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!

A Whole Lotta Yellow

 It's been a struggle to make time for this post. The days have finally started getting cooler around here and it feels like I've just sorta collapsed into an end-of-summer fugue state. Don't wanna do much of anything!

Looking very cozy

We had dinner with some friends the other night and during conversation, I complimented Jessica on her beautiful, intensely detailed tapestry type print she had hanging on the wall. She is a wonderful, successful artist with many followers on social media. Super talented! Anyway, long story short, she said that the tapestry was one of her favorites, but she hadn't sold very many. Most people seemed to prefer another version in the series. Then the conversation riffed from there into how true it is that so many of the things that we personally make and LOVE end up not being someone else's favorites. How ironic in fact, that a lot of times the vast majority seem to prefer something we're not even feeling oodles of love for! I mean, we don't hate it. It's just not in our 'top 10' so to speak.

Love Apples is a true-blue completion!

We ended that conversation agreeing that it's a very good thing to mostly make for ourselves. That way we can continually shore up that feeling of satisfaction and personal validation at the close of a project. Be inspired enough to keep on making the good things that resonate with our inner spirit. Don't you just love conversations like that with people who get you? Who speak much the same language even though our formats might be different?

The Love Apple Blocks

And that's how I realized another thing besides summer fatigue was holding me back from writing this post. This latest quilt really isn't destined to be a favorite with very many people. It's sort of an odd color palette and the structure/layout is a little too formal for the quirky blocks. Maybe. I rather enjoy the sense of not knowing for sure! 

This one started on a whim, me hoping to use up some peachy pink border discards and wanting to dive into a long-marinating stack of fabric. It's also got a whole lotta yellow in it. Which might just turn certain people off. Technically, probably not more than the amount of pink or gray used in the quilt? It's just that yellow has a way of shining very bright and bold in whatever spot it's used in.

Loving this texture

Oh well! You know me. I've been bird dogging the color yellow ever since I ran out of interest in pursuing the oldie moldy greens {and after that, the color orange which somehow didn't inspire much of anything}. It's a surprisingly hard color to play with. So bright and sunny, you'd think it would be easy breezy, but it can quickly look fake or hard in quilts. I don't usually love combining it with black or gray. Hmmm... Still pondering. This is probably my best effort yet, though I do intend to keep working with the color from many as many different angles as I can imagine. 

In an interesting twist, the free-style Baptist fan stitching looks especially great here. Don't you agree that the yellow and white checks here just soak up the comfy vibe from the repeat stitched arcs?  Will have to remember this for future quilting endeavors. Don't bother getting too fussy with the stitching when it comes to yellow...

The free-hand Baptist fan look

So...., you're probably not surprised to hear that this stash tote has been extremely full for a long time now. I buy the fabric {or have it donated to me} and then only tend to use little bits and pieces. It's a wonderful, warm and cheery spark in quilts, but alas, a little bit usually goes a very long ways. 

The problem is, there's a lot and I'm tired of the lid not wanting to close properly. I've been seriously trying to work toward winnowing down the sheer amount without throwing anything away. Again and again, I make a quilt and then toss a thick stack of yellow fabric right back into the totes.*sigh  I've been putting it on the backs of quilts and that helps a bit. Truly. Must do something about this fabric that is starting to get so stale-dated that it's starting to get on my nerves!

The first go-round, before borders

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but the shades in this quilt top are more along the lines of 'cheddar'. Deeper, richer, orangish shades of yellow. Which I love! Might be my most favorite version of yellow, this cheddar thing. At this point {with the layout in above picture}, I could have probably said 'Ta-da! It's a finish' and gladly moved on. This quilt though.... it just kept nagging at me for a border. For more attention. Something simple, right? You're not really just gonna slap some blocks together and waltz away?

It's too big for a proper picture!

