January Applique Prep

Lots of applique projects in the works around here. Oh we are sooo surprised! I've spent quite a bit of time here lately trying to get some of the prep work done. Always a good plan to have the hand work ready for the quieter times.

More words and tulips on quilts!

Above are the outer borders for Peace Always. Not really what I had in mind when starting the project, but I'm sure this will work fine. It's another one of those bright quilts that I'm just not always sure how to react to. Each of the three flower borders actually has three yellow tulips on it, the middle tulip being a smidge smaller. I will probably have to audition it one more time before doing any stitching because something is still nagging at me. 

I often work upstairs in the evening and the lighting is terrible in the area where I have access to the floor. Plus, the carpet is an ugly blue-gray. It sometimes becomes necessary to do one last audition downstairs on a different surface {and during daylight hours}, before I'm satisfied everything looks the way it should. 

Below is the Joy Basket quilt. Just need the letters stitched down. They've been waiting for quite awhile now! One good thing about this quilt taking it's sweet time is now I'm much more fixed on what kind of surround needs to be next. Have been dithering back and forth between piecing or applique or both and eventually I've managed to settle on some sort of improv. piecing. Yay! Love making it up as I go along.

Three letters won't take long to stitch

Another project in the works is the Folksy Tree and Baskets quilt. This is where I left it last August. Sometime between then and December, I added the primitive looking pink tree. I based it off of a tree in our backyard that has been cut down, but the stump continues to send out new scrawny branches every year until it blocks my kitchen window. Been looking forward to the fun part, but hadn't been able to find enough time with the design floor. 

Had to change out the green leaves

This past week I finally found time all kinds of time and thankfully it went fairly well. Thought I had it all the way I wanted {picture above} and then hit a major road block. I played late, late into the evening and ultimately decided it was the olive colored leaves that were not quite right. Ughh! Really didn't know what to do because the blue leaves by themselves just came off as boring. Played and rearranged with several different greens for the leaves, and then actually went to my old fashioned color wheel for help. Uh huh. Totally feeling desperate! 

Anyway, that's when I decided that a very dark emerald green could be an interesting option. I searched and luckily, found a fabric that, kid you not, has been in my stash for at least 25 years! Wowsers! So thrilling to finally find a use for it! Anyway, by using that specific fabric, I was able to salvage the olive green/blue print fabric at least. Very quickly after, the quilt decisively let me know that it had the right vibe and please, oh please, just leave me alone!

The final applique selection and placement
for Folksy Tree & Baskets quilt

Also went ahead and prepped several of these 'dove' blocks. Going to put them with this largish sun applique if I ever get it finished up. You would not believe the number of bird motifs that I have drawn trying to find the perfect one. Love the antique quilts for inspiration, but some of those birds just look like flying dinosaurs! So I've been pushing this to the back of the list. Always interesting when my motivation gets balky and stubborn. Maybe now that I have the birds figured out, I'll finally be ready to do the stitching on the sun?

Bird blocks for Doves in Flight quilt

Also went ahead and jumped into the border prep for Old Fashioned Wildflowers. I thought to do piecing in the border, but then kept thinking about a sort of scalloped look instead. Drew up this simple swag type border {with separate pieces} and thought, Yes! This is exactly what I want! 

Will probably add in the small terracotta colored circles where the scallops join up. Am absolutely delighted with finding a use for the dark, drab olive green background fabrics! They have been in the stash totes for years and years, never finding a good home no matter how hard I have tried. And believe me, I. HAVE. TRIED. 

Whatever possessed me to buy so many fatquarters of these drab greens? But this will be a very sweet use for some of them {Still have more to use up!}. There's just something so very pleasing about these greens and blues together. Sort of feel like I've inadvertently stumbled onto something very precious for this quilt....

Border prep for Old Fashioned Wildflowers

My husband finally got the quilt hanger up in the quilt room. My daughter bought an oversized one for my birthday last fall, knowing that I wanted to hang larger quilts in the guest bedroom. I keep thinking we need to repaint this very pink and orange sherbet room {thanks to my oldest daughter}, but who has time to paint? 

