Need to Figure Out a Strategy Soon

I think I got a little crazy with this project.  Maybe.  Mostly right now I'm recovering from the flu (yeah I've been hiding it from you on purpose) and so I'm looking at this very saturated block of color on my wall and wondering just what it is I'm supposed to do next?

Learning Curves

There's still a ton of these little guys to iron and trim up too.  It's exhausting really.  I know I like bed sized quilts and all, but this is starting to look ridiculous....

So many to iron and trim up...

Maybe I need to finish the curves up and try to make two quilts out of my blocks? What I wish I had is a bigger design wall so I could throw some more of the curves on the wall and move things around, get some fresh perspective.

It has been fun learning to sew curves though
 believe it or not....

Wowsers.  Let me just say that it's a whole lot of color to deal with after staying out of the quilt room for a few days. Obviously I need to regroup and figure out a strategy or put it away for awhile if that's what it takes.  Does anybody else out there ever take a break from a quilt project and then come back in on it and positively flounder for direction?

The thing that really makes me sweat is how contemporary my quilt blocks look together up on the wall. Whoa....  That is so not something I'm used to dealing with ever in a million years!  Apparently I've been a little too wrapped up in having fun sewing the curves and not paying attention to the end result.  Who'd have ever thunk it?  Me being engrossed in sewing curves?

Learning Curves and the Creative Process

Easter weekend is always so busy.  Once again I found myself in the grocery store on a late Saturday afternoon trying to find candy for my kids.  Every year I tell myself it'll be different next year, but it never, ever is.  Not to worry, I wasn't the only mom rushing around the candy aisles looking frantic because all the best candy was gone!

Learning Curves Quilt--Drunkards Path

I did a little bit of sewing Friday night and Saturday too, but really, it was hard to settle into work on my Learning Curves quilt especially.  Sometimes, there are other projects calling my name a whole lot louder than that one will probably ever be able to.  You know, because of those dreaded curves and all.

Getting Started on Drunkards Path block

I wouldn't want to admit to anything that could possibly incriminate me in the future, but these blocks are actually getting a lot easier to sew.  I am finally able to sew at a faster pace than a snail!  Smooth and steady, that's me, plugging along one section after another.  The tweezers really help at the end of the block too, keeping everything aligned and straight for me.  I did cut all the blocks just a smidge too big (room for error) so when I get the initial curved sewing done, then I have to trim them down.  Ughh...  Not always what I want to do.

Working on The Big Broken Dish Quilt

At some point this weekend, I jumped back into my Big Broken Dish Quilt.  With the help of Linda from Quilts in the Barn (thank you!), I had previously figured out my light bulb block.  I think it sort of looks like a skull right now, but my daughters assure me that with properly applied stitching it will be just fine in the end.

Ready for the applique words now...

With the slightly curved borders, sewing the corners blocks on was a bit of a nightmare.  I had to lay the border and the blocks out and mark just 'so' and then pin a lot.  I used my seam ripper more than I wanted to and almost peed my pants once when the phone rang while I was deep in concentration mode.  I forgot to trim a 1/4" from my marked seam on one particular border and started sewing before I even realized what I was doing.  And the phone rang and rang and rang.

Then it was all together, laying fairly flat and looking back at me like, 'See? that wasn't so hard after all!'  (Can you slap a quilt?)  It was only after my kids gathered around and asked me to explain once again what this quilt was all about when I noticed (thank you my dear youngest son for pointing it out) that the light bulb block and the palm tree block had somehow switched places.  I think there must be a subliminal message in that particular 'oops', don't you?  And honestly? Right now, I'm leaning very heavily toward leaving it just like it is.

A Few Projects I've Been Thinking About

The borders have been finished on this Scrap Attack quilt for several days now.  I am really liking the rough, primitive style to the applique.  I drew four sets of the border detail freehand, transferred it to freezer paper and then used it for my templates.

Scrap Attack #2--red & blues

I know this quilt isn't to every one's taste, but everything about this quilt is ME from the improv. piecing out of my scrap bin, using up leftover applique pieces for the trees, and then adding primitive border detail.  My husband says it's a very dark quilt, but that's okay.  Sometimes I'm a dark and moody person.*wink

Closer look at the borders

I have slowly, slowly started working on my Learning Curves quilt too.  Can someone please tell me what I was thinking to do something like this?  (*hair pulling starting right about now!)  Oh yes, I wanted to sew better curves.  Well, I better be a master after this huh?  Oh, and does anybody know if you're supposed to iron the curves to the inside or the outside?

Learning Curves quilt

I have long been a fan of 16 patch/25 patch etc. blocks so it really shouldn't be a surprise that I went for the 16 patch drunkards path look.  The quilt below is one I was working on in the winter of 2007-2008.  It's kinda dark too! Hmmm...  Anyway, towards spring, we realized that my brother had a terminal illness and so I rushed to finish it for him.

Josh's quilt.

He always bugged all of his many sisters, me included, about making him a quilt 'cuz he loved them.  The one thing he complained about though was that most quilts were too short to tuck under his chin properly and then also tuck under his feet (he was well over 6 ft. tall).  This was something he complained about even when he was perfectly healthy because he just liked to curl up in a quilt on occasion!  I took a quilt I was working on at the time, added an improv. border, and THEN added about 11 more inches to the top and bottom just for his benefit.  Let me tell you this quilt was about 110" long so he probably could have wrapped it over his head and feet all at the same time.

The bottom of Josh's quilt.

Never could get a good picture of the quilt in it's entirety, but I have no regrets about giving him the quilt even though he only got to enjoy it for a few months.  And yes, I had already made him a quilt years before that he had already just about wore out!  He was always a little greedy about quilts, that guy.:)