Right....  See how well I'll sleep after that happens! As most of you know, I have a penchant for half square triangles, especially in quilts. Or borders in quilts. Thinking along the lines of KISS, I cut up pretty much all that was left of the blue fabrics from the original stack, added a cut-up plaid shirt and rummaged around for complimentary yellows and just pretty much went with the flow. Some of these were cheddar shades and others, more of a yellow gold or gold brown. Whatever it takes as long as it blended well.

Had to change out the cornerstones in the center

Then, after I had the border idea starting to take shape, I remembered to double check my measurements. Yeah. About that. That's when I had to make a judgment call on whether or not to severely chop into the last hst unit on each vertical border? Or perhaps add another small strip of 'coping' border before sewing on the hst border.

Lillabelle is a completed quilt top!

I fell down on the side of adding a coping border, choosing a very late 90's strippy floral print. Easy enough to fussy cut it to meet the correct measurements and hopefully see it 'disappear' into the overall scheme of things. I should mention here that it was 'close' to correct measurements. Since I wasn't intending to trim down all those hst's, ha! I knew there could be a certain amount of 'fudging' that probably needed to happen anyway. Just didn't want to lose three-fourths of a  5 1/2" hst on this particular quilt! And don't ask me why it's okay on some quilts and not others 'cuz I really don't know....

With the coping borders added to top and bottom of the quilt, I went ahead and sewed on the hst borders to the vertical sides of the quilt too. Measurements for the top and bottom hst repeats looked good, so no additional coping borders needed. Woohoo! Moving on!

While I was auditioning the hst borders for the top and bottom {something I often do for the sake of good color transition from light blue hsts to darker hsts etc.}, I reluctantly decided that the cream cornerstone squares in the very center of the quilt needed to go. I'm not sure if it made a huge difference to the look of the quilt, but having those blue squares inserted instead of the cream just makes me much, much happier. It's the little things. Hey! It only took an hour or so to seamrip out and change over. 'Cuz of course I ended up sewing part of the quilt right into the new seams.*groan.... 

A small, almost hidden coping strip

Hst borders successfully figured out, I was left with one last question. Was it done now? Well no, the quilt wanted more yellow. Can you believe that? Personally, I thought we were parked a little too close to the corner of 'overdone' and 'tacky' and you know how that goes. Nobody will ever want the quilt except for grandma with the bad eyesight. 

That stash tote though!! Might as well take advantage of this opportunity. And so it happened. A scrappy pieced 3 1/2" addition of more yellow to the outside border of the quilt, making it 85 1/2" x 97 1/2". I do think that it served to emphasize the old fashioned vibe of the entire quilt somehow. Could it have actually toned things down? I know, I know. That doesn't even make sense. How could adding MORE of the overblown, in-your-face yellow simultaneously give off a softer, more delicate energy? Go figure. There are some things that I will never understand and that's perfectly okay. I'm still learning and that's the most fun of all!

Enjoying this look!

More questions for the quilt history:

6. When do you normally quilt? Time of day, year?

Such an interesting question. I am not a morning person on any day of the year, so the quilting process that takes place in the quilt room is more likely to be late afternoons {depending on my schedule}. Or, if that doesn't work out, my best, most efficient quilting time is immediately after dinner. Hand quilting takes place at about 9:00 - 11:30 pm while I'm curled up in the corner of the couch, winding down from the day. Perhaps, if I'm lucky, for several hours in late afternoon and evenings on most Sundays. I obviously quilt all year long, but like most quilters, more intensely during the fall and winter months. 

7. Do you belong to a quilters' guild or club? If so, for how long? What groups?

Nope, never belonged to a quilters' guild, for many, varied reasons. Either I was comfortable with the quilting group I had, or I intimidated by the {thought of a} guild, or it met during a bad time for our schedule, or they didn't have a style that I enjoyed, or whatever. I'm not actively opposed to the idea. The groups that I belonged to were always groups from our church--just us gals getting together with a shared interest during some of the winter months. I'm a bit of an introvert in my own way and this was probably more of a comfort thing than anything else.

