Getting a Few Things Checked Off the List!

There's another quilt finished up for the year 2025! It's was super hard to get good pictures of it as the winter light is a little erratic these days. 

Revised is a true blue completion!

This quilt was started in August of 2022, instigated by an Adhoc Improv. challenge. 

No other option but to add a red binding...

I took the prompt, an inspiration photo or two, and ended up with this odd, funky tulip quilt. 

Loving the fan quilting on this one

Really didn't know how to do the hand quilting, so ended up doing freewheeling Baptist fans. Something that always makes me smile. Such a good way to deal with applique!

My fave blocks have the smaller tulips

I know that I flipped that picture above so it was right side up but who knows what happened? I'm in a hurry with this post because we have a big weekend and company coming in less than 2 hours....

A matchy matchy backing for once!

Yikes! The next quilt in the hoop is Lillabelle. It's so lovely in person, but looks a little greyed down in the pictures. 

Next up in the hoop!

It was also started in 2022. It's part of my Circle Game series where I take the cut-out circles from behind another quilt and use it to jump start a brand new quilt. Lillabelle is the 2nd in the series and one that my youngest daughter has already claimed!

Starting the quilting progress

And I've also managed to get the top completed for Joy Basket. It's made out of such bright colors that It was harder than you might think for me to gain any traction.

Does it read as an Audrey quilt?

I'm so very pleased with the busy, sparky hsts though. Just love how imprecise they are! Cutting and sewing improv. style is the easiest way to give my quilts the utilitarian, hand made look that makes my heart happy. 

Just scrappy enough!

And... then I went ahead and added on a bright red border. I mean, why not? I've only been wanting to do this for about 10 years. Do you ever do that? Wait and wait and wait on an idea because it's just not quite 'you'. Yet!

Makes me happy the hsts aren't perfect

I've had the fabric for years and years, slowly cutting off little chunks here and there. This quilt seemed absolutely made for it and besides, eventually all the fabric would be used up....

This one is going to be sooo cozy!

I love that this quilt was started with the cast-offs and orphans from other quilts. This quilt is exactly why I always save the bits and pieces that don't work for an original quilt idea. I mean, sure. This quilt slid in front of a lot of other very planned and purposeful quilts, but it totally makes sense now. Gotta go with our gut!

The basket turned out so good!

Probably wouldn't have ended up with something nearly this interesting if I had simply rummaged through the current fabric stack and started from there.  

It's a silly sort of quilt!

On a different note, I will be missing from the blog for about two to three weeks. Going to spend some time with our youngest son and his wife in Oregon and then also, our oldest daughter and her family will be flying out to visit for a week in March as well. Good times! Had to get a pile of hand work prepped and ready to go just in case I end up with a spare moment or two to quilt!

Up above is the results of my improv. log cabin basket I've been pondering doing forever. Still need to stitch it all down and then I went ahead and added the stems for the pussy willow style flowers that will be eventually added onto it. I have a couple border ideas in mind for the sides of the quilt, including more log cabin blocks? It's already an odd shaped quilt so we'll see what happens. Hope to seriously start working on my Bramble Blooms III after next months shenanigans are over and done with too. Lots of stuff to keep me busy for sure!

I'm Still Quilting

 I keep running out of time to write up this post. The 'Folksy Tree & Baskets' quilt top is finally finished! All the applique done and dusted.*sigh

Getting the birds stitched down

I am so thrilled about the birds on this quilt! They look very fat and happy.

And a finished quilt top!

It just feels like they make this very brown and blue quilt come alive.

So happy with the scrapped together
background fabric look

When all the birds, berries and leaves on the tree were attached, then I realized that the baskets needed just a little bit extra. 

And the very subtle addition of blue leaves

But not TOO much, if you know what I mean. The blue leaves were the easy, peasy way to add in the little bit of color that properly ties the baskets back in with the rest of the quilt--instead of them just being a glaringly bright, creamy white distraction. 

Crossing my fingers this quilt will look
extra cozy whenever the hand quilting happens!

Or whatever. I just know that I like it ever so much better now! Sometimes these little details sort of sneak up on us, but they are actually just as important as some of the other more obvious ones.

Glad that I saved these basket cut-outs so they
could enjoy a quilt of their own

Still super happy about the lone basket lying on its side at the top right of the quilt. Why don't I do that sort of thing more often? It seems to add a wonderful dash of character to the quilt....

