All the 2023 Quilty Finishes {Finally!} & A Little Bramble Blooms Progress

 A belated look-back at all the 2023 finishes here at Quilty Folk! Once again, life has gotten in the way of my quilty forward progress. What a shock and surprise, right? I must be human.

2023 Finishes--A

It was a very slow year for quilt finishes, coming in at 10 quilt total. Considering all that went on last year though, I feel like it was an amazing feat. 

2023 Finishes--B

Since I'm throwing this up on the blog for my own benefit, it's probably best to keep it brief.

The 2023 Finished Quilt Details:

• 3 Baby Quilts
• 1 Lap sized Quilt
• 6 Bed sized Quilts
• 9 Quilts totally Hand Quilted
• 1 Quilt mixed Hand and Machine Quilted

As a note of interest, I gifted 12 quilts last year, which is more than I finished. Hmm... You'd think the stacks would be smaller by now? But no. That's not how it seems to work. Gifting quilts is really good for the soul and making friends though, so I guess I'm fine with that! Another item of note is that the quilt top drawers are getting easier to shut. By the end of 2023, there was only 20 tops left and 2 of them were donations from my sister a few years ago. Not really something that I'm stressing about ever finishing if you want to know the truth of it. Like I've mentioned before, they will probably end up as quilt backing some day. I'm just not that invested in them!

Another interesting thing is that I finished quite a few larger quilts last year. With lots and lots of hand quilting. Even if hardly anything else got done, I still managed some hoop time. That's NOT been the case this year. My hand quilting time has dropped to just a couple evenings a week the last couple months. So many things are getting in the way of my quality hoop time. Just drives me crazy, but what do you do? 

Just for the record and journaling purposes: I started out 2023 sicker than I've even been and of course that took awhile to power through and catch up from. Then we had our youngest sons wedding at the end of April. Our oldest daughter had her first child in August and somewhere in the middle was two wedding weekends for a niece and nephew who we feel quite close to. Lots of family shenanigans to attend to as well.

Unfortunately, the year also ended with my husband being sicker than he's ever been and now, somehow we're already in February of 2024. Whew. I'm still right smack in the middle of caretaking, which is not nearly as fun as quilting. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and feel thankful for any improvements as they are all quite hard won. Thank you all once again for your many messages of love and encouragement in this hard time. Priorities definitely ebb and flow throughout our lives don't they?

Moving along

Starting the Bramble Blooms QAL seemed like an exciting adventure back when the momentum was carrying me along with the inspiration and initial drive. Now, it's one of the few quilty things that I can think about without feeling completely overwhelmed and uninspired. Most days. Maybe just a little bit blank around the edges of my brain sometimes? Or panic that I might be letting you down? Uggh. There's so much to appreciate though: Using up the Oldy moldy fabric, an easy-peasy medallion quilt plan of attack, Improv-ish, open-ended, loosey-goosey style? Nothing to fret about or bother getting overly excited about, right? Except for the issue of time.*sigh

So yeah. Time is definitely problematic these days. Both for finding enough time in the day to do the applique work and then the computer time for posting. Wowsers, has that been a tough one! I keep telling myself that I did in fact warn everyone about the slower pace of this QAL. It's either bag the whole project or just keep plugging away at it and find the joy where it comes. You know me. Gonna keep after it until the challenge runs cold.

The picture above is the current state of my BBI. Both the top and bottom borders have been stitched down and all that is left for stitching on the side panels is the leaves. I have them pinned where they will probably stay. Still deliberating whether or not to remove a leaf or two from the top and bottom border and thinking yeah. Might as well leave them alone now. Afterall, it's extra work to take them off! 

Also, I keep making these flaky little mistakes {so surprising considering my state of distraction these days}. Right now the quarter triangle corner blocks are just a wee bit too small for seamlessly sewing onto the centerpiece. I've already cut the coping border down once, but may have to trim a little more off. Or maybe trim a bit of fabric off of the outside of the applique borders? Regardless, this phase of the quilt is very, very close to being done. 

I don't know about you, but I'm really liking the end result thus far! As per usual, I am a little shocked and dumbfounded by how interesting this older fabric can be made to look. It's nothing new to me as I've had this result before. But it always, always amazes me because in the fabric stack, the whole thing just looked pretty dismal if you know what I mean! 

