Catching Up

It's been one of those busy, busy times. Just a lot going on with church functions, family and friends and little time to catch up on social media. I'm ready to burrow down in the quilting room for a good long while, soon as I can catch up on some sleep! Meanwhile, it's mostly been about the hand work around here of late. Finally got the center applique done on all these Melon Patch blocks.

Start of the Melon Patch blocks

 A reader sent me a lovely comment the other day and told me about a quilt she had noticed in a old book, 'It has your name written all over it. It could have just come out of your hoop.'  Well, little did she know that I actually tried to make an interpretation of that very same quilt several years ago!

Such a lovely old quilt

No pattern, just a fun, intriguing challenge for myself. It took a good long while as these sorts of quilts do, but this particular interpretation was finished in 2013. The picture {torn out of a magazine}, hung on my wall for years before compelling me to just dive in and see if I could really make one of my own.

My Vintage Reproduction quilt

And wowsers, do I love that quilt! Never given it away. There's just something about a re-make of an old quilt that can make it feel really special. The process of trying to keep the spirit of the older quilt and yet breathe a little bit of our own voice into it can be deeply engaging. Have you seen my latest antique interpretation attempt? This is definitely not the first time I've fallen down this particular rabbit hole...

Later on I even went digging for the template of that self-same bird, changed up the size a bit and added it into this Flocks of Geese quilt finished in 2017. So charming to see how the bird takes center stage in this particular setting!

Flock of Geese quilt

I think the more current make is probably what her subconscious was recognizing and connecting to in the old quilt--those birds! Most of my current readers haven't been following along since 2013 or even before. Either way, it was a fascinating day or two of us messaging back and forth. Oh yes! That quilt! Uh huh. Yep, Funny thing about that one....  Big smiles here and maybe with her too. It's good to find connections. And too, I adore having people recognize something distinguishing and unique in regards to my quilting. Something ephemeral that says 'Audrey made that'. It tells me that slowly, slowly, I'm finding a clear voice and perhaps even a distinct style. That means the world to me.

Fall 2017 Bloggers Quilt Festival: Flocks of Geese

Okay, here we go! This is my second entry into Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival! There are a lot of entries, so I am planning on catching up by this weekend. Flocks of Geese is a brand new finish so thought this was a good way to show it off.

Flocks of Geese

This quilt was another one started in 2014, but was finally put into the hoop in August of this year. It's a little different style than what you might expect from me, but I think you'll find parts and pieces of my quilting 'voice' regardless! I'm honestly not sure what propelled me to start in on this quilt, but for sure, I remember the taupe, linen-like background fabric {for the geese} was part of the initial motivation. What to do with this beautiful fabric? And then it sort of evolved as always.

Looking at the stitching!

I stole the bird pattern from another quilt I had finished up early in 2013. There's just something about that bird template that just makes me happy and it seemed like it could add a certain amount of necessary whimsy lacking in this quilt. Just a quick photo-copy and reduction in size and wallah!, the bird fit perfectly into these six inch blocks.

Love how sparky it looks....

Generally I'm not one to fuss too much about the backing fabric, getting by with clearance fabrics and random chunks of fabric I've fallen out of love with. If the colors blend and the pattern isn't too offensive, then it's a go for use as backing fabric. And you wondered why I rarely show the backs of my quilts?

This time I made sure the backing fabric was in a color and print that added to the overall look and feeling of the quilt. Having used that dull grey-brown fabric throughout the quilt, I knew a rich looking backing fabric was key to, well, loving the quilt. {It also has about a half yard of a blue/white plaid up in the corner.} It was a bit flat looking compared to most of my efforts and honestly, none of my family really likes it. They say things like 'That's nice' or 'I like other quilts of yours better'. Wah! Just kidding. I much prefer my family to be honest and not shower me with false platitudes.

Washed and crinkly straight of the dryer, but still a bit damp...

