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....

October Quilting Efforts

 Another finish to show off! Gold Crossroads ended up being even sweeter than I expected. The original inspiration was from an old quilt I stumbled across in a second hand quilting book years ago. Still love it!

Gold Crossroads

I find it super interesting that I was hand quilting this particular quilt when the DS Wagon Wheel SAL started. How crazy is that? My quilt was made out of cut-out circles and also, it is appliqued to the background rather than machine sewn like the Denise Schmidt pattern. Super classic look though and it seems to look amazing in many, many color palettes.

Another 2024 finish!

Some day maybe I'll make a brighter version like hers, but for now, I'm just crushing on the texture the hand quilting brings! Quilting in a simple grid isn't something that I do very often for whatever reason. Laziness? Or more because I really, really hate marking my quilts. Such a chore. Ughh! Every now and then a quilt just calls out for the look though and wowsers, this was the right move for sure.

Sweet, simple color palette

This quilt is the first one in my 'Circle Games' series where I'm starting each quilt with cut-out circles from behind other quilts. Lovely to have it come to a true-blue finish and see that I'm not just wasting my time.

Sometimes it pays to mark the quilt....

Flower Power is coming along with the hand quilting too. It was the 'next up' in the hoop. It's pretty hard to see what I've been doing as the quilt is so dark. Trying to do very simple quilting with perle cotton as always. Nothing fancy here either. Strings are great fun to quilt organic straight lines through. Always makes me wish for more of them!

In the hoop

Old Fashioned Wildflowers is all ready for an outside border now. I went ahead and powered through the applique. Sometimes its easier to not think about the time involved and just takes big bites out of it till it's all done. Will probably put off figuring out the border till some other stuff gets wrapped up. There's a couple ideas percolating in the back of my brain so I'm feeling pretty good about it coming together properly. Will just keep the fabrics together with the quilt top until I'm ready to attack the next phase of the quilt. Sometimes that urge comes from out of the blue, you just never know.

All the hand work is done!

Not a great picture below, but I wanted to show the prep work for Bramble Blooms II-A. I'm already putting in the hand stitching. After finishing Old Fashioned I really wanted to dive right into something easier and the skinny borders feel so much better on my hands already.

Ready to pin

All the details and prep work are done for Bramble Blooms II-B too. I used the same flowers and just made them a bit smaller than those on the original quilt. Seems to suit these quilts better. I ended up incorporating the same leaf shapes from the first Bramble Blooms quilt too {very important to me for this project!}. I'm really liking how interesting these leaves look instead of my normal simple leaf look. It's also something that I feel will help keep this series of quilts more connected, having a continuity in the applique motifs. It's the simple things!

Getting it ready for hand stitching...

It always takes a chunk of time to get all the leaves and flowers cut out out and the vine pinned down into place. Much more time than I ever expect! Once the stitching starts though, it's free sailing for those of us who enjoy applique. I'm definitely eager to see if these two quilts look as good in person as I'm hoping for. Using older, less exciting fabrics usually means quite the slow build up and then lots of second guessing. Are these fabrics actually going to look good in these special little flower shapes? Yes, no, maybe so? I wanted to get these two quilts in particular moving along and then I want to start a couple new projects with fall colored palettes. I am positively antsy at the thought that fall might be over before I get a chance to start something new. I mean, there's only so many open-ended projects my brain can handle at a time!

Meanwhile, we've been having a little bit of company the past week or two and that of course means less time for quilting. Then today I spent most of an hour on the phone with Verizon whose customer service is frankly, quite pathetic. Isn't customer service just so terrible compared to how it was 30-40 years ago? Why in the world would I want to try and communicate with a machine?

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....

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

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

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

BBII-A with borders cut to desired measurements

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

BBII-B with border fabrics still being auditioned

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

Label your measured border units

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playing with applique

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR MAKING A SIMPLE BIAS VINE:

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

Gathering the vine fabric

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

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

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

Determining width of the Bias Vine:

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

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

Making the first cut:  

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

Placing the ruler

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

The first strip cut

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

Careful placement of the ruler

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

Keep going even around the corner at the top

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

Trimming the odd cut strips

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

Getting strips ready for sewing

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

All lined up!

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

Sewing the angles together

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

Do the strips match up well?

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

Placement of folded bias strips under the needle

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

The sewn bias vine tube

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

Pressed flat

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

The intended measurement!

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

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

August Wrap Up

There was a list of things that I was determined to do this weekend and one of them was throwing up a quick quilting post. It's been awhile I know. I was working on this 'Worthy' quilt before we made the trip to Oklahoma and it seemed like something to post about. But then my husband upended all of our plans and we left for our trip earlier than expected. 

Starting to see where Worthy is headed

This has been a very slow project, started in November of 2023. Basically I took a stack of fabrics and started free-cutting triangles, ala Sujata Shah. In fact, the progress has been so very slow that I really never bothered to post about it after the initial start. I mean, what was there to talk about?