I managed to squeeze in enough time to scroll though all the blogs and instagram accounts that have been linked up to the QAL. Very exciting work! Many lovely, exciting creations to contemplate and be inspired by! Wish I could be more present on the blogs especially but maybe later. I'm very encouraged by the creativity and courage many of you have displayed in branching out with this strange little QAL.  I'm hoping that if you manage to push through with the details in the first quilt, then my thoughts pertaining to inspiration and the connection to series work will start to coalesce in the 2nd and 3rd. It's a bit of a slog at first I know, but we have to get some foundational work in place before we can begin to build on anything personal.

  

I can't promise any hard and fast date, but my plan is to move directly into action with the next border phase of BBI. There is quite a bit of organization involved so please bear with me. Crossing my fingers I'll have all the details together before the end of February at the very least if not the six weeks I was originally hoping for. Don't be afraid to email me if you have a late start and want to be added to the link list!

Melon Patch Rows is a Completion!

Third finish for the year! It was supposed to be finished up by the end of April if all my planning would have worked out. Unexpected company arrived for a long weekend and that was that. Apparently this is the year for the 'Oh well! What will be will be' happenings! 

It's a finish!

I am so very happy to see this Melon Patch Rows {Jubilee} quilt brought to a true-blue finish! It's an odd quilt probably to some, but it gives me all the feels.

Such a feel good quilt

It makes good use of some abandoned parts from a previous quilt attempt and joins them up with a declaration that just so happens to deeply resonate with me.

Always love the look of words on quilts

The colors in this quilt didn't want to be true in the photographs, but hopefully you can get the overall look and feel from all the of the pictures together.

Really pretty quilt in the right lighting

I found the perfect binding in the totes. I'm sure it's been there for well over 15 years! Really helps lift the quilt with a lighter, happier vibe than a solid would have. And bonus--it's not something that I ever really cared to use in a more commanding spot in a quilt.

Who says old fabrics can't be beautiful!

I'm always interested in how the hand stitching comes through when viewing the backside of a quilt. Does it have a good look throughout or does it just look choppy and disconnected? This one passes muster for sure! Every time I wonder why keep hand quilting? Something like this convinces me to keep on making the effort.

Loving the stitching texture

Next up in the hoop is 'Ode to Joy'. I've been diligently applying myself to the hand quilting ever since returning from our sons wedding. Closing in on the centerpiece here pretty soon! It has been a bit of a pain trying to decide on what pattern to quilt, but this looks okay so far.

Next up in the hoop!

Next up will be quilting the pear blocks and in-between fabrics. Still trying to decide if I want the thread color to pop or if it needs to blend in. So far I'm blending the thread more than I expected to, but that's what the quilt seems to want.

Ready for the pins

We took off for Oklahoma for our sons wedding and were gone about ten days. First we drove to Portland, Oregon to our eldest sons home where we spent the night. Early, early the next morning I flew out of the Portland airport with our DIL, the three granddaughters and her mom. Our granddaughters have never met a stranger {plus have boundless energy}, and so are a LOT of work in the airports. It took both of us moms to help corral them for the two flights to Oklahoma and back a week later. 

The happy couple with me and my husband!

Then, later in the day, our guys jumped in a truck and drove straight through to Oklahoma. They decided to drive out so they could rent a U-Haul trailer and bring back our new DIL's stuff. Us girls hung out at my daughters in Tulsa for a couple days and then met our guys in our DIL's hometown nearer to the wedding. 

Our youngest son is married!!!

Lots and lots of fun visiting, helping to decorate, and of course celebrating with all the family and friends the day of the wedding! The bride and groom were very happy and looked quite handsome and or beautiful! We are feeling very blessed to have a new addition to our family. Both of our older granddaughters got to be flower girls and while they both did an awesome job, this little gal stole the show! Reagan never took it too far, but let me tell you, it was hard to concentrate on the bride and groom when she was busy blowing flower petals off of her fingers etc.

Reagan looking super cute

Lucy has been a flower girl a couple of times before, so she wasn't quite as excited as her younger sister. On the first flight home though, she got her moment. One of the stewardess's asked Lucy and me if she'd like to meet the pilot? And next thing I knew, there she was, sitting in the pilots seat and pretending she could fly a plane! So thrilling for her! The pilot was very sweet and generous about it all.

Lucy having the best of times!

Mom and the other grandmother had went on ahead to their seats and didn't realize what was happening behind them. They had an anxious moment wondering what had happened to us, but all was well. No one was kicking us off the plane! 

