Grandma's Fans is Complete!

 The brand new quilt finish is 'Grandma's Fans'!  This was started in 2021 sometime after my daughters wedding. Just felt like getting a couple of the fabric stacks moving and grooving.

Grandma's Fans Quilt is finishedd!

Didn't get the top together until September of 2022, but that's not really an extra long time for projects around here. You're probably thinking 'Wow! There's no applique in it.' but actually there is. All the wedges and quarter circle are machine sewn together, but then, well... I simply had to hand sew them to the background squares.

Doesn't really look like a quilt my grandma would have made

Just something that I prefer to do most of the time. Gotta have a couple hand applique projects in the works at all times. Might break out in hives otherwise! Plus, precision and circles are not my strong suit at all. 

Loving this hand quilting texture!

I've always really loved the fan quilts, such a lovely, classic design. Just never thought I'd make one in these lighter, brighter colors! The final inspiration {after soaking up many ideas for 'fan' quilts through the years, was this quilt. It's not very often that I make a quilt that so closely mirrors the inspiration but for some reason I fell in love with this particular quilt. 

Still happy about the change-up in fans presentation

I did change up the colors slightly and also, turned some of the fans, changing the look incrementally. My quilt just wasn't happy with all the fans pointing in the same direction! 

Love the text fabric backgrounds in mine sooo much. There's something about text fabrics that always make me smile and this design helped show them off a bit. Obviously, I didn't go off of a pattern, but made it up on my own. Always have to do things my way, don't I? It's going to be extremely hard to get rid of this quilt when the time comes. It's already earmarked for one of the nephew weddings someday! Probably. Maybe. Unless I change my mind....

Definitely a cuddly sort of quilt!

Mostly I'm just thrilled to have another quilt finish. Things are moving so slowly around here lately {in regards to quilting} that I wonder if I'm even a quilter? Ha. Nope. Not wondering at all. It's still my thing!

The background isn't stark white 'cuz of the text

Must be. Since I dream of quilts and see quilt patterns and ideas practically everywhere I go. And yes, I still have a notebook by my bed where I can doodle a quick quilt idea just before nodding off at night.*sigh

A happy looking circle of fans!

The hand quilting has picked up a little of late. 'A Tisket, A Tasket' quilt is the newest one in the hoop. It's got a very easygoing, cottage country sort of charm. I stitched in-the-ditch between all the blocks and now I'm coming back and doing some hand quilting with Perle Cotton thread. Always seems to makes the whole quilt perk up! The colors are very different from the prior quilt in the hoop, which isn't always a bad thing. Helps keep things interesting!

In the hoop

And the little baskets below are the current hand applique project finally finding its way to needle and thread. Got about half of them done now with the slightly larger {taller} baskets left to stitch. It's so lovely to sit and do hand applique. I know many of you detest the neede-turn application, but if everything is prepped and ready to go, I just love it. So satisfying! It's rather like painting a picture in fabric to my mind.

Baskets for 'Peace Always' quilt

That's it for now. Every now and then I pull out a stack of marinating fabric and fiddle around with it, trying to conjure up some good quilting mojo. Sometimes I go upstairs to my quilt room and try to soak it all in before I have to scurry and get back to whatever needs my attention more. It's been great seeing all the BBI quilt tops together--how very, very different they are! Have you seen how many there are now? Loving the creative response to the QAL prompts and how original everyone has been. Hopefully it hasn't been a waste of anyone's time. We only have so many quilts we can make in our lifetime, right?

Finished Quilt Tops Always Feel Good

It's been a good week. I wrapped up two more quilt tops and dropped the number of open-ended projects down to three! Yessss.... That means I can start some new ones now without any guilt whatsoever!

A little bit moody with the gray-text backgrounds

This quilt top was started in the 2021-22 winter. I got motivated to trace the wedge segments and then they just sat for a very long time. Finally in July, the sewing started happening. Some quilt projects progress very slowly, sit for awhile, progress slowly and then seem to come together all in a rush. This is one of those kinds, but it always surprises me when the end comes together so quickly!

Not the strictly traditional layout

Last Saturday found me doing the auditioning for layout and let me tell you, it took hours. I couldn't believe how unsatisfied I was with the overall look to this quilt! Though I adore almost every Grandma's Fan quilt that I've ever seen, for some reason this was the actual impetuous for starting on my own. I know, I know. So modern looking with all the white backgrounds! 