This is one of three quilts I hope to hang here, rotating them out throughout the year. It's also the room set up for me to do my yoga, so I'm looking forward to enjoying these quilts from day to day. Who knows, I might make a quilt especially for the wall of this bedroom some day! In the meantime, it will be much easier to say no to giving these particular quilts away. I have very persuasive children.*wink

Quilt decor

And here's Ellie with her brand new 'big girl' quilt from grandma! She was super happy with it and wanted to carry it herself even though it's pretty big for such a little gal. Love that the grandkids enjoy getting quilts from me. Takes me back to good times when my siblings and I were fighting over my grandmas quilts whenever we went to visit! 

Brand new quilt for the granddaughter!

So yeah. Lots of work to do with all of that applique in the lineup. I'm wanting to finish at least one more of the quilt tops, maybe two before starting in on the next Bramble Blooms quilt. 'Cuz of course it will have applique too! Three of these projects will be complete quilt tops when the applique gets done so that's exciting too. Excellent motivation to get stitching, right? 

Trying to Keep up with the Improv.

I'm trying to cut myself a little slack at the end of November here. It feels like nothing is getting done, but I know that's not true. Plus, it's been busy with the holiday and family time. Now that it's Adhoc Improv. time again, I wanted to see where I was with all the open ended improv. projects.

strips for Playing with Scale #2

All the half square triangle strips are sewn together and trimmed for Playing with Scale #2. I even found time the other evening to free cut all the strips needed to start making the improv. blocks. This is one of those quilts where a large design wall would be amazing, but alas, it's not to be. I'll just keep using my imagination along with the trusty 'design floor'.*wink

I've been so tentative about moving ahead with this particular quilt. Not sure what it is that's holding me back because every time I start working with the fabrics, I fall in love all over again. I did take the time last week to make sure there was enough fabrics in all the important colors that I wanted represented throughout the whole of the quilt. Went digging through the stash totes and added about five other fabrics in deeper and/or bright fabrics that will work well for the larger triangles I plan on adding in later. One thing at a time though! Can't really start working on those until I see what size will be needed for 'proper proportion'.

Maps quilt auditioning

Just before Thanksgiving, I made time to cut and sew the 'road' border for the Maps prompt. It was a bit challenging, but overall I think it went together fairly well. Wasn't sure what to do with those corners, but when I laid it all out on the floor, it suddenly hit me. The upper picture just has a cut rectangle on those corners, nothing sewn down, but it brought it all together for me. So, so, easy, peasy, just a little applique work and the corners were sewn down to make the road look like it was turning the corner.  If they're a little chunkier looking than the rest of the white line pieces, most people will never notice!

Applique addition on the corners....

Next up, something I'm really dreading for some dumb reason, will be a long strip with words on it. I thought to do words on all four sides of the quilt, but now am rethinking that. One strip on the bottom just under the road border and all the rest will be a few random strips of different fabrics. Mostly, I just want to start sewing the strips on for a longer, more vertical looking quilt and get away from the perfectly squared off look. I love how it's so similar to the original quilt inspiration, but also starting to go its own way.  

A pretty stack of quilts

I've also gathered together five more quilts to give away before the end of the year. My family was having a bit of a meltdown over it {thinking I was intending to give away ALL of my quilts}, but settled down when I told them who/what/where they were going. It's sweet that they think all my quilts are too special to give away, but I've told them and told them, they might just be a little bit biased. How they could possibly think I was giving them all away when I still have at least 25 stacked up in my bedroom alone is laughable, but hey, they do seem to get attached! 

All of these quilts are older quilts {except for one which is a more recent finish} and that seems to make it easier for me to say goodbye. My husband however, adamantly called 'off limits' to at least three quilts he randomly uses from a stack in the living room. Then the girls chimed in and that's when negotiations started. So that's that for the giving this year, except for the doll quilt that I'm still planning on making for our granddaughter. Better get cracking on that one. Christmas is right around the corner!

Then and Now

Sometimes the past and present collide, even in quilting. Look at this juxtaposition of quilts hanging on the railing in my quilt room right now. So very interesting! The first is a quilt top made out of scraps and odd bits of fabric I wanted to use up at the time--years and years (and years) ago. The second is a quilt made out of scraps straight out of the scrap bin, sewn together about two years ago.

An old quilt and a new one

The first quilt is still being machine quilted in a very simple and ordinary way so that I can get it moved on down the road and out of the guilt box drawers. The second one was hand quilted {by moi of course} with some gorgeous, addictive Perle Cotton. I spent a lot more time with that lovely than was ever spent with the first one. For one thing, I've learned to not rush things. Details are important.