Loving these colors too

Overall, this quilt ended up being really folksy and fun looking, while still holding it's own as the depository of many oldish and long-languishing fabrics. It's really quite satisfying to finish up these sorts of quilt tops! Just don't think they'd feel nearly as interesting to me in all brand new fabrics. Although, I suppose it's not totally out of the question!

A very basic quilt top

I also managed to sew together a very fast and easy 'boys' quilt top. It's deliberately done very mishmash, scrappy and utilitarian style. I'm imagining it hand quilted in a naïve, organic style that will hopefully hold to the unpretentiousness of the blended fabrics. Still need to put together a baby girls quilt and maybe one more baby boys quilt. None of them are going to be very fussy though. This is going to be the year of the more minimal looking baby quilts. And I mean that. ha!

Starting to get to the point where I can cut it up!

On my wall this past week is the log cabin look piece that is potentially going to be cut up into a largish looking basket. The handle will be cut out of a blue/green fabric in whichever of these fabrics has enough leftover! The birds jumped onto the wall after I cut them out of the backside of the Folksy Tree and Baskets quilt. The wings were a quick addition just to see if they were worth holding onto for use in yet another quilt some day. I'd say yes, these are definitely keepers!

Playing with the color layout on the border

And another project which also managed to get some traction, is the Joy Basket quilt. All of sudden after always, always envisioning multiple rows of border surrounds, I dove right into a scrappy hst border.

How about if I put all extra hsts on the bottom?

I think it was because I finally realized that the border make-up wasn't all that important to me after all. What I really wanted was lots of color and zest. So I impulsively started cutting out free-style improv. hsts in various paired fabrics. It is taking quite a bit of time to sew these together, but I think I'm up for the challenge! After some darker quilts, this is absolutely making me remember why I adore color in quilts.....

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? 

Always Playing Catch Up!

So it's been one thing after another here, like always these days. Our washer broke down and two service calls later, we might as well have bought a new washer. Well, 15 years ago. Now it's half what we paid for the thing 2-3 years ago. But seriously. What are they making anymore? A bucket to rinse our clothes in and if we actually use it, then it breaks down and costs hundreds of dollars?

Almost finished up!

Yeah, yeah. We should have bought the extended warranty but honestly, we just couldn't afford it. So now we're crying cuz actually, yes. That would have been cheaper in the long run. Never gamble with the newer appliances. They are not made to last. Anyway, lots of everyday, but heavy drama going on over here and I'm just trying to keep my head above water and keep posting a couple times a month about quilting. So crazy when I used to post three times a week no problem!

Next up in the hoop

It's still my sanity saver even though it has slowed down so very much this year. {The quilting and the sanity. Don't even hardly know who I am anymore!} Anyway.... Flower Power is sitting in a basket waiting for the final hand stitching on the binding. I had a hard time knowing what quilting motif to put in the dark blue border, but finally went with freestyle X's. I really like the look but one side has more X's than the other which makes me laugh. Oh well.

A closer look at the daisies

Next up in the hoop is Crazy Daisy, which came to a quilt top completion in 2021. Think it was started that year too? Who knows. Sometimes I don't link things like is best for future origin questions. The pics of this quilt are not quite 'right' somehow. Just a little more orange than reality. It will probably go to one of my granddaughters. She's three right now, but next up in line for a 'grown up quilt' from Grandma. I'm thinking this will make her very happy as it's so bright and busy, but also, hopefully grow with her for a few years.

Bramble Blooms II-A

Bramble Blooms II-A has seen quite a bit of applique work lately. Thought the pic only shows two of the border units, I actually have all four stitched down now. Had to go back and add in some little basic leaves here and there as it looked a little too spare. I'm crossing my fingers to have time today to sew the borders onto the main part of the quilt and then there will just be a bit of applique to finish up on the ends of the other two borders. Bit of an overlap {on purpose}, though it doesn't completely wrap around the quilt like the applique in Bramble Blooms II-B will. 

Don't know who else is still working on Bramble Blooms quilts these days? I know many have dropped out or put the quilts off for later in order to concentrate on more inspiring projects. Totally okay. It's pretty difficult to power through three quilts in a series, back to back like we're doing. I myself can get very down on the project at times too. Sometimes it takes quite a lot of effort in order to start seeing the good stuff happen when you're primarily working with old, tired looking fabrics. If you have to take a break, don't get down on yourself. Some of the best stuff just takes time and lots of pondering!