Too much?

It seemed like a great use for my text print fabrics, and also some of those brighter fabrics that I often find so hard to use. Altogether these particular blocks just hit me as very 'bland' and fairly underwhelming though. Cue the disappointment. I kept leaving the room and coming back to fiddle with blocks until something made me decide to turn a couple of the blocks into partial or even full circles. Hmm... Now we're talking!

Looking across

Not at all what I was hoping for initially, but definitely much more interesting than anything I'd seen before while attempting this layout. I like the whimsy of only having some of the blocks joined into circles so then of course that took awhile longer to figure all the details out. Where in the quilt? Which colors? Bold impact? Or a softer, fade-away look, where, if you didn't look closely, you might miss the fact that something else was happening in the quilt? So many questions!

A partial circle on the side of the quilt

Eventually I sorted it all out and then it was only a matter of getting the rows sewn together and finally, the quilt top as a whole. It's a super sweet looking quilt and right now, I'm leaning hard toward no borders ever. Or applique. We'll see. I'm not very good about sticking to those sorts of decisions! It was hard to sew the last bits of the quilt together because I was enjoying seeing it draped over the totes as I walked into the quilt room. Every quilt room should have something special to draw you inward, right?

Welcome home, it says!

Next up in the quilt hoop is the 4-Block Tulip Medallion, a finished quilt top since April of last year. Clearly, I'm in a yellow state of mind right now, so don't mind me while I positively wallow in it.

Next up in the hoop!

This is already a wonderful quilt to have in my lap in the evenings. So soft and warm with lots of good cuddle vibes. Why is it then, that I'm already trying to figure out who this quilt is destined to go to? Ha! Sometimes it feels like I have to justify all the reasons why a quilt might end up being mine, all mine....

A sweet, simple feel to this one

After lots of pondering, I'm probably going to mark some sort of cross-hatch for the outside border stitching. Just don't think I want to echo stitch on top of all the flowers {or just outside of them} and then have all that empty space left to fill up. Still thinking and thinking. Definitely don't want to do anything very fussy.

Stitching in the hoop

The other completed quilt top is one that I thought for sure was totally done back in May of 2021. So hard to believe that it's been hanging around for that long! It was an AHIQ Challenge that almost threw me. I'm still convinced that the color palette itself has been behind every difficult decision in the entire quilt!

Ooh, loving that darker blue border finish!

Needless to say, at some point this year, I determined that this finished quilt top was actually NOT finished at all, and instead, was stomping its petulant little feet wanting a border. Anyone following me for any length of time knows this is not the first time this has happened, nor will it probably be the last.

So much better now!

And now that the little basket handle appliqued border has been stitched down and added to the rest of the quilt? It's perfectly obvious something was lacking before. I mean, can you believe the difference in overall look and vibe to this thing? So much more rich and cozy looking now! Something interesting to think about--it took approximately two hours to hand stitch down each border, and then of course, it all needed sewn on by machine when attaching to the center part of the quilt. Would that have been worthwhile to you? And that's not even counting the applique prep time. Am I crazy or smart?*wink

Kind of a lacy-look border!

So next up for the ongoing quilt questions is a set of questions pertaining to 'Reasons for Quiltmaking'. The first three have a lot of the same answers, so I'm going to answer them all in a jumble.

1. Why do you quilt? What does quilting give you?

2. Why do you spend so much time on such a craft?

3. Why do you enjoy quilting? What do you like most about it?

I quilt because I adore the look and feel of quilts and I love the process. Might even be obsessed with the process in fact! There's just something so good and heartwarming about using our minds and our hands to think about and/or work with color and textiles. It's simultaneously relaxing, therapeutic, stimulating and comforting all at the same time. 

There's a puzzle to be figured out. The time and effort it takes our minds to work this out, can shut out all but the worst of the world has to offer. So that's a relief and balm to the soul. When our minds get finished sorting out the various and assorted details involved in making a set look or design, then there's a rush of satisfaction and all those happy endorphins to thoroughly enjoy.