That last flight home was rough though. All of the I-pads had ran out of battery charge due to a long layover and the littlest granddaughter was absolutely done with the entire adventure. Thankfully we sitting in the very back of the plane so hopefully not annoying too many people. Except for one flight attendant. She was having a really crabby day and kept taking it out on us. Probably didn't like fussy kids, but hey, she did things like make us wait a long time after serving everyone else their snacks before giving ours to us. Or serving the little girls drinks without the lids and straws on like all the other planes had done previously. Who does that on a plane? Not giving us napkins. Plus, she wouldn't let us sit in the very back row, we had to sit one row up because she said the seat was 'messy' when all it had was a box of gloves in it. Later we figured out that she must have been saving the seat for a friend and then got irritated when it didn't work out because the plane was full? and her friend was late? That's what we managed to piece together. But we survived and nobody got into a brawl.*wink

So happy to be home safe and sound and back to the regular. Took eons to catch up on all the laundry of course. And it's been hard to get back into the sewing/quilting routine. My husband has been constantly wanting me to go with him when he has to make a building material run to Home Depot etc. He says he enjoys my company, but I'm thinking he just wants a nap while I do the driving. haha  

Also, I've been trying to get back into my yoga routine, something that I started up after being so sick this winter. Was a little bit hard after taking almost 2 weeks off to travel, but I really like being in better shape than I've been in decades. Still have a longs ways to go before I'm very good at it, but it makes me happy even when I'm wobbly and/or pathetic at poses. Yoga is a low-impact exercise {Ugghh to the high cardio plans!} and actually very relaxing/soothing to me. Plus I've dropped another couple pounds. Yay me! Our life gets very stressful at times and it's well worth the time it takes to fit this into our busy schedule. I never thought this would be me, but I'll go do Yoga instead of quilting if that's the choice I have to take. Crazy. What is happening to me? But really, I just hated being so sick and feeling like an overcooked noodle afterward. Being so wimpy. Some people get into shape to run a marathon when they turn 50. Evidently, I'm doing Yoga. Who'd of thunk it?

Scratching This Long-Term Project Right Off The List!

I have a finished quilt top to show you today, and no it's not the baby quilt. That has been completely set aside to be used as a potential backing someday. Just couldn't find any joy in it at all and finally decided that I didn't want to spend another minute on it!

The little bitty flower that makes me smile...

This quilt top is quite possibly my longest open ended project to date. I've been working on it for so long that I can't even find the start post any longer. I found a post in 2019 with a mock-up of what it was 'supposed' to look like. It's had many, many ups and downs and quite frankly, I am amazed to find myself with any completed quilt top. This one has been a humdinger of all projects. One that I was probably just too stubborn to give up on!

So happy with the overall look and vibe to this quilt!

In November of 2020, I completely ditched the original idea and started careening off in the direction of a row quilt look. I sort of drew up a rough idea, but just figured there was way too many hours of stitching involved already to throw everything away. Basically, my mindset was that the quilt would sort itself out during the ensuing hand applique or maybe I would die trying. 

Just bold enough to have a spark...

Then, in June of this year I decided the row quilt idea {by itself} was not going to cut it at all. Just not good enough. And that's where I really went off the rails and started making you all feel kinda nervous for what might be happening over here at Quilty Folk.

Where the side pieces DON'T match up...

But too, that's when I finally started feeling a glimmer of excitement about a quilt project that had long ago lost all the spark and energy it ever started with. Drawing, cutting out and starting the stitch all the words together made it feel interesting and worthy. Why not go for it?

A happy quilt

The main problem was that I was super busy and distracted during this summer {as you all know} and my base fabrics for the letters crazy old and boring. You all know that, saw it, and felt horribly sorry for the time and effort I was spending on this unending quilt. It made it terribly difficult to sustain any sort of enthusiasm for the end product and so then of course, there was a boat load of self doubt, loathing and massive recriminations for such a dumb, stupid idea. 'Cuz surely I was deluding myself about how great an idea this old timey quilt look could be starting from where I was starting from? It seriously felt kind of hopeless at times. 

Loving the scrunched look

With nothing better to do and feeling all the effects of the long, smoky, summer doldrums....., I literally MADE myself start plowing through the hand work to complete the stitching on the letters. One letter finished and then another. 'Cuz by then, I just wanted to SEE! Was my idea a total wreck of mixed signals and too much stubborn pride? 