I did make sure to add several different light through medium colors of green for the binding in order add another level of interest. It needed that bit of spark on the outside edge. Between that and the hand quilting, it finally had enough texture and interest to make me happy. All the flying geese blocks have a straight line stitching through the middle of the geese {in various colors of blue and green thread} and the wide sashing has a overlapping circle design in a darker variegated blue and/or wine colored thread. Most of the thread in this quilt is Valdani #8 or 12, my absolute favorite threads to use. Beautiful thread. I think that's part of why this quilt feels more like 'me' now that it's done. I know this stitching! We have many secrets together....

For those of you that are interested, I have another entry in the festival as well... Scrappy Tulips. More my 'normal' style I suppose. And why not check out all of the other great quilts too? I've found some good blogging friends this way! As always, a big thank you to Amy for putting this festival togehter!

One Stitch at a Time

It's been busy here. I had to make the three hour drive to Spokane so my Bernina could get in a maintenance. It's one of those trips that is usually planned around someone flying in or out of the airport, but this time it was all about the sewing machine.

Applique for Hey Grandma!

And because they do it first come, first serve, I was too late to get on the list for the next planned maintenance. Won't be getting my machine back until the first week of September now. Ughh  Oh well, this guy does a fantastic job and I had gotten fairly disillusioned with the {much closer} maintenance service available in our area. Good thing I have a reliable backup! And also, the next trip over to Spokane will include some serious school shopping. Our closest big city shopping apparently doesn't have the appropriate stores needed for, oh yeah, attaining the coolest shoes? My girls were more worried about other girls showing up in the same exact clothing. Not my son. No, he is much more concerned about the shoes.

In the meantime, there's been a little bit of applique done on the Hey Grandma! blocks. I had the leaves all drawn out on the back of the fabric and was scared they were gonna be too small. It looked pretty discouraging at first try. Luckily I hadn't cut out more than two so it was easy enough to cut them larger than the drawn lines {I never draw my applique pieces so tight there isn't a little bit of wiggle room}. You wouldn't think it would be a substantial difference, but even an extra 1/8" of an inch gives enough to fully cover the width of the stems. So relieved I didn't have to ditch this fabric and go find another. This was exactly what I wanted in terms of color and print!

Hand Quilting for Flock of Geese

There has also been a bit of hand quilting done on the Flock of Geese quilt. Simple Kantha-like stitching through the flying geese blocks and an overlapping circle design in the wide sashing strips. So far I'm just doing an echo around the birds, but may come back and do more there. We'll see. It's been very relaxing overall. Just a meditative stitch, stitch, stitch and the occasional dilemma over specific thread color!

Signs of summer...

My husband is a contractor/carpenter/fix-it-guy and earlier this year he fixed a door for a customer. Didn't feel like he wanted to charge for such a simple repair and of course the man insisted. After some wrangling, they decided he would be paid in peaches later when the customers peach trees had ripened. Yay! We had to go pick them ourselves, but whatever. That is NOT a problem for us! I've been elbow deep in peach juice though, getting them prepared for the freezer. We do so love frozen peaches, peach pie, cobbler and of course, peach smoothies. Yum......

Time To Get This One in the Hoop!

There's this quilt top that has been nagging at me for months now, wanting its turn in the sun. I call it Flock of Geese or my 'bluebird' quilt. It was brought to the quilt top stage back in early fall of 2014, so you have to know its been very, very patient with me.

Flock of Geese getting sandwiched and ready for quilting!

When this one was finally all together as a quilt top, I felt a definite disconnect to it. Starting out I didn't want any brown in the quilt at all and well, you know me. Brown usually finds its way into many, many quilts around here! The fact that the wide sashing strips are practically a solid brown? Well, for one, that made me squirmy as to how it was ever supposed to be quilted, and two, tho it's a very old fashioned look {in theory}, this one didn't end up looking that way at all. Hmm...