Machine quilting

But the thing that stopped me in my tracks was the oh-so-obvious learning curve from then until now. Wowsers! You've come a long way baby! {Remember the old Virginia Slims commercials that were so popular? Bad product, good saying.*wink}

Still more quilting to do....

I'm not crazy about spending the time to finish up this older quilt at this particular point in my quilting life. There are other quilts that feel more exciting. But still, it will be passed on to someone who will no doubt appreciate having a comfort quilt. That matters.

Scrap Attack #2 finished!!

This quilt though, (Scrap Attack #2)--it's for me. I love the fact that it's made from my scrap bin. It has all the rest of my orphan border pieces from another quilt too--made into those sweet little trees. Its got character, charm and imperfection, something I adore in the right setting. This quilt might actually have that kind of setting. The first one? Not so much. I also love the graphic look to this quilt. It feels right and good, like I dipped my toes into another genre and actually lived to tell about it. Dare I hope this can be done once again in my quilt room? Only different?

Loving this quilt....

This quilt is also tangible proof that I'm still learning and growing. Oh yes I am. And the fact that I stitched this quilt now, instead of directly after I completed the top, means that the stitching is vastly improved from what could have/would have been. I wasn't even thinking about Perle Cotton when this quilt top was finished up--not even on my horizon! It makes me appreciate the overlap of skills that this quilt benefited from, because of delaying the quilting side of things. Why it isn't happening with the machine quilting side of things though, I can't possibly fathom.*wink

Ah..., the Perle Cotton stitching.....

Maybe because I instinctively think in the language of hand stitching these days? lol  More like the lack of practice, practice, practice. Oh well. I'm still not sure what my 'style' or 'signature' thing is yet in quilting terms, but it's coming along. And how thrilling is that?

Another Status Report and Something From My Scrap Bin

Okay, I know what you're all coming to my blog to read about--the current status of mom's stash! She received about 5 envelopes/parcels on Saturday and then on Monday, wowsers! Dad hauled about 20 home from the post office! Yep. That tote below is the result of this unbelievable generosity from my fellow quilters.

Saturday and Monday fabric!

And people are not just giving fat quarters, which is generous enough by itself! Occasionally there is some larger pieces, a quilt book, maybe a pattern or two, thread, sewing machine needles, applique needles, small rulers, pins and other assorted notions. Overall, she's received a couple small kits and one beautiful larger one, fabric that was undoubtedly bought as part of a kit, charm packs, new fabrics, old fabrics, reproduction fabrics, florals, blenders, batiks, conversation prints, Japanese fabric, neutrals and every other kind of fabric you can imagine. It's simply incredible this outpouring of love and kindness. What is happening here is so wonderful! A daily building of a fabric stash that is rich in years, depth and variety--something impossible for my mom to go out and buy or even replace.

These last packages are from Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Oregon, Alaska, Texas, California, Colorado, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and also from these countries: Australia, Ontario Canada, Novia Scotia Canada, Alberta Canada, England, Spain and the Netherlands! So fascinating to see where it's all coming in from!

My mom's new stash

Over the weekend, my son started to put together a shelf to store grandma's totes on. He ran into a problem and then simply ran out of time before he had to go back home to Eugene.*sigh  A partially put together shelf is not very helpful! So yesterday, between my dad and my husband, they were able to finish the shelves and start loading the totes that had been filled {or mostly filled} over the weekend by my mom and sister. Last night, I added two more (one from the weekend and another from the Thursday/Friday haul). She also has two drawers in her small dresser that are mostly stuffed with fabric. Can you believe this?? I am in a state of shock almost every day. lol

A few of my scraps

So I'm playing with my scraps. You know, to find my equilibrium.*wink First I sort out the colors that are so sweetly calling to me. {Surprise, surprise to see these ones...} And then I look for my pattern, block or idea.

Yep, it's foundation piecing. I have clearly lost my mind....

Gotta love my $1 quilt books! So very inspirational as I somehow knew they would be. Those older books are usually loaded with good ideas. I'm not sure about this tulip though. It's a pretty big guy for my scrappy little scraps....

My big 'ol scrappy tulip

Oh well. It does give me a thrill to see it up on my design wall! That's usually a pretty good sign to keep on 'keeping on' with what I'm doing. What do you think? I do love my flowers....

I'm Hoping a Few of You Might Help Me Out....

