it after the work is done.*wink  So that's the prep work--just a few hours. That's all! Done and all ready for the next phase though, that's the important part. It helps more than most people realize to have the prep work totally ready for the exact moment {or window of opportunity} when our hands are itching to dive in and start stitching. I get tired of a project, look around for the next eye-candy project and you just never know, it could be this one!

I've also figured out the direction forward for the brown coin blocks and hopefully will have some progress on that front sometime next week. It's a constant source of amazement to me that even when I'm deliberately trying to tamp down on the amount of open-ended projects around here, they just sort of happen anyway!