Honestly? The entire vibe was probably more modern than I was accustomed to producing. Just a little hiccup at the corner of expectation and outcome! But this does happen occasionally as I've finally, finally started to clue in. Duh! My ideas and style seem to evolve faster than I can often mentally process. I dabble in this and that, push the boundaries of where I want my colors and/or quilt elements to play and wallah! The results can be unpredictable, and yet, oddly exhilarating too! And yes, that's undoubtedly why I predictably backtrack into the old and familiar on occasion. Like taking a long, hot soak in the tub and trying to completely unwind.  

Flock of Geese

Fast forward to today and I'm totally scratching my head as to why this would ever have made me uncomfortable in any way, shape or form? It's such a me quilt! lol  It is also interesting to note that the fabric for the birds in this quilt is the same exact fabric I used in a border for Scrappy Tulips, the quilt I just finished stitching prior to Cherries & Improv. pictured below. Totally different usage of the fabric and yet, it was a great sparky element in both quilts! Have I mentioned before that I love, love, love stitching on old quilt tops at the same time as working on the new? And stitching back to back older quilt tops with completely different moods? Such an interesting perspective all the way around....

Binding strips for Cherries & Improv.

Gotta a busy week ahead so am trying to get some hand work ready to go. Once this binding is sewn together and then stitched onto the quilt, I can have myself a binding marathon squeezed in between all the crazy bits of our life. Onward ho!

Trying to Find My Way Forward

My summer quilting sort of went off the tracks with me having to fit the odd moment of quilting into whatever empty second I found.  Imagine my surprise when the Flocks of Geese quilt managed to get made into a top, in spite of the fact that I was supposed to be packing for the trip and doing stacks of bookwork.

Flock of Geese quilt top finished

Believe it or not, I had agonized over putting the blocks together with the flat brown. Most people would have went light or busy. But not me. Oh no. I didn't feel like I had the luxury of time to weight all the pros and cons and I desperately wanted to be quilting. So I went with my gut. Just started in with the cutting and sewing and then ended up with this. It felt very 'bleh' and I was truly disappointed. You really have no idea. My triumphant little blue birds had lost their special little spark and it felt like a betrayal of sorts. Like I had let them down, all the way into obscurity.

Not as wonderful as I had imagined.....

Then we left on our trip. Ah, my routine of quiltiness--where art thou? We wandered in and out of peoples homes for the next couple weeks and when I saw a quilt I would always perk up. Can we talk quilts? Please say yes! And over and over again I discovered that I am much too much into quilting. I have hours of quilty talk bubbling up inside me that starts to feel kind of obsessive when the other party has quietly moved the conversation onto other polite topics.*sigh  Other than my quick trips into quilt stores and fabric love, I started feeling a bit disconnected with the whole process. A bit mad in my head if you know what I mean.

Red & Green applique blocks with the Basket Galore Bom blocks

So lovely to get home and reacquaint myself with the quilting room. Except that I felt oddly nervous and unsure of myself. What were these strange quilt projects cluttering up my quilt room all about? Too, I had company in my home while I was gone and one day in total boredom (apparently) they decided to iron some of my fabric. And fold it very precisely and very neatly into stacks. Ack! My quilt room didn't feel completely right anymore. Somewhere along the way, I seem to have gotten a bit lost.

I made quick little trips in and out but other than some hand quilting late in the evening I didn't do any quilting for several days. I was starting to wonder if my 'passionate' interest in quilting had maybe burned up with the fire when it came to actual implementation.

Playing with some border fabrics

Then, on Friday afternoon, I finally got a grip on myself (it probably helped that the laundry was done and out of my face). I decided to start small--with my red and green applique blocks--putting them on the wall next to the sampler baskets. Ahhhh... I could literally feel my shoulders lose some of their tension when I saw them all nestled together on the wall so sweetly. YES. Even though I had hurriedly thrown the idea together, it was exactly what I had hoped would happen. I played around with border ideas for a bit and then moved on to another project.

To my partial St. Paul blocks. Such a troublesome project. I love the blocks and I hate them. I love the rich colors of my quilt top and yet I don't. Where is the energy? I have had it in my mind for months now to put a 5" tumbler block border around the outside and still, I question how it should all go together. And no, it's not finished the way it is. Even though I rarely finish a quilt sans borders, I have and I will, if it truly feels finished without. This one obviously just needs more time to simmer.