 The fabrics are very soft, muted and have quite an old fashioned vibe. I've been pondering them for a couple years, but every time I decided they weren't enough to bother making a quilt out of, there was just something that wouldn't let me toss them back into the fabric totes. I'm not even sure there's enough value changes to come off as interesting, but I'm gonna try anyway. 

This is probably about a third of the fabrics in the stack. It's not been the most fascinating quilt to work on, but as I said, it's still compelling for reasons that make me want to continue on. Forward ho! At this point I'm dithering over sewing this all together and then joining in subsequent piecing later {as I go} or.... waiting until I have all of the various strips piled together and then start fresh. 

Part of me wants to be brave and sew it together and just make the rest fit on and around. Ughh. You know how that can turn out. Possibly lots of regret and frustration. Much better to go ahead and take it off of the too-small design wall, be patient and come to terms with the fact that it's going to be awhile yet. I'm almost certainly going to end up crawling around on my knees, moving parts and pieces around on my design floor before anything becomes truly cohesive!

There will be more pink colors added in, more of the dark brown and also, more cream fabrics. I've even thought about expanding on the 'Worthy' block, perhaps adding in more applique in the form of a border motif. Something like that. I'm really, really liking the odd pairings and uneven rows of triangles. This definitely is not a quilt that wants to be perfect or even exactly aligned.

The goal is {for now}, taking each particular fabric as it comes and cutting it all up till it's gone. Really easy when there's just a small chunk of fabric left, but lots harder when it's a much bigger piece. I'm continually second guessing myself as to adding 'that much' of a specific fabric into the quilt. Am trying to quiet the admonitory voices in my head and just let creativity have full reign. At the end, my hope is to have a quietly charming and cozy {utilitarian-look} quilt that feels a little like it could have transported from the late 1800's. Ha! 

Needs some hand work before finishing

Though my goal was to have both of these quilts completely finished up by the end of August, life just got away from me. Again. Can't say that I'm surprised! Will have to squeeze in time to hand sew the binding on here pretty soon as one of the quilts is for a nephew getting married this month. At least there is serious finishing progress on both.

Applique border work

Have also been working on the hand sewing on these borders for Melon Patch Blossom. The middle part of the quilt has been done since late last year. You'd almost think quilting has become the lesser obsession in my life in the past year and you might be right. Family time has absolutely ended up being the top priority.

Ready for the next phase!

Finally got all the applique done on Bramble Blooms II-B. It wasn't complicated at all, so no real dragging of my feet. Just didn't want to take something this large with me on the plane! I get lots of looks when I'm working on my quilting in the airports, but rarely does anyone actually say anything. I wonder if it's like a houseguest once told me, 'Just makes me want to laugh! Quilting is such a grandma thing to do these days.'  My whole family was kind of looking at this man with their mouths hanging open. 

Seriously? Do you know how much money and time is spent on quilting these days? The incredible quilt shows that people can attend and feel inspired and moved by? Thankfully, I chose not to feel insulted. His grandma really was a hodgepodge quilter, quite artistic in other ways, but her quilting was strictly utilitarian and quite primitive looking. If he wanted to laugh at my old fashioned hobby, who cares? It brought her {and now me at this point in my life} lots of joy and that's really all that matters.

Sandwiched and ready for pins!

Next up in the hoop is Gold Crossroads. It's been finished up since about 2021. It's part of the 'Circle Game' quilts where I'm taking the cut-out circles from behind other applique and incorporate it into a brand new quilt. My latest Circle Game quilt top was Good Vibes. I already have fabric stacked up for the next one in the series and ideas for that and one more after that! Gotta love series quilts! They're a great next-up quilt when you run out of other ideas or are stalled with indecision.

Happy, happy mail!!

I also had this wonderful gift sent to me from an online quilting friend. This awesome box of fabric was waiting for me when we returned from our trip! Very generous and so sweet of her. Am always more than willing to mix brand new-to-me fabrics into the stash totes and see just where things might perk up a little. It must be my month because I was also able to buy a little fabric with some birthday money and also a recent surprise from the Tip Top Jar! Quilters are the best! While I am having great fun digging through all the older stash fabrics, there has most definitely been totes that are starting to seem quite, quite dreary. Always more exciting to throw in a few newer pieces occasionally to see what might start to spark and take on new life.

Okay, that's it for a what's happening around here on the quilt front. Lots of projects, ideas and stacks of fabric, but not nearly enough time to get it all moving and grooving. For all the Bramble Blooms QAL folks, will probably not dive into the last border prompt for a couple weeks or so. Lots of little things that I want to make forward progress on first, including hemming a couple pair of thrifted jeans. Darn it, when you're 5'2", the jeans rarely seem to come in the right length....

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.