Currently {and since prior to 2017}, I am part of an online group I love called AHIQ:Adhoc Improvisational Utility Quilting. It involves loosely structured, group challenge projects headed by Ann from Texas and California and Kaja from the United Kingdom. We've slowed down a lot since inception, but I still find it immensely valuable to my creativity as a whole.

8. Do you know others who quilt in your community or parish?

Years ago I would chat with a lady quilter or two in our community. Usually when we bumped into each other at a quilt show or at the fair. Most of the ones that I knew were about 20+ years older than me with a very different style. 

There has been several quilter friends in our church throughout the years, but the numbers have thinned considerably in the last decade or so. I have found myself seriously dialing down my outwardly expressed enthusiasm for the craft in an effort to not come off as strangely obsessed and/or fixated. Uggh. So exhausting talking about quilting with people who don't care the slightest about the creative journey of it all! {Which makes me sound very snotty.} I have had a  tiny bit of interest in doing the quilt meetings again this winter so that might happen again. Am trying to wrap my brain around a way to make it interesting for all involved, including me, as it does take quite a lot of my time!

Little Pieces Usually Add Up to Bigger Pieces With Time and Patience

Quilting has been pretty erratic for the past week or so. Lots of applique here and there whenever I have a free moment and so far I have about 60 of the grandma fan blocks stitched down. Been working on them for well over a month. Since I didn't use the proper pattern pieces, the sides of the fan will eventually have to be trimmed to square. It should only increase the wonkiness factor which of course is a big plus for me.

Always more hand work

I've also been working on the layout for Lillabelle. It looks like I'm going to go ahead and do the same thing here that I did with the previous Circle Game quilt. Just want to see how it looks in different colors! Once the center area is sewn together then I will figure out the borders. I'm sure they'll be quite, quite different. 

Getting ready to add the sashings

Finally got Love Apples quilted and first phase of the binding stitched down. I did something a little unusual for me, using the same fabric for binding as used for backing. Nothing else in the stash totes looked remotely good, so why not? It always tends to make the back of the quilt feel more boring {matchy, matchy}, but in this case, I think the texture of the hand quilting will show up and distract from the other issue.

Ready for the hand stitching on the binding

Next up in the hoop is the Roman Stripe quilt, now called 'Chrysalis'. It's not the quilt that I thought would or should be next, but it should be a great no pressure quilt for the time-being. Dog days of summer and all!

Current quilt in the hoop!

I managed to spend some time in the quilt room contemplating the latest AHIQ challenges. There was just something about the first of the year #AHIQColorPalette prompt that didn't 'spark ideas' with me at the time. I think it's because I'm almost always working from a color palette first and then the design second. How to make this prompt work for me in a way that still feels like a challenge?

Another fabric stack

After months of thinking maybe it was just never going to happen, I saw a painting on one of my sisters walls. Hmm... I've worked with a similar palette before and know exactly how tricky this one could be. I love how the flowers in the painting pop against that blue background. They looked so joyful and carefree! The green makes me wince a little, but hopefully I can find the proper amount to use, so as to work hard but not dumb down the look? As per usual, I intend to use only fabrics that are found in my stash, so that pic above is the current fabric pull. Crossing my fingers the design will start to seep into the corners of my brain soon. Mostly I want to end up with something that has the same vibe as the painting, not necessarily a replica of the elements involved. We'll see if that's even possible!

An inspiration pic

More questions for the quilt history coming right up! My answers have been very long and wordy, but feel free to skip it all. This is just for my own amusement and I'm happy for those who choose to follow along!

4. How many quilts have you made in your life? Are there any special times when you made more quilts? When did you make your last quilt? Did you make more quilts when you were younger? If so, why do you make fewer now? Do you make more quilts now? If so, why?

When I go back through the various lists of completed quilts, gifted quilts etc. for the 27-28 years that I've been quilting, the count is at about 230 quilts. Not counting doll quilts or quilted pillows etc. Pretty mind boggling actually! 2013 was the first year that I completed a total of 12 quilts in one year and that number slowly increased until my average a year is now somewhere between 15-18. You can go to my Quilt Gallery to check out the last decade of quilt finishes if you like! 