Trying to figure out a border solution for the Partial St. Paul quilt

I played with some fabric stacks piled around the quilt room and pulled some new fabrics into the mix, put some away. Piddled my way through several projects, ideas and what-ifs. Eventually I could feel myself slowly settling into the familiar 'I am a quilter' zone. I knew for sure when I pulled out my cactus basket blocks and started looking at the current progress.

The entire quilt just looked wrong to me. Much too forced, out of sync and kind of flat if you want to know the truth of it. After playing with lots of different layouts and looking at several border possibilities, I found myself sitting back and grumbling under my breath in disgust. Such great little basket blocks and everything made them look terrible together. Puh-leeze. I so do not want to end up with 13 throw pillows instead of a quilt! But suddenly I had a crazy, scary thought. What I if put them together in a asymmetrical layout? Emphasized the difference between the very light and that stupid black I thought was such a great idea back in July? Hmm hmm, maybe.....

I'm starting to think this quilt is going to be very different. It might even turn into my 'surviving the fire' quilt and who cares what anybody else thinks about the end result! I have ideas people, IDEAS! churning in my wacky, obsessively, quilty brain and let me tell you it feels amazing. Whew! Such a relief to have a glimmer of creativity creeping back in again.

Don't think this will be the layout for the Cactus Basket blocks

Ahh... quilting. What would we do without it? Later that evening, once again immersed in my hand quilting, I thought about my Flocks of Geese quilt. Was it really ruined forever or could it possibly be rescued? Stitch after stitch I contemplated what had went wrong with my brilliant quilt idea. And quietly, it came to me. In the chaos of my summer I had completely forgotten. All along, the plan was for that particular quilt to have lots and lots of Perle cotton stitching in the calm, 'boring' areas of the quilt. I was intending to use lots of thread color and those wonderful chunky stitches to give the quilt texture. Another layer of interest and a beautiful backdrop for my sweet little bluebirds.

So there you have it. It may or may not turn out to be as wonderful as I imagine in my mind, but I feel so much better about the entire matter. Flocks of Geese was just one {of many} of the quilts that I was feeling an odd disconnect to. But now I feel a bit more confident that I can find my way back. As long as I don't lose my hand quilting hoop, that is.*wink

The Last Basket Block and Some Flock of Geese Play

Still haven't killed off my flowers in the pots by the front door! Usually by this time of year I've forgotten to water at least once and the lobelia dies away until I can't even revive it anymore. 

Enjoying my flower pots

Since I'm determined to start a couple new projects, I thought it would be a good idea to get this last basket from the Baskets Galore BOM done and out of the way. I took one look at the pattern and just cringed. Seriously. Wendy said she wanted to challenge us a little, but wowsers, this one looked tough. Oh I was so surprised when it turned out to be one of my very best blocks! Do I just rush the easy looking ones too much? I would have done a victory dance, but my quilting room barely has room to turn around in, so I had to make do with a very large, cheesy grin.

Block #12

I put all the baskets on the wall together and I think they are fairly well balanced in color. Now to figure out what and how to set them. I'm really leaning toward some alternating applique blocks, maybe in some red and greens?

All the baskets are finished!

Then I got my Flock of Geese and little bluebird blocks out to play. If I use this really toned down brown as the sashing fabric then the flying geese blocks sort of pop--in a confident yet really serene way. I especially liked it when the direction of the flying geese blocks got changed up a bit, making them go every which way. Lots of good energy there! The sashing would have to be 6" wide (the same width as the bluebird blocks) but I've been wanting a quilt with super wide sashing forever. And yeah, I was thinking of a wide sashing all along. It was The Plan.

Flock of Geese layout auditions.....