I pulled this brown fabric out today and had a stare down with it. Since it's not going to be my Tree of Life go-to fabric anymore, I was trying to brainstorm. Good ideas or bad? You'd think crunching apples with caramel dip would help me out, but you'll never guess what I came up with.... 

My brown Merry Medley fabric

Even I'm a bit nervous about this idea. The thing is, I've been thinking a lot about my mom picking and choosing fabrics out of my totes and LOVING the process so much. I mean, seriously. All of us as quilters have a deep and abiding love for fabric, don't we? And her entire stash burnt up--which just kills me. So... I had a wild and crazy idea that some of you very kind and generous quilters might be willing to help me out here! What I propose is this: If you would like to send my mom a fat quarter of your very lovely fabric, then I will send a fat quarter of my lovely brown Moda fabric--to the first 15 people that she receives an envelope from!

One fat quarter will fit in the longish envelopes if you fold it right...

She can get an intriguing little start to her stash and you, {if you want it} can have something in return. Please tell me this isn't begging! I'm thinking more like trading? Or bartering? Definitely a time honored tradition! And no, she doesn't know anything about what I'm doing. I'm hoping that since she reads my blog so sporadically, she won't know a thing about this until she starts receiving sweet little squishy envelopes!

So. DETAILS! If you would like to receive one of my brown fatquarters in return, then just slip a little piece of paper into the envelope that says 'Tell Audrey hi! My address is blah, blah, blah' (you know those details better than I do!). If there isn't a slip of paper for her to hand off to me, then I'll assume you don't want anything in return! And of course if she gets more than 15, I will be out of fabric. Bummer for you, but also incredibly generous and very sweet of everyone involved. You can address your squishy envelope to: Joyce Wilson, PO Box 352, Pateros, WA 98846. I guarantee that she'll be picking up the mail personally every day after the first or second envelope!

And also, don't worry that my mom will be the least bit picky about color or style or even print--she is fabric poor and I promise you that everything looks fabulous to her. She won't even care if there's a little chunk taken out of your fatquarter or if you decide to send two fat eighths instead of a fatquarter. What she will be is very puzzled about the first envelope, and then probably come right over to chew me out after she starts to figuring it out. Yikes! Then she'll probably get choked up about how nice people can be to total strangers, all the while patting her pretty little pieces of fabric and smiling. Hopefully it will end that well. I really don't want her mad at me forever.*wink

Isn't this an interesting look?

Okay, now I need to get back to my latest endeavor, trying to get the Pickle Dish/Wedding Ring units appliqued to the background fabric! I had a bit of fun playing with the picture as you can see. Love how graphic this quilt is going to be. Did you know this is the quilt I've wanted (been petrified) to make for oh...., over 15 years now?

Trying To Find My Way

I just can't keep it totally solid can I? Oh well. A baby needs some excitement.*wink I'm just trying to find my way in uncharted territory. Honestly? I can't wait to get back to my traditional leanings.:)

Creative Juices

I am so thrilled to have this little quilt done. This is the baby quilt for my new niece born the middle of March. She is an absolute sweetheart and her mom likes the modern stuff in slightly subdued colors (at least when it comes to the baby room). I didn't use a pattern for this, just started cutting and sewing like I do once in a blue moon.:) I had been staring at a stack of bright fabrics for months and just couldn't get anything creative going, so one day I dumped all the brights but about two and started over. I tell you, this modern stuff is extremely appealing to me, but it doesn't come naturally at all. Apparently I have to have at least one plaid fabric and something brown to get my creative juices clicking. lol!!

It's the Thought That Counts

I got another UFQ finished up. This quilt is called 'sticks and stones'. Very simple and so very fast to put together. I used old fabrics (obviously) and went with an americana look. I put a classic, but ugly red fabric with little bears and abc's on the back and it became a baby quilt for a little boy of a friend of ours. Once again, I'm a big believer in the mantra 'It's the thought that counts!' I machine quilted in in a grid, which is pretty much all I ever do on the machine. I don't hand quilt very many baby quilts because they tend to get a lot of use (wear and tear, stains, excessive washing etc.). I want people to feel like they can USE the quilt and if it's not completely gorgeous, it often becomes a bed quilt or something to be dragged around--who cares if it gets tattered? I sometimes wonder what people Really think when they receive one of my quilts for a gift.blerk! Is this all the better she can do? hehe Maybe, you just never know....