The quilt stacks are getting a bit out of control!

I tend to complete more quilts in a year when I'm gifting baby quilts {of course} as they are so small and can come together quite quickly. Mostly, I pay more attention to prep work and making the most efficient use of my quilting time than I used to. It's amazing how consciously utilizing that precious time {so, so much better} and having better habits, has paid off for me in the long term. Do you really love quilting? Gotta put the work in or you'll just piddle away your year and never accomplish very much! Working on several different phases of 5-8 quilts all at the same time, I can have finishes on a regular basis throughout the year, keeping my quilty energy going and also, spark all kinds of ideas and solutions. 

A dark corner of the bedroom works good for this quilt stack

My last quilty completion was just last week, another one of my famous {or infamous} tulip quilts. It's not the most complicated quilt ever made around here, but I think you'll agree that it's not a carbon copy of anything else you'll find floating around on the Internet! The 'keepers' get stored in darker areas of the house unless I'm decorating with them. When the piles get too high, then I have to seriously think about which ones I'm ready to send off to another home. 

5. What other crafts do you practice? How does quilting compare with these?

Before the quilting bug hit, I sewed some of my own clothes and also, I enjoyed a little cross-stitch. Sewing clothes was fun when I was young, had a little bit of a 'style', and oh yeah, the body was in better shape. After having kids and trying to hide problem areas, it didn't seem nearly as interesting! Meh! Much better to go try something on and just say yes or no rather than put a lot of time into something and still feel very dissatisfied.

The cross-stitch was also a great hobby for those years before having kids because I never had to worry about the floss containers being dumped out onto the floor or tangled up and dragged off. Another thing that I struggled with after having children, was the big fat oops that happened as a result of too much distraction. And happen it did.... 

As I've said before, the quilting efforts started off slow around here. At the time when I really, seriously started getting into the details of piecing etc., I was feeling desperate for something artsy and crafty to do with my hands and ahem! my brain. Years of young children? You know exactly what I'm talking about! With quilting, I could lose myself in the love of colors and ponder quilting ideas, problems and possible solutions while I was washing dishes or cleaning house. Cross-stitch didn't have design problems, it just was! It was also easier to justify the expense {on our very limited budget} when many times, the intended quilt project was intended to be a gift.

Later on, as my family grew, quilting was an excellent way to fill my time in a positive manner. While waiting on kids during those long practices, tournaments or getting home by curfew, I learned to do something that calmed my mind and helped me to be a better mom and wife. Somehow the hand quilting {especially} was more meditative and therapeutic than anything else that I had ever attempted! At some point, I also recognized something very interesting. My time with the hoop also seemed to be a wonderful time for my teenagers to unexpectedly pop into the living room to have a little chat with mom. I figured out that they didn't feel so much like being under a microscope when I was seemingly 'focused' on a quilt instead of them. Little did they know!

Along with my intense, growing interest in the craft, these were the sorts of things that helped me continue to make space and time for them in our busy lives. With the other crafts, it was really all about the finish, at least in the way that I approached them. Quilting turned my ideas of crafting on its head, helping me to realize that this could be so much more. Even now that my children are grown and raised, I greatly value the calm and clarity that the entire quilting process brings to my life. Yes, I dearly enjoy all the warm, cozy finishes, but more than that, I cherish the gift of getting to play with colorful textiles and doing very good things with my heart and hands!

Getting Through Summer

There is so little time to write posts these days! When and where that I do find the time, it ends up being ridiculously long and I have to keep coming back to proofread and/or add stuff that I've forgotten. Don't really love this cycle, but at least I haven't totally quit! Here is the latest quilt finish, 'Seedpod Flower'. It was started back in 2019 when I had that yellow/gold circle cut out from behind another quilt motif. 

All the crumpled goodness!