I messed up on which fabric to choose for the 'Together' word and started sweating whether my remaining fabric would be the right look and be able to be properly balanced etc.  Still I forged on, determined to make this project come to an end. Please just let it be done!!

Almost there!

When the letters were FINALLY completed, it was on to the layout, which was already pre-determined minus a few fussy little details. I thought about off setting the melon patch rows with an uneven number, every other row, and then liked perfect repeats better. Okay, 6 it is for every row. That's pretty good except that it vaguely looked like wide open mouths. Yah. Totally ignoring that particular thought! But what about a border? Good, bad, or indifferent idea? If I chose to add a row of the melon patch applique on each side of the quilt I would have to hand stitch one more row, plus? It just looked like TOO MUCH. If you know what I mean. Nah, scratching that idea. But wait!!!!

Didn't even hurt a little bit...

What about half of the applique piece? I know a lot of you are cringing so hard right now, but it was so... easy to draw a line through the middle of the cut-off portions of the melon patch rows and sew a quick seam on either side. Then, just cut the appliqued rows open and then sew them in long rows. {Keep in  mind that I had 3 short melon petal rows leftover from each specific row used in the quilt}. I decided not to worry about whether or not those side borders pieces matched up very well or not. After all, the quilt now has good reasons to be very forgiving of all real and imagined flaws! Right? It says it right on the front! Just a little bit of 'fix-it' hand stitching to re-secure where the hand stitching flaked out during the cutting and sewing then it was all done.

The last bit of inspiration that helped
me get over the hump of great ideas
that had all crashed and burned....

The quilt still didn't seem finished though. Almost, but not quite. I pondered and debated until eventually I went ahead and added a subtle red striped fabric to the top and bottom. Simple, simple. Then.... it sort of sighed and finally, finally let me do a victory dance. All mental of course. I am a very dignified quilter. Ha!

The start of a new project

So yep. It's all done and I couldn't be more excited and happy for my very unique and interesting {to me} quilt. Absolutely nothing like what I started out thinking that I was making, which is probably an excellent thing. The original idea was a little boring anyway. It feels like I'm maybe, sort of starting to get my groove back. We'll see.

One of the few books I've bought in the last several years

In the mean time, there are lots of bits and pieces leftover from the original project idea. Like, 20 background blocks with the center medallion already stitched down? I found an idea in the 'Mixing Quilt Elements' quilt book that I think will go well to perhaps move things along on a brand new project. I cut out and mocked up one of the quarter rings that I will be making to sew onto all those backgrounds. Some day. Totally different colors of course, but a solid idea. Not starting in on it just yet, but I know something needs to happen with at least some of those bits and pieces. It feels good to start wading into some of the older projects languishing around here. You never know, I might stumble onto a baby quilt idea any day now!

It's Not What I Was Expecting, That's For Sure...

I've been a busy, busy bee, running around and doing all the things that a person does before, during and after they have house guests. Then, finally, there was time to quilt. Whew! Did I ever need some quilting therapy!

Start of a baby quilt

But of course, there's the eternal question. Where to start? Well..., my youngest brother and his wife were expecting another baby so that seemed like a simple place to dip my toes into the water without destroying any ongoing, thoughtful long-term sort of project. Why not try the square in a square block that's been popping up all over in the past year?

Trying to figure things out...

Not knowing if they were having a boy or a girl, I decided to go with a mix of traditional blues and pinks. Then I found a one yard piece of some odd ball fabric with nice long circle, flower motifs to fussy cut into long strips. Which I promptly did. Ha! Didn't think this one properly through. Obviously. Had to cut it into smaller chunks in order to make it work and now the quilt looks rather chopped up and awkward. Oh my..., what was I thinking?

It seemed like a good idea at the time....

It's still resting up in the quilting room in the long strips that I've sewn together. Definitely not completely sewn together and quilted like my big, ambitious self thought would have easily happened by today at the latest. I don't even know if I WANT to sew it together now or just scrap it and start over. Then I tell myself it's just a 'baby quilt'. How put together does it need to look in order to retain some dignity in the giving? lol  

Still need to finish stitching the word 'Stitched'
and two other panels

One thing and another, some down time from not feeling good and the thing is, other than some basic hand stitching {see above picture}, there has been absolutely nothing creative accomplished these past weeks. Honestly, we're probably just feeling some let down after running too long on reserves. So... That's it for the quilting front. I am dreadfully behind on checking in with other quilters and commenting etc. C'est la vie!  

p.s. We now know that the baby is a perfectly adorable {almost 9 lb.} little girl named 'Chawlie'. Taking food over to mom and dad today!

