Simple Projects

First of all, so sorry to everyone who is having trouble posting comments on my blog! I just don't have the energy to switch to a different platform and Blogger seems to want to be extra difficult these days. You can email a comment directly and I'll always respond. Otherwise, thanks for reading anyway! I figure there are lots like me out there, reading the blogs but doing a terrible time leaving feedback. I said never, never, but these days it's tempting to switch to Instagram where all you have to do it click on the 'heart' to engage.

The new vintage look 25-Patch project

I took an online personality test the other day and was completely appalled by how low the score came back in Openness {and creativity}. Part of the test was spot on and super interesting. The other part? Uggh. I must have been feeling very self critical and down on myself. Whatever, it made me realize that apparently I'm more 'stuck' that I realized! Time to dig back in and see if that can change eventually. According to the test, color doesn't seem to move me at all??? I started small with a basic project. Just dipping my toes back in the water. This is an idea that's been rattling around in the quilt room forever. 

Starting something new

It's a picture of a vintage quilt made out of scrappy hsts. I took one of those infamous {marinating} stacks of fabrics and got busy. All the hsts are cut out, ironed open now and all that's left to do after yesterday is the trimming. Just trimming the points. I really don't care if the blocks are a little wonky for this quilt. Imperfection will make it more interesting. 

Okay, it probably sounds like I just went after it like crazy, but believe me, I've been having to force myself to work for even a half an hour or so. Take a break. Come back. Making progress has been like pulling teeth, everything feeling like a huge effort. But I've been here before! Just have to break through and get back on track.

It's a true blue finish!

Finally got the binding sewn down on the Improv. Strips quilt {No Wasted Pieces}. Was kind of surprised by the fact that the quilt wanted a pink binding, but oh well. Just glad that I had something suitable languishing in the stash totes!

Loving the texture

My favorite part of the quilt is the added strips in the bottom left corner. Really adds an element of make-it-up-as-you-go to the quilt and helps make it a little bit more quirky. Always a good thing in my book.

Gotta get the attitude on the quilt

I kept the hand quilting super basic of course, don't I always? But then went ahead and stitched a few tulips into the wider border area there at the top of the quilt. Adds a little bit of sweetness to an oddly colored quilt! Overall, it was a good finish and crumpled up very nicely after washing. This one is a good example of how simple shapes can show off and/or disguise older fabrics. Whichever is needed. They all just sort of disappear into the quilt and nothing stands out as too stale or too obnoxious when they're cut this small.

A bit sweeter with flowers

I have also been tentatively playing around with these abandoned hourglass blocks from an older AHIQ quilt. There is a vague design doodled onto a piece of paper and all the potential fabrics for the quilt jumping up and down shouting YES! I know the color palette may be unexciting to some of you, but it's doing something for me. Uh huh. Seems like the Personality Test was taken on a bad day? I learned a long time ago to try not to question the whys and wherefores of current color curiosity and just roll with it. Never know where things might end up!

Hoping to kickstart this one after Thankgiving

That being said, I'm getting flashes of interest, excitement and yes, even trepidation just trying for a start. Can I make this happen the way that I'm envisioning things? The reality is: Probably not. And that's part of what's been holding me back. A general feeling of negativity about sparking real creativity. About making good things happen. Or NOT. The journey is so much fun regardless and I've sort of let that slip this past year, pushing my expectations to unnecessary places. I need to TRY for the idea first, then everything sort of falls into place along the way. If I don't even try, well then. Nothing happens. Duh. Obviously!

In other news, I got my sewing machine fixed! Yay!! Ended up with a way too quick trip to Spokane, dropping someone off at the airport, doing the sewing machine service, going Christmas shopping and then driving back home feeling a bit sick from exhaustion. Now it's Thanksgiving {already!} and there are more things still to bake and fix. We're gathering at my mom and dads this year with all of my siblings. Whoa...... It's going to be A LOT. Only one of our kids will be there though as they all have other obligations. I count it very fortunate to still have my parents and know these years are fading very quickly. Hope you all have the best of holidays filled with lots of good visits, turkey and pie!

 

So Many Strips

All the applique is finished up and now the borders are attached onto the first Improv. Strips quilt. I needed this one to be a completed top so that I could use it in the demonstration for sandwiching and pinning a quilt. Not that I'm really in the mood to start stitching on this quite yet, but it makes sense to show them the hand quilting stuff on a similar design.

Improv. Strip Quilt #1 top is done!