Friend quilt

I hesitated to post about this project, but it's really been taking up the bulk of my time lately. Kind of a favor, kind of a commission, mostly trying to be a friend--this project is an answer to all of that. Blocks are from 2016. The person who organized the project is mentally not up to the task anymore and I was asked to finish up. I haven't made a formal looking sampler quilt in years and years so it's been difficult to be excited about, though the colors are fresh and lovely in their own way. I'm finally nearing completion--just taking a break now and working on some of my own projects for a bit. Will be soo glad to get back to a list of whatever-feels-good-to-work-on-today sort of mentality!

Joy Basket

I had all sorts of ideas for making the Joy Basket quilt larger, but each and every one has fizzled out. Then, a couple days ago, I saw the lovely green floral fabric in the project tote and felt like it needed to be attached next, but perhaps not in a complete surround. It happens to be a little bit clashy with the rest of the quilt, but wowsers, I am just loving the look! Can we call it a completion already? hehe  I stuck the 'joy' letters up on the quilt and it just looks like they belong there as to attitude and spirit. The white and gray of the letters are not quite the thing compared to the yellow creams in the rest of the quilt, so will have to think on this for awhile yet. So far so good with this project. Haven't managed to ruin it yet! You probably won't believe this, but I have been worried about pulling the vibe of the quilt down with generic looking borders. I mean, who does that? 

All the Applique Projects

I'm having trouble making enough time for quilting these days. I so thought that I'd be back on track and plowing through all the many ideas percolating! Nope. Just having one of those years. Mainly,  I'm trying to quit pushing and just go with the flow, slow though it is.

A little basket border

I've got several applique projects all prepped and ready to go, though there hasn't been any stitching on that lately. First off, is the baskets for Peace Always. No forward progress since last September! The next border will be a little basket surround with possibly a little flower or something inside. We'll see how that goes.

Larger basket blocks

The second project is something that I just couldn't resist. These are the cut-out baskets from behind the baskets blocks in Berries and Baskets, a quilt top from a year ago. Just needed to figure out a background and then cut out some basket handles. There's something about baskets that seem to make my heart very happy!

Lots of orange

The third applique project is the borders for Melon Patch Blossom. It was super tempting to leave the quilt 'as is', but it was rather small. And..... you know how I love to figure out new ways to add applique onto a quilt! 

Love stitching tulips

The Fourth project I have with prepped applique is Good Vibes. It's part of the circle series that I'm playing with. Just thought it would look better with some sort of border so I guess it'll be tulips for the sides and maybe some pieced cross blocks for the top and bottom.

Gotta find time for the stitching

Then there is the impulse applique project from a couple weeks ago, all the flower, stem and leaves out of the the orphaned applique parts tote. It feels really good to have these projects ready for stitching, but so far it hasn't motivated me to find that time. Uggh. I'm starting to feel grouchy about not having time but I also know that potential 'available time' could be organized much, much better. 

This season of still having a somewhat recovering husband and all the other things has been challenging for this routine oriented person that I am. As to the quilting room, all that's really been happening there is mending. I had quite a few things that needed hemming or in the case of a couple skirts, a bit of alteration. Thankfully I've only gained back a couple pounds from last year, so I'm still in the smaller size than what I've been wearing for the last decade or so. Amazingly enough, I'm still keeping up on my Yoga! Ahh, it feels so good! Just can't give it up even if I find myself fitting it in at 9 at night. It's been a wonderful way to keep all my worries at bay this past half of a year. It's incredibly relaxing and I'm really appreciating how much more fit and healthy I feel these days.*sigh Was somewhat resigned to having the soft, traditional grandma shape and/or batwing arms, but hmmm... maybe it's okay if we go ahead and push that off for another couple years? Well.., the arms still needs an enormous amount of work but eventually, enough downward dogs ought to remedy the worst of it, right!

We went to a {friend of my husbands} wedding on Saturday, elderly couple. It was the sweetest, quirkiest wedding we've ever attended. The total number of people there was seven and that included the bride and groom! Coming from a family with 11 children, it was actually a bit shocking to not see more friends and family at such an important life event. They seemed very happy though so that's all that matters! We have a cousins funeral to attend this coming weekend and then, next week is when another of our grandchildren is due to be born. Our daughter, her husband and baby are flying in to visit for a week later this month {so exciting!}, and then next month is when we start getting ready for the church campout thing that we do annually up in the mountains.

Will no doubt keep plugging along with my hand quilting and other than the Bramble Blooms QAL, just grab the quilting muse whenever there's a spare minute or two. Expect me to continue posting erratically until things return to normal-ish. Whatever that is....