Always amazing when I stick to The Plan! I usually treat it like a sticky note that gets peeled off and thrown away. lol  Anyway, there would be lots of background fabric to quilt later, but hey, I can probably cross that bridge when necessary. No sense worrying about the stitching pattern until later!

Flock of Geese Quilt Progress

You know me, always trying to figure out how to add a little more applique into my life! These little birdies were a joy to stitch, only causing me a few fits around the deep crease at the bottom of the wing.

Applique blocks for Flock of Geese quilt

The fabric is a bit different than my usual, but it was something I had bought a couple years ago for setting triangles in a previous quilt and then never used. I won't deny that sometimes these particular fabrics end up being quite a challenge to gracefully incorporate into another quilt later on down the road! I don't like to think of them as 'oops' fabric though because I never would have bought the print in the first place if something about it hadn't spoke to me.

Looking at some progress....

So... the plan is to put these appliqued blocks with my Flock of Geese blocks using a wide sashing and make a really incredible quilt.*wink  Isn't that what we all strive for in our quilting every single day? lol

It Probably Doesn't Look Like Much

I'm very good at driving myself crazy with unrealistic expectations. Take these basket handles. Just because they are little 6" blocks I get to thinking they can be blown out in an evening or two. NOT. Anytime there is more than about four blocks, I should expect my time to be sucked into a big black hole.*wink

Only 3 more handles to sew on my basket blocks

I think I have been a bit despondent over my lack of progress on really, every single project I'm working on lately. Then I realized what the problem was. I'm overloaded on hand work right now. Wow, am I ever. How does this even happen?

These Cactus Basket blocks were hand pieced which takes a boat load of of my time and makes my finger feel like it's been mistaken for a pin cushion. The stems and flowers are all prepped and ready to go now which is serious PROGRESS people! I even had to scrape the bottom of my scrap bin to find the rest of the stem fabric after I decided it was the only fabric that would do. Now I feel all virtuous and frugal though--just saying.

Ready to start stitching the top of the Cactus Baskets

The good thing about slow stitching; ie, hand work, is that it takes my mind hither and yon and makes me dream up all kinds of scenarios for other open ended projects too. I found myself jumping ahead with my Flock of Geese quilt, the big sashing idea and thinking about applique blocks with birds for the areas where they join together. I've found that it's really important to take these ideas and run with them the minute they frolic through our minds even if it distracts from the current project. They are like gold, but usually quite fleeting and hard to pin down to an absolute.

Auditioning a sashing/applique idea for Flock of Geese

I doodled a notebook page or two of possible birds, checked out Pinterest and then remembered a bird I drew out and used in my Vintage Reproduction quilt. I really like the smooth lines of this bird and since I will probably be using a busy fabric for this? It seems like a go as of right now. Still checking it out on the wall though till I am 100 percent sure!

Playing with size

The bird I used in the other quilt was larger than what I wanted here, so I ran it through the copier a couple times to reduce the size. Easy peasy. Just like in the three bears story, I had a baby one, a medium one and a large one to choose from. Oh yeah. And about that hand work overload I mentioned? I still have the applique work for my Pickle Dish to get going on and the next phase for the Geese Tracks quilt is an applique border as well. I obviously need to get better about pacing myself. lol

Playing With My Flock of Geese

I have really enjoyed playing with these colors lately. They're kind of  different from what I normally choose to work with (as a group) and I find it very refreshing. I ended up adding just a few triangles of  a bright blue and then a few violet ones too. It just seemed like the thing to do, which is good because I do so like the results.

Flock of Geese

When I was getting ready to sew the blocks together, I fully intended to sew the rows with all  the points going in the same direction. That was The Plan.

Getting ready to sew the blocks

But then something happened when I laid them out in their rows of three to sew together. Some blocks decided to be original and free thinking. They were very adamant that they didn't want to all fly in the same direction. What's a girl to do?

The first couple blocks...

You can imagine how hard I fought the idea of changing things up. Especially when I realized how difficult it was to get the seams to lie flat with all points heading off in the same direction.....