After all the angst about making this quilt wider than it was tall, I rather like how the deeper borders at top and bottom corral the strips. It makes me smile to see the last little bits added on at the corners. Waste not, want not!

No Wasted Pieces is the new name. Of course!

Or whatever. I was soooo tempted to leave off the 'ces' on the word pieces. How about 'no wasted pie' instead? But yeah. That would have been just a little too much. My husband and daughters weird sense of humor is obviously affecting me now that I'm the only one who rolls her eyes. Definitely missing our oldest daughter these days!

A little bit of applique can go a long ways....

After liking, then not liking, then making plans for adding applique, I'm back to liking the Improv. Strips #2 quilt. Maybe just exactly the way it is. No borders. No added applique. Just this.

Improv. Strip Quilt #2 {Blue} might be done

Maybe even almost loving it. Hmm...

Loving the sparky strips of gold

Could it be added to my skimpy pile of manly quilt top options? I'm wondering.

Kind of a summer day, pond water, blue skies
sort of quilt

I played with the applique idea regardless, just because I had been thinking about it for so long. I had this idea of a stacked, layer after layer of a somewhat formal looking flower. Yep. Spent a couple of hours on the layers and then... it looked a little too feminine. Too suggestive. Ick. So I pulled off about six layers and thought perhaps this would work.

Thinking about an applique addition

Then I switched up the leaves to something darker and auditioned it again. Yeah. It's not quite right. I'm not sure what's going to happen here now and like I said, it might just be better without any applique at all. Time to let it simmer.

Or not?

Last nights quilt meeting was a lot of fun! These are six of the ladies who have made it through to quilt top stage {or almost} and I couldn't be prouder. They have really been working hard to get through all the phases up till now. Two more gals couldn't make the meeting last night and then there is one more straggler who is waaay behind, but still wants to keep in contact and perhaps move along at a slower pace. Three total drop-outs for various reasons that I don't think had anything to do with me. Not too shabby! Right? 

I love the different personalities everyone brought to the quilt project. So interesting to make similar but different quilt tops all at the same time. I didn't even end up showing them my completed Improv. Quilt Top #2 because we had so much information to get through and really, this night was about them.*Whew  It feels so good to see them at this stage and see that yes, what I have been showing them {and teaching} actually works in reality, not just theory! Can not even tell you how happy this makes me seeing their smiles!

These ladies did so good!

I've been working on a little tiny bit of applique lately {such as the 'no wasted pieces stuff', but otherwise, have been practically drowning myself in strip sewing. After I made up my mind to play with the class demo strips, it almost became a compulsion to finish it out. Just wanted to make the effort and then throw all the little bits away and be done.

Calling this one 'Practice'

I really thought there would be more sashing or border work between the rows as the quilt started doing the medallion thing, but it just never looked right after the middle portion was sewn together. Okay, that's fine. 

I played and played one afternoon with the sets of strips, mixing up the colors in the first two outside borders. Played with the scale by folding the auditioned rows under seeing if skinnier rows looked better or not. Finally got a plan figured out and then, at row two, totally forgot that I intended to make the top and bottom portions be about three and a half inches longer so as to end up with a rectangular quilt.*sigh  I couldn't believe it when I laid out my finished quilt and saw that somehow I had ended up working on auto-pilot and yep! Cut and sewn the outside rows an identical width all around the quilt. Uggh... 

The third outside border doesn't look as
awful as I expected

I went to bed that night pretty irritated with myself and disappointed with the quilt overall. It could have looked so good! But then I got to thinking and you know what? This quilt is not anything special. It's not something that I've spent months thinking about and wondering how to instill a certain 'vibe' and look into. It is exactly what the name implies. Practice. 

So I laid it out on the floor again and took all the cut off portions and started to play again. Eventually I decided to trim those shorter portions down to the {almost} shortest length and make two long border pieces out of those. Whatever that size ended up being? That was it, gonna have to work. Only had to use the seam ripper on two different block units and replace super short strips with a new one.

Looking much softer in the right light...

And that was that. Instead of two strippy borders around the center of the quilt, the top and bottom ended up with three. Wallah! Super interesting quilt to play with just in making-do, finding good spots for terribly blah fabrics, how the look changed so quickly by reducing strip lengths in a border. That sort of thing. Fun to pursue but now I'm done, almost exhausted with it all. Ready to move on to more compelling colors of fabric and do my own thing again! Or is this maybe more my thing than I realize? Just winging it and figuring out how to make things work? Whatever. It definitely doesn't hurt anything to try!