People say that it takes on average, 10,000 hours of experience to master a skill. Whether that's true or not, there's nothing to take lightly about the journey of getting to a stage of proficiency in our chosen craft. Within those hours is a roller coaster of highs and lows--learning to trust in the core of ourselves and have a confidence in the things that we want to express through the makings of our hands. There's a great pride in being able to finally produce an outcome that resonates to the very depths of our being. When I randomly stumble upon one of my more favorite quilts {that I've personally made}, there's this leap to my heart. 'Is that one of mine? Oh, I know that quilt!' And of course I'm already smiling before the recognition even truly hits!

The journey {and joy} of creativity keeps me going, day after day and year after year. I can't wait to find out what happens next! In all the years that I've spent quilting, I would have never dreamed that I could make the kinds of quilts that I do now. Mostly because I couldn't envision where the passion would take me. It boggles my mind that my voice could so clearly be reflected back in so many of the quilts that I've made. How wonderfully real and warm and cozy that voice would be. It makes me want to cry because I'm such a reserved person. How is it that my quilts are not?

When I hand quilt, it quiets my mind and soothes my being. It sorts out the tangled mess in my brain. I've said it before so many times, but it's still true. Quilting makes me a better person. When I give a quilt away, it feels like I'm offering comfort, a hug, or perhaps a little ray of sunshine. And yes, we can buy or give other things to people to help them in their time of need. A quilt just feels extra special. Especially if it's made with heart and soul and not just out of feelings of expectation.

So that's why I quilt. Because I can and also, because I can't not make quilts. 

Orphan Annie Gets a Border

So this is Orphan Annie with the first border. From the start, I kept thinking that Dogtooth borders might be a good design, especially using the lightning design. That just sort of seemed like the thing to do and I haven't used that layout in forever! If I was thinking more about black or pink for the borders, well, that idea quickly got shut down.

First border on Orphan Annie

When it became evident that the quilt wanted more of those lighter shades of green, I didn't really know what to do. So many of them have been used up at this point! I scrambled around and eventually found some strips of the green batik, leftovers from a recent quilt backing. Thankfully, I had enough yardage of the blue fabric for the relief/contrast color.

Auditioning the borders

I picked a size of quarter triangle that looked 'about right' and just started cutting. Didn't worry about measurements to exactly fit to the quilt at all. After sewing several long lengths of triangles together, then it was time to audition.  To my disappointment, in the initial layout, nothing looked right except for the arrangement in the previous picture. Perhaps I was going to need to add coping strips all the way around to get the proper look?  It was almost enough for me to throw up my hands and try and start over, but you know how it goes. This was an orphan block quilt. Why does it have to look incredible? That gave me just enough impetuous to sew on the first border surround--all in a log cabin style, one border after another.

Orphan Annie is a completed quilt top!

When it came time to sew on the second border, I went ahead and did another 'layout', mostly just checking to see where each border might need to start--with a blue triangle or maybe a green? That's when I tried the 'lightning' dogtooth border look once again, and to my surprise...., it looked really good at the sides of the quilt. Like, amazingly good! Not all the way around the quilt, which is kinda odd, but still. Then I fiddled and fiddled and fiddled, trying to get the corners to look okay. Soooo frustrating. 

Loving the crazy pieced corners

It was only after a couple times of leaving and coming back that I realized the problem. I was attempting to get the corners to come together in perfect pairings and/or the lightning layout in perfect repeats. This quilt was actually wanting a more disordered and make-do look. When I let go and started cutting the edges and sewing the rows with that specific idea in mind, the last rows went together swimmingly. 

Looking across the quilt

And yes, there are definitely areas where the borders fall in a more precise arrangement. That's okay. But believe me, when I say it is totally by accident {and perhaps the fact that my triangles were all cut to the same size}. The thing that really struck me was how much I LOVE the make-do look and yet, over and over and over, I continually fight against that very look in my own quilts. Now, you might see something different in what I turn out, but never think that it just comes naturally. Oh no. It's all very much a work in progress around here!

Looking very cozy

My youngest brother and his wife recently sold their home by the river {hard to raise little kids by a whitewater river}and bought a small cattle farm. During the big move, they had to decide what to take, what to keep as the farmhouse there is fairly small. Anyway, long story short, they called me and asked if I would like to have this brand new sewing table {still in the box}. Yessss!!!

A new sewing table!

Since my sewing machine is slightly larger than the standard size, my husband had to cut a little bit more room in the opening. It's been interesting getting used to having my sewing machine flush with the sewing table and honestly, I'm still not 100% sure that I love that part. It sure looks good though! Always fun to get something new to try out, especially when there's no money involved!