You know how it goes around here. That mixed print circle sat on my design wall for days, tempting me with interesting ideas for a brand new quilt start! One evening it starting clicking, all from a piece of fabric I saw that had an interesting flower in the print design. Anxiously awaiting the morning and a more courteous time to get into my quilt room only intensified the desire to see where this idea would go!

Seedpod Flower quilt

Once morning arrived and my son had vacated his upstairs bedroom, I was able to head into the quilt room. With the cutout circle as the starting point, I was able to rough draw the Seedpod flower onto paper and essentially set up the 'center' of the quilt. After a bit of thought, I decided to grab an already marinating stack of fabric from the countertops {something that went really well with the gold circle} and dive right in. It was an easy enough jump {after sewing that specific part} to decide that maybe it was time to try and recreate a lovely utility quilt from Pinterest. You know, to make up the rest of the quilt! There was just something about the carefree layout and simplicity of that particular quilt that called to me. Also, it looked like it had excellent potential to nicely frame and showcase the seedpod flower. Win, win.

Looking across

Mine doesn't have quite as much energy and fluidity as the original, but I am charmed by the structure and the blend where the colors tie back into each other. Believe it or not, figuring this part of the quilt out was by far the most stressful part of the entire Seedpod quilt. Measurements! Row perimeters! Total improv. or not! All the little details that have to be figured out if you want a good flow.

Probably could have used some thicker strips

Once I made the determination to make all the economy blocks the same size and only leave the strip widths up to chance and improv., then it really starting moving forward. Many things that make those older utility quilts shine sort of get lost in translation if you can't find the key. For this quilt I decided that must be the imperfectly staggered rows? If I could just get that one part right, then the rest would hopefully fall into place.

Still loving the flower!

One thing after another till I finally worked my way through the details. Just puzzling it out as usual and crossing my fingers the end result would reflect something that looked interesting. If I remember correctly, the zingy yellow and blue scalloped edge on the centerpiece border was hand sewn on just before putting the entire quilt together. That solid blue border strip just wasn't quite enough if you know what I mean, but now it looks like it was always meant to be. It's these sort of details that you have to really pay attention to because that wasn't part of any of the original inspiration--the seedpod flower or the old utility quilt picture! Somehow it brings everything together in a positive way though. Can you even imagine the quilt without it?

All finished up!

Though I don't get nearly as excited about finishing a quilt these days as I did 20 or more years ago, there is still a very deep feeling of satisfaction. My daughter caught the look just after I put the final binding stitches in. Yep! Still feeling all the feels 'cuz it never gets old to look at our hand-made creations. This quilt has a very strong, warm, cozy vibe. Wish so much that the pictures would have shown that better!

Improv. Strips--Blue #2

Also managed to bring this to quilt top stage, Blue #2! I wasn't 100 percent sure about adding the formal looking flower until it was all stitched down. Why does it have to happen that way occasionally?  Now I can see that it definitely lifts the quilt to a better place and if that place happens to be heavily feminine in nature? Oh well. I just can't seem to help myself from doing the flower thing these days.

Good place for some of that older fabric

Here's a quick pic of the HST Medallion quilt finished up last year. I had gifted it to my daughter and her new husband for a wedding present with the stipulation that they let me keep it for another year so it could hang in the regional quilt show. As she ended up with three quilts instead of one {2 older quilts to take immediately in compensation for having to wait}, my daughter was fine with the plan. Then the quilt show didn't happen again this year and cue the dismay. Keep it another year and hope the show eventually gets going again? Yeah. I wasn't feeling good about that after a three year pause. Soooo, I let them take the quilt home after this latest visit. Told them it had to go on the plane in a carry-on, not checked, or no go. Just don't trust the airlines these days! So sad that I won't ever see it hanging in a show, but I know they are thrilled with getting to use this quilt. This is absolutely a quilt that feels particularly hard to let go. Some are just like that I guess because they are special in some way or another.

