A Whole Lotta Yellow

 It's been a struggle to make time for this post. The days have finally started getting cooler around here and it feels like I've just sorta collapsed into an end-of-summer fugue state. Don't wanna do much of anything!

Looking very cozy

We had dinner with some friends the other night and during conversation, I complimented Jessica on her beautiful, intensely detailed tapestry type print she had hanging on the wall. She is a wonderful, successful artist with many followers on social media. Super talented! Anyway, long story short, she said that the tapestry was one of her favorites, but she hadn't sold very many. Most people seemed to prefer another version in the series. Then the conversation riffed from there into how true it is that so many of the things that we personally make and LOVE end up not being someone else's favorites. How ironic in fact, that a lot of times the vast majority seem to prefer something we're not even feeling oodles of love for! I mean, we don't hate it. It's just not in our 'top 10' so to speak.

Love Apples is a true-blue completion!

We ended that conversation agreeing that it's a very good thing to mostly make for ourselves. That way we can continually shore up that feeling of satisfaction and personal validation at the close of a project. Be inspired enough to keep on making the good things that resonate with our inner spirit. Don't you just love conversations like that with people who get you? Who speak much the same language even though our formats might be different?

The Love Apple Blocks

And that's how I realized another thing besides summer fatigue was holding me back from writing this post. This latest quilt really isn't destined to be a favorite with very many people. It's sort of an odd color palette and the structure/layout is a little too formal for the quirky blocks. Maybe. I rather enjoy the sense of not knowing for sure! 

This one started on a whim, me hoping to use up some peachy pink border discards and wanting to dive into a long-marinating stack of fabric. It's also got a whole lotta yellow in it. Which might just turn certain people off. Technically, probably not more than the amount of pink or gray used in the quilt? It's just that yellow has a way of shining very bright and bold in whatever spot it's used in.

Loving this texture

Oh well! You know me. I've been bird dogging the color yellow ever since I ran out of interest in pursuing the oldie moldy greens {and after that, the color orange which somehow didn't inspire much of anything}. It's a surprisingly hard color to play with. So bright and sunny, you'd think it would be easy breezy, but it can quickly look fake or hard in quilts. I don't usually love combining it with black or gray. Hmmm... Still pondering. This is probably my best effort yet, though I do intend to keep working with the color from many as many different angles as I can imagine. 

In an interesting twist, the free-style Baptist fan stitching looks especially great here. Don't you agree that the yellow and white checks here just soak up the comfy vibe from the repeat stitched arcs?  Will have to remember this for future quilting endeavors. Don't bother getting too fussy with the stitching when it comes to yellow...

The free-hand Baptist fan look

So...., you're probably not surprised to hear that this stash tote has been extremely full for a long time now. I buy the fabric {or have it donated to me} and then only tend to use little bits and pieces. It's a wonderful, warm and cheery spark in quilts, but alas, a little bit usually goes a very long ways. 

The problem is, there's a lot and I'm tired of the lid not wanting to close properly. I've been seriously trying to work toward winnowing down the sheer amount without throwing anything away. Again and again, I make a quilt and then toss a thick stack of yellow fabric right back into the totes.*sigh  I've been putting it on the backs of quilts and that helps a bit. Truly. Must do something about this fabric that is starting to get so stale-dated that it's starting to get on my nerves!

The first go-round, before borders

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but the shades in this quilt top are more along the lines of 'cheddar'. Deeper, richer, orangish shades of yellow. Which I love! Might be my most favorite version of yellow, this cheddar thing. At this point {with the layout in above picture}, I could have probably said 'Ta-da! It's a finish' and gladly moved on. This quilt though.... it just kept nagging at me for a border. For more attention. Something simple, right? You're not really just gonna slap some blocks together and waltz away?

It's too big for a proper picture!

Right....  See how well I'll sleep after that happens! As most of you know, I have a penchant for half square triangles, especially in quilts. Or borders in quilts. Thinking along the lines of KISS, I cut up pretty much all that was left of the blue fabrics from the original stack, added a cut-up plaid shirt and rummaged around for complimentary yellows and just pretty much went with the flow. Some of these were cheddar shades and others, more of a yellow gold or gold brown. Whatever it takes as long as it blended well.

Had to change out the cornerstones in the center

Then, after I had the border idea starting to take shape, I remembered to double check my measurements. Yeah. About that. That's when I had to make a judgment call on whether or not to severely chop into the last hst unit on each vertical border? Or perhaps add another small strip of 'coping' border before sewing on the hst border.

Lillabelle is a completed quilt top!