The Applique Adventures Continue

It seems like a good time for an applique project update. Anyone who's followed me for any length of time knows that there is always a stack of hand work lurking behind the scenes, or at the very least, in the corners of my mind.

Applique done on Improv. HST Medallion border

The impulse tulips have been all sewn down onto the Improv. HST Medallion quilt. They were surprisingly quite a lot of fun to stitch, so simple and joyful! I'm leaning very hard toward adding on a very large surround of much larger improv. half square triangles. Still trying to figure it out in my head as I don't want a huge mess of bias and wonkiness to have to iron flat and attempt to square up. Will probably attack it in 9-patch units {or larger}, similar to the center of the quilt. All very 'fallish' colors, so not a huge urge to dive in just yet.

Crazy Daisy ready for stitching motivation

After the Improv. HST Medallion applique was finished, then I realized that whoa.... there was only one project actually prepped, Crazy Daisy. All the flowers were drawn onto the fabric pieces {since last October!}, but nothing was cut out. While cutting out the flowers though, I kept thinking about a project that has been haunting me for well..., forever! 

Starting the freehand lettering for the Jubilee quilt

I've drawn up so many different variations of this particular quilt through the years. Insanity. Or Yearning. You decide! My wastebasket should be full to overflowing if all the wadded up papers were put into it at once. Finally, in sheer frustration at where this other quilt {Melon Patch Rows} was going, Nowhere! 

I desperately cautiously combined the two ideas. It's not like I have anything to lose at this point. Really, Melon Patch Rows is clearly a quilt who doesn't know anything about who she wants to be! Then, after literally hours of prep work getting the first three rows of letters ready to stitch {some of it very grim and determined sort of effort}, it's suddenly the only project that I want to work on. Go figure.

Three rows of letters cut out and stitching started.
Last two rows of letters drawn and ready to go.

Oh yeah. We so.. do NOT want to ignore the muse, do we? This is an 'Augusten Burroughs' quote that resonates deeply with me of late and these stitched words, offset with the Melon Patch Rows, might just end up being a huge mangled mess. Deliberately so if my instincts are steering me aright.*sigh  And... just for the record, this quilt has now become, possibly by default, my Jubilee quilt. Yay me. Instead of the complex and intensely beautiful applique effort I had been imagining, I'll be doing a wordy, utility look quilt that most probably will reveal just a little too much about my eccentric quilting attitude. Ugh! I'm squirming. How is it that solving this meandering, problematic quilt idea ends up being the only answer that feels right for the Jubilee question too? 

Border work on Positive Thinking

Moving on to something a little more interesting, I attempted to work on the border for Positive Thinking. Because of course! It has to have a border! Somehow the ideas have kept coming back around to an attempt at clamshells, something I've dreamed about for a very long time, but kept swatting away as entirely too much work. They are just so yummy though! And why not? It's not like this is a quilt that will only look good with ONE specific border idea. It's fairly open to all sorts of grand ideas.

This time I caved and ultimately gave in to the one impulse that made me smile the most. I think there were about 11 clamshells cut out before I realized that the template needed adjusting just a bit. The bottom of the clamshell is not exactly centered and I'm already nervous about the handwork! It doesn't help that one side of the quilt is already not going to match up 'math-wise' with the clamshells. Yeah. One of those problems that will work itself out one way or another after we actually get there....

Initial phase of the border work for Coronacrazy

Then there's the Coronacrazy quilt which has all the vine stitched down on the border pieces. It's 100% ready for moving and grooving on, and my brain acts like it's stuffed with cotton. What? Huh? Can't even figure out where or how to start on the leaves. I have vague ideas, things drawn out and a fairly good doodle to riff off of, but yeah. Nothing happening here in la la land! So frustrating as there are at least three or four other good applique ideas impatiently waiting their turn for the big start.

It just feels like something needs to happen with Coronacrazy before investing too much creative energy into something brand spanking new. Which is why I will continue working on other things already in the works, all the while letting my mind ponder and mull things over until something breaks. Or maybe I should say 'sparks?' And if it doesn't? Then I will get all the various parts and pieces out sometime here very soon and force something. I know it's all there if only there was this one thing called focus....