Still amazed by this finish

We had so many good visits and it was especially fun to let my daughter raid the perle cotton thread for doing a visible mending project. It's amazing how addictive that chunky, colorful thread is! I keep telling her, she needs to get her own stash going! I often wonder how it is that I can even afford to quilt, but honestly, I'll buy quilting supplies over almost anything else on the list if given half a chance. Thank goodness you can't buy good thread at the grocery store or we'd never have enough food!

Good times!

The applique blocks there on the couch beside me are the ones hanging up on the design wall right now. There are nine blocks in all, with five of them currently finished up. I love, love, love, seeing them on the wall when I step around the corner into my quilt room. Ooh, the mixed print backgrounds just add to the charm and character for me! 

These are the 2rd set of cut-out circles that I'm putting into a brand new quilt, part of a series that I'm calling 'The Circle Game'. The first top in the series was completed in December of last year, called Gold Crossroads. It coincidently had about four cut-out circles from a older quilt top called the Rising Sun. All those larger circles had been put into the stash totes and I've slowly been whittling away at them for various and assorted quilts. After seeing a brand new stack of large circle cut-aways from behind the Crossroads quilt it made me think. Hmm... What if I keep this circle play going? Uh huh. Gotta take advantage of the fresh inspiration while it lasts! 

Lillabelle--#2 in the Circle Game series

Okay, that's all for the July catch up. I've been thinking quite a bit about the fact that as of  July 19th, I've been doing this quilty blog thing for 12 years now! Woohoo! Obviously my posts have decreased substantially from the years back regularity of three or four times a week.*sigh  Just don't have time like before and that's that. Not even gonna apologize for it anymore 'cuz I'm here and that's all that matters!

My first full sized quilt finish

In celebration of the 12 years of quilt blogging I've decided to answer a question or two every new post from here until I run out of either the energy or inclination. The questions have been gathered from here and I have to say that that list is very comprehensive. Definitely not going to answer every one, but I'm game to get started. Hope some of you will be interested in following along!

1. How long have you been making quilts? Would you describe your learning process?

I started making a few baby quilts at the end of 1992 or early 1993 so I guess it's been close to 30 years? They were very simply done in the coverlet style with very poofy batting and were made primarily to lay inside a crib. The first full size quilt that I made and finished {pictured above} was completed in 1995. Probably. So hard to remember now! At that time I would reliably check out Marsha McCloskey or Judy Martin quilting books from the Eugene, Oregon library and dream of having the courage to make a beautiful quilt just for me. There were a lot of artsy quilt books there, but I kept gravitating toward the old time, more classic, 'usable' looking quilts. Those two quilters in specific made me think it might be possible to be a 'quilter', so after a couple years of just dreaming, I finally got serious. I can't overstate how hard it was to actually say, 'I'm going to do this regardless of how little I know!'

When I finally found the grit and planned out how to proceed, I went to JoAnn Fabrics for the fabric. Of course! That's all that I could afford! Didn't tell anyone of my family or friends because I was sooo afraid of failure. The fabric buying was extremely stressful 'cuz nothing matched very well. Little did I know that was actually a good thing! Whatever. With only five fabrics needed, I eventually figured something out that I thought I could live with. 

I drew paper templates and pinned and then cut all the shapes with scissors. Just like I used to cut out my clothing pattern pieces! Finally ended up with a 'top' and absolutely no idea how to sandwich and quilt the thing. Yeah. It was brutal. And we were fairly poor too. One day I decided to take the comforter from our bed and just attach the quilt top to that. Turned the edges over for a wide, rolled hem and then machine sewed it into place. Then I came back and put in yarn quilt ties about every 10-12 inches or so! Total victory of course because it was FINISHED! This is one quilt that I've never, ever given up, even when one of my kids practically begged me for it. It's been used half to death and I'm still crazy proud of it. Always good to remember where we started and how it was that we committed ourselves to the craft. It would be a few years before I used a rotary cutter and started learning in earnest, but this quilt. Yeah, this quilt!! This is was what did it for me....