Trying out the new sewing machine position

I finally went ahead and started chain piecing the wedges for the Grandma's Fan blocks, cut out sometime during the winter. There's a lot of blocks in the quilt {over 90?} and so I haven't been in a huge hurry. I'll probably sew the fans onto the background by hand, but now I'm dithering over which color to use in the background position. Lots of white in this quilt and mehh... you know how I feel about that!

Starting to sew the Grandma Fan blocks together

Got all the leaves cut out for the Flower Power blocks. Love the punchy vibe! It's a vintage floral I picked up at a quilt show many moons ago. The last time I used a chunk of this fabric, it was probably in 2018. Very good fabric, but the purple in it goes a very long ways. Wish I could get better pictures of these tulip blocks, but to date, they have been extremely uncooperative.

Flower Power blocks looking better with the leaves

In other news, we have had a rather rough couple of weeks. Some friends in our church were involved in a dispute of sorts and were killed in their home. During Covid, they got more and more interested in going off-grid and getting away from people, resulting in them buying property in a fairly remote area. It was all very shocking and so very, very sad as they were 'salt of the earth' sort of people and the least likely people you could imagine this happening to. 

Only one frame left to go!

Our church members took food, for over a week, to the daughter & husband in the home where she was housing the surviving grandmother and other grieving family members. The grandmother was also living at the remote location at the time of the tragedy, and had thankfully managed to run away and hide. She was severely traumatized as you can only imagine. It's surreal and mind blowing this could happen to such good people. There was lots to be done as to relocating animals and plants etc. and much more needed in the weeks ahead. Obviously the grandmother will not be comfortable living there now and the house will have to be cleaned up and sold. My husband was asked to officiate the memorial services and our church members rallied around and provided a dinner afterward, all on the Saturday of a holiday weekend. So much love and really, so very little we can do for them. It's hard when tragedy strikes close to home with people we genuinely care about. I cannot even imagine how devastating it would be to be the daughter, mother, father, grandparents in this situation. 

As usual, when times are hard and there is lots of heavy thinking to do, I tend to pick up the hoop and put in the hand quilting time. Many times through the years we've been married, my husband thinks longingly about living off grid and 'getting away from it all'. If nothing else, this event proved to us that when the world is in such a state of apprehension and turmoil, there is not a lot of safer places to be. I wasn't even going to mention any of this, but it has made me feel very sad, lethargic, helpless, moody--you name it. So yeah. Don't feel sorry for us. We're not the ones who got our lives upended in a brutal, senseless manner. We are absolutely, positively looking forward to getting to spend a week with our kids and grandkids here in a couple weeks. I'd say it's a very good time to bring on the hugs!

One Little Decision at a Time

Lets take a meander through the latest applique work going on around here. For whatever reason, that's what has seemed the most interesting of late. Plus, there are a couple projects that really, really need the attention so they can move on to final quilt top stage!

Positive  Vibes getting the attention

The main project that has been getting my complete and almost total attention is the Positive Thinking one. It's not a super long term project as it's just barely a year old. The clamshell borders ended up being easier than I expected once in the groove of hand sewing.  We won't get into the initial angst and nerves of getting started, but I will say machine sewing two-three stiches at the join of each clamshell helped me out tremendously. Just don't go looking for perfection! The borders lengths were not cut 'exact' as I was quite, quite sure that my measurements would be all over the place, and well.... I was right about that. 

The right side applique templates

That means that I will have to either cut all the clamshells off at the ends of the borders or potentially add a narrow border around the centerpiece of the quilt. Right now my brain just freezes up at the math, but I might try and get that worked up so I can at least make an informed decision. If I do add in the narrow border, it will probably be a cream fabric so as to look like it's part of the centerpiece.

The left side applique templates

What I always did know, is that there needed to be some flower applique to the side of the words. Don't you know those open spaces were meant for applique all long? The shape of the flowers have always been an iris shape in the imaginings of my mind, so that part was easy. Sometimes I grab fabric and start cutting, other times I use the leftover pieces in the applique orphan totes for auditioning and other times, I jump in with the free-style drawn paper shapes that I love to play with.

Auditioning all the wrong fabrics

Most generally, that saves me from ruining lots of pieces of good fabric. Not this time though.*sigh  I worked on the colors and prints of these flowers for almost 2 hours! Then I put it all up and went downstairs for the evening, telling my husband that all my creativity had apparently left me for good. It was all looking and feeling very much like MUSH!