I fell down on the side of adding a coping border, choosing a very late 90's strippy floral print. Easy enough to fussy cut it to meet the correct measurements and hopefully see it 'disappear' into the overall scheme of things. I should mention here that it was 'close' to correct measurements. Since I wasn't intending to trim down all those hst's, ha! I knew there could be a certain amount of 'fudging' that probably needed to happen anyway. Just didn't want to lose three-fourths of a  5 1/2" hst on this particular quilt! And don't ask me why it's okay on some quilts and not others 'cuz I really don't know....

With the coping borders added to top and bottom of the quilt, I went ahead and sewed on the hst borders to the vertical sides of the quilt too. Measurements for the top and bottom hst repeats looked good, so no additional coping borders needed. Woohoo! Moving on!

While I was auditioning the hst borders for the top and bottom {something I often do for the sake of good color transition from light blue hsts to darker hsts etc.}, I reluctantly decided that the cream cornerstone squares in the very center of the quilt needed to go. I'm not sure if it made a huge difference to the look of the quilt, but having those blue squares inserted instead of the cream just makes me much, much happier. It's the little things. Hey! It only took an hour or so to seamrip out and change over. 'Cuz of course I ended up sewing part of the quilt right into the new seams.*groan.... 

A small, almost hidden coping strip

Hst borders successfully figured out, I was left with one last question. Was it done now? Well no, the quilt wanted more yellow. Can you believe that? Personally, I thought we were parked a little too close to the corner of 'overdone' and 'tacky' and you know how that goes. Nobody will ever want the quilt except for grandma with the bad eyesight. 

That stash tote though!! Might as well take advantage of this opportunity. And so it happened. A scrappy pieced 3 1/2" addition of more yellow to the outside border of the quilt, making it 85 1/2" x 97 1/2". I do think that it served to emphasize the old fashioned vibe of the entire quilt somehow. Could it have actually toned things down? I know, I know. That doesn't even make sense. How could adding MORE of the overblown, in-your-face yellow simultaneously give off a softer, more delicate energy? Go figure. There are some things that I will never understand and that's perfectly okay. I'm still learning and that's the most fun of all!

Enjoying this look!

More questions for the quilt history:

6. When do you normally quilt? Time of day, year?

Such an interesting question. I am not a morning person on any day of the year, so the quilting process that takes place in the quilt room is more likely to be late afternoons {depending on my schedule}. Or, if that doesn't work out, my best, most efficient quilting time is immediately after dinner. Hand quilting takes place at about 9:00 - 11:30 pm while I'm curled up in the corner of the couch, winding down from the day. Perhaps, if I'm lucky, for several hours in late afternoon and evenings on most Sundays. I obviously quilt all year long, but like most quilters, more intensely during the fall and winter months. 

7. Do you belong to a quilters' guild or club? If so, for how long? What groups?

Nope, never belonged to a quilters' guild, for many, varied reasons. Either I was comfortable with the quilting group I had, or I intimidated by the {thought of a} guild, or it met during a bad time for our schedule, or they didn't have a style that I enjoyed, or whatever. I'm not actively opposed to the idea. The groups that I belonged to were always groups from our church--just us gals getting together with a shared interest during some of the winter months. I'm a bit of an introvert in my own way and this was probably more of a comfort thing than anything else.

Currently {and since prior to 2017}, I am part of an online group I love called AHIQ:Adhoc Improvisational Utility Quilting. It involves loosely structured, group challenge projects headed by Ann from Texas and California and Kaja from the United Kingdom. We've slowed down a lot since inception, but I still find it immensely valuable to my creativity as a whole.

8. Do you know others who quilt in your community or parish?

Years ago I would chat with a lady quilter or two in our community. Usually when we bumped into each other at a quilt show or at the fair. Most of the ones that I knew were about 20+ years older than me with a very different style. 

There has been several quilter friends in our church throughout the years, but the numbers have thinned considerably in the last decade or so. I have found myself seriously dialing down my outwardly expressed enthusiasm for the craft in an effort to not come off as strangely obsessed and/or fixated. Uggh. So exhausting talking about quilting with people who don't care the slightest about the creative journey of it all! {Which makes me sound very snotty.} I have had a  tiny bit of interest in doing the quilt meetings again this winter so that might happen again. Am trying to wrap my brain around a way to make it interesting for all involved, including me, as it does take quite a lot of my time!

Slow Stitching

I had big intentions to stitch the majority of Plain Jane without any marking at all, but you know how things don't always pan out the way we want them to. I think it was the busy fabrics, but whatever, I had to eat my words and keep marking for several blocks before I finally found my rhythm!