21 blocks done for my Flock of Geese

I finally gave up trying to squeeze all the blocks onto my wall. It's pretty obvious how they look all crammed together and I'm not intending to use them that way in the quilt anyway. Right now I'm leaning heavily toward a wide sashing so they can have some space and spread their wings a little. This quilt has not completely pulled me into it's spell yet, but I am feeling a bit intrigued by all the possibilities. Maybe the real connection will come with the next step.

My Little Flock of Geese

Ahhh....Working with all these greens feels wonderfully refreshing. It's been a long time since I worked with this much green in one quilt without adding in a ton of brown fabrics. ('Cuz that's what I generally do--add brown.) And actually, in case you hadn't noticed, there IS brown in this quilt too! I just tried to be a little more discreet about it.

Flock of Geese

The creamy subtle looking plaid is something I just happened to notice lurking around in the clearance bin sometime last year. I bought everything that was left on the bolt (maybe 2 yds. worth) and really, really wished I had seen it earlier when there was more of it to take home with me. I try hard not to go crazy about clearance fabric because I always wonder if it's the price that makes me think I like it or if I really do like it. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. But cream fabric does have a way of getting used around here and I do love plaids so.... great combination! And hmm.. not regretting this impulsive purchase for one minute now that I see it in action!

Possible block

I'm planning on making 21 blocks with 18 flying geese units each, {20 blocks to use in my quilt and then one extra}. Always nice to have one to toss out completely or pull in and out as the layout is being figured out.

Flock of Geese

The crazy thing is, I'm not even halfway through this quilt top and I'm already making plans for my next green quilt. It's obviously contagious. I'd advise you not to look if you're the least bit vulnerable.*wink

On another note, I want to just mention that if you don't receive a reply back to your comments here on this blog it means you're a 'No Reply Commenter' which is a super easy fix! Lori has a link on her sidebar that will give you instructions on how to fix this if you're having problems with bloggers never returning your comments. I always try to find a way to search out your e-mail and get a response back, but well, sometimes it's just not possible--there are no e-mails linked directly to you or maybe you're google plus and I'm not. If you have a blog I'll even try and reply back in your post comments, but I won't do that for long! I want to comment about your gorgeous quilting there, not my trifling efforts! If it's a privacy thing, then no worries--just know that your comments are always loved and appreciated around here anyway!

Oooh, How Fun To Start a New Project!

Don't you just love the feeling of starting a new project? All the fresh colors and possibilities... I must confess to having this one cut out for awhile, squirreled away and waiting for the perfect time to jump in and start sewing pieces together. These greens have really been pulling at me lately, probably because of the very long winter we just came out of.

My new Flock of Geese quilt

All of these flying geese units were cut out using the Easy Angle method, something I've been wanting to reacquaint myself with. I used Bonnie Hunter's great directions to get started and after my initial uncertainty, things went really well. I've had the Easy Angle ruler and the Companion Angle ruler for years now, but for some reason I had switched to a different method a zillion years ago and never went back.

Lovely to see these sewn together...

Gotta say that for me, these geese are turning out to be much more accurate with this method. Will know for sure after I get the whole pile sewn up and ironed. (I do kind of have a tendency to start drifting on my stitching after I've been at it for awhile!)

Binding for Plain Jane

I've also been working on the binding for Plain Jane, mostly in the evening while my daughter is working on her senior project. She's trying to put together a family cookbook that is consuming boat loads of her time and definitely trying her patience too. Not being an experienced cook, she needs a lot of help interpreting all the recipes she's been receiving from our very large family. I've tried to work on hand piecing while helping her out, but I keep getting distracted and then find something sewn wrong yet again! Much better to work on something simple like binding which can practically be done on auto-pilot.

A big thank you to everyone who was kind enough to give feedback on my previous post. As a mostly self-taught quilter, I often hesitate before posting anything that will come off sounding like 'advice' or look like I'm trying to set myself up as an expert. How wonderful to see that the on-line quilting community is big enough to accommodate quilters from all walks of life and/or experiences.