More of those wrong fabrics

The next day I tossed all the lousy looking colors/prints and deliberately went searching for things that might 'pop' more. It was very annoying because in the end, I had to raid a couple marinating project totes for the better colors. Makes me very twitchy when I think those fabric stacks might be losing a very important fabric.

Finally getting it right!

But all for the greater good, right? And my final version here is much, much better than the previous attempts. No doubt about that at all. After cutting, I realized that the floral vase fabric had never been soaked for possible fabric bleeds, so those parts are currently resting in hot water and Dawn dish soap, sure enough, bleeding out a little bit of red/pink dye!

And even more right....

All in all, this quilt is pulling together and projecting a lovely positive vibe. Finally. Those old tired blues are gonna be the death of me though. I just don't know what to do with them to properly wake them up! For the past couple years I've been raiding the stash totes and earnestly trying to deal with some of the older colors that have fallen into utter disfavor. This is my second endeavor with similar looking blues taking over the med-dark blue stash tote. Maybe I'm just biased, but this version of blues, purples, orange, and hot pinks looks a whole lot better to me than the previous attempt! And bonus. I'm using up some older oranges with the blues. That's definitely helping to keep the lid stay on those totes a little bit better--always the real goal.*wink  It's not like I enjoy playing with odd color palettes or anything strange like that...

All starting to come together!

So yeah. There's that. Making good progress here! Also in the works is this other tangent of mine. I'm making pear blocks. Uh huh. There are part of the next border for Big Basket #4, another one of those impulse projects started late last year. I wanted to make a quilt that seems a little bit disconnected with itself, but somehow achieves a common vibe. All the while using up mostly older, less interesting fabrics as a whole. I was really wishing that my green fabrics had more value change-ups than what I'm achieving, but honestly, this is the best that I can do without buying new. Not happening for this particular quilt!

Three sizes of pears for different sized blocks

Okay, prep work accomplished, moving on to something else. I'm not in a huge hurry to get them hand stitched down yet, so I turned my attention to Crazy Daisy. It is one that has received almost zero attention since the original mad dash to get it sorted out and prepped for stitching. I'm thinking that if I can just get five blocks stitched a week?  Can I, can I? There will be more to stitch over the bottom of the flower later, just haven't made up my mind completely about those particular colors. Regardless, I'm tired of it haunting me and making me feel like a slacker! One block down, 24 to go!

A start. That's gotta be worth something!

I also started a brand new project. Ha! I bet you're not even a little bit surprised either! No pattern, just a picture to give me inspiration. One of the things that I did in the weeks immediately after our daughters wedding was to go through each and every simmering fabric stack--all of the dreamy project ideas. During those perusals, it occurred to me that I have an awful lot of good fabric tucked away and 'off limits'. Mostly. Unless there's a desperation search or something! 

Obviously gonna need a trim

So.. I determined that at least a couple of these needed to be initiated soon so as to get the good, yummy fabrics re-circulating back through the stash totes. Where they are currently VERY needed! lol  I spent quite a bit of time here and there trying to match fabric stacks with ideas that seemed logical based on gathered fabric. One stack got completely thrown back into the totes and another two were combined into one. You know how it goes!

Once these {grandma fans?} blocks are cut out, then all the prints, minus the white ones, can be cut loose. I am moving along on the cut-out of these 80 blocks quite slowly, in fits and starts as there's no real rush or intense desire to get right smack in the middle of it. This gold block was the mock-up to see if? how? the construction is going to work out. I'm thinking that I will machine sew the fan tips in an arc, then sew it onto the quarter circle, then, I will hand applique it all to the correct sized background block. At which point it will have to be trimmed down to that block size because I can never do curved piecing without some give and take in the stitching effort! All in good time. It will be great to have these parts ready for machine stitching whenever the handwork gets a bit tedious.

All for me!

And maybe there'll be another one or two similar quilt projects waiting in the wings soon. I do have a LOT of marinating fabric that needs addressed soon or dumped back into the totes for current use. In other news, I celebrated my 51st birthday with a brand new roll of Hobbs batting! Very exciting as I was running much too low for making it through the lean winter months. All of our children went together for the purchase and made this momma extremely happy. Not a boring gift at all no matter what they might think....