Freehand Baptist Fan stitching on Plain Jane

Now I'm just marking the rare curve, but it goes so much faster now that I can just stitch away without having to stop and mark out ahead of me. I've also got a good start on my applique blocks for the next border on the Muddy Creek quilt. I never worry about getting perfect circles and I'm especially unconcerned when it comes to this particular quilt. I want Muddy Creek to be a bit rustic and primitive looking. We'll see how that works out, but I'm giving it my best effort for now.*wink

Applique for Muddy Creek quilt

Time to link up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday again although I won't be browsing through the other links until later. My oldest daughter wants me to show her how to make a triple berry pie and I don't think I have ever turned down a piece of berry pie in my life! Hey, how about those Seahawks? lol

Part #2: Learning How to Make Freehand Baptist Fans For Hand Quilting

If you read through the previous Baptist Fans tutorial, it's easy to see that traditional fans are made up of lots and lots of the exact same set of arcs. They are carefully marked onto the fabric, side by side of each other, and then on top of each other in a series of endless repeats. It all looks very tidy and well organized.

Making the arcs freehand style is where you can take the carefully marked out of the equation and go your own way although the essential structure remains a constant. I generally grab a piece of paper to start with and draw the basic set of arcs that I'm considering stitching. As before, I'm working with a three arc fan. You can choose to add as many arcs as you like--draw them very close together or even spread them out. It's always yours to customize.

One set of Freehand Arcs

Once again, I'll use a piece of paper to demonstrate how the arcs might look together. In the picture below I drew one set of arcs at a time moving from the right to the left and then starting again at the next row--all without using a template. As you can see, some arcs are flatter, some are taller etc. This is a natural conclusion of working freehand style. As the arcs build across the quilt, this begins to get quite interesting and yes, even a bit frightening, especially if it's the first time you've worked this way! Mostly, I think, because it all seems a bit out of control and we're programmed to resist undisciplined action!

I'll have to admit that the first time I starting stitching freehand Baptist Fans, I was almost in tears a third of the way through my quilt. I was positive I had ruined my quilt. After a good nights sleep and some gritty determination to make myself finish what I had started, I continued on and ended up with something I still love to this day. To me, working freehand is one of the best ways to get your stitching to look more personal and charming. It also removes any pressure to get things 'perfect', which I for one, appreciate.

2 Rows of Freehand Arcs

Working with my Plain Jane quilt (below) I decided to start stitching at the far right corner of the main body of my quilt rather than the very bottom corner. I'll come back and stitch the border later because I think it needs to be stitched in a different color of thread than the blue I'm using for the rest of the quilt. I generally mark the first three fans or so onto my quilt before I start to stitch freehand Baptist Fans. You don't have to--just wade right in if that's your preference. In the picture below, I used a blue wash-out marker, marking entirely without a template. I then stitched those first arcs and moved up to the second row.

From there on, throughout the rest of my quilt, I won't use a marker again unless I really get in a quandary about what to do. (Sometimes a rows get really out of whack and it helps to draw a set of arcs with a marker so you can 'see' it). I just eyeball the distance from arc to arc and stitch away, letting my eye be the judge. If you decide to draw all your fans in the freehand style before stitching, remember, no need to worry about getting perfectly marked, smooth arcs. As you stitch, you will automatically make small corrections to make things appear smoother.

The first hoop of freehand Baptist Fans

When I get the first hoop filled with stitching, then (just like with formal Baptist Fans), I move the hoop to the left and start up where I left off on the very bottom row. It's always good to work in the same general direction, right to left, bottom to top etc. although again, I want to emphasize that there are no rules!

Some people prefer a mix of formal and freehand looking fans rather than (what they consider to be) out and out chaos. Tim Latimer has an excellent example of this with one of his latest quilts where he marked the longest, outside arc and then went back and filled in the rest of his arcs with freehand style arcs. It's a perfect way to get familiar with letting your 'eye' tell you where to stitch next and/or keep to more structured looking rows of Baptist Fans.

Moving over to start the second hoop of stitching

If you prefer not to mark your quilt at all and enjoy a more casual look of stitching, the freehand Baptist Fans are extremely easy to stitch once you get into the rhythm of the design. Another thing to be aware of with freehand fans, is that you can stop at any time in your quilt and change up the direction you're stitching the fans in or even add an extra arc or two to any of your fans. Whatever you think the quilt needs. Really. I'm being serious here. When the entire quilt is stitched, it's almost impossible to see where there's an extra arc or two and imperfect rows only add to the charm. All that your eye really processes is the basic Baptist Fan stitching pattern--the arcs themselves!

Freehand Baptist Fans in my Festival of Trees quilt

What I love the most about freehand Baptist Fans is the fact that the further you progress through the quilt with your stitching, the more 'disorderly' the fans become (you can see a little of this in the picture above). Freehand is not for everyone and I know I still have a long ways to go before my freehand gets completely unique and crazy. Working with freehand stitching does NOT come naturally to me--it wars with the perfectionist side that I keep trying to liberate with my quilting! lol  Ready to try some freehand Baptist Fans yourself? I'll warn you--it really can be a bit addictive.