New Applique Beginnings

 As per usual, the lure of the applique trips me up. No matter which projects are supposed to be 'next' in line, you can guarantee there'll always be time found for applique prep. Gotta make sure the hand work bag stays full!

The start of Orphan Annie

Orphan Annie, the pink tulip blocks {above} are one of those impulse things that I so love to do. The tulip shapes were cut-outs from the AHIQHourglass/Tulips quilt and I just can't bear to throw them away. Ughh! Can you even imagine? So I sewed up some scrappy backgrounds {20 in all}, in odd, random greens and green blues just to change things up. I'm using darker olive green fabrics for the leaves and a dark teal blue for the stems. They look fun to me even though the tulips are going to be very short, shallow blooms!

A Tisket, A Tasket

Then there's the 'A Tisket, A Tasket' project starting to take shape. I wanted to make basket blocks, but not really. Maybe something that tricks you into thinking it's a basket? After dithering over free cut triangles or the wedges for the base of the basket, I finally fell down on the side of the wedges. So much easier. And then of course I had to go ahead and add applique handles because why not? And now it's definitely a basket. 13 of them if you care about the total. Yeah. Color me surprised. Mostly, I've just been hankering to give that dark greenish/brown fabric a play. While not a huge fan of yellow and blue quilts, this is one challenge that doesn't scare me. All you have to do is add a basket or flower element and I'm all in!

The start of Country Stars

Next up is the quilt project that I will be calling 'Country Stars' because I can't really call it by its real name {Mrs. X's quilt}. I don't think she reads my blog, but just to be sure we'll keep it anonymous. And yep. It's brown.... Lots and lots of brown and oldish, sweet, sappy colors and prints. That's what she prefers so I'm gonna rise to the challenge and smile while I'm doing it. Reminds me soooo much of my older quilts. Wait? Didn't I make these stars once before? lol  

Uh huh. I've seen her roam around my living room where all the older quilts live and ooh and ahh. Okay. I give up. Apparently the newer quilts are just too bright and boring. Thankfully there are only 5 of the stars to sew as this is not something I'm terribly good at. In case you think that I've totally lost my mind, bear in mind that there will most definitely be some applique added on to the border surround. Maybe I can spice things up there in that area?

Ring Around

Another project lurking in the background forever has been these Melon Patch background blocks. After getting rid of the original backgrounds {and going in a different direction}, these little medallion 'starts' have been haunting me. 20 of them. Just too intriguing not to do something worthwhile with them! So I gathered some lovely fabrics together and conjured up a plan to make some wedge unit arches. This one is called 'Ring Around', loosely based on a quilt in a Kathy Doughty book, 'Adding Layers'. All the inspiration for the wedges is from the book, but the end result should look a little bit different. The fabrics looked much more interesting before I cut them out than they do now.*sigh  This might be the biggest flop of the year, we'll see.

Lillabelle blocks

Then there is 'Lillabelle'. This is part of a new series I've started with larger circle cut-outs because I just cannot resist the challenge. The siren call is pulling me in no matter how much I try to go do something else! When Gold Crossroads quilt top was finished up, there they were and who am I to say no? Absolutely no will power when it comes to these sorts of projects. And so you can see that this series will just sort of self generate. After these flowers are sewn on, the back side will be cut out and wallah! That will be the start of the next in the series, only this time they will be in the cheddar range instead of cream. And then the next, and then the next. Right now these blocks are quite large, 20" or so, but we'll see what happens as the series continues.

Spring Flowers getting sandwiched and pinned

With the hand stitching on Petra's quilt winding down, it was time to get another top ready for the hoop. Spring Flowers caught my fancy and so that is that. Decision made!

Sweet flowers

I don't think there will be any attempt at fussy stitching, just echo quilting etc. I'm looking forward to having a quilt in the hoop without a deadline, self-imposed or otherwise. Still wondering what in the world happened to make me want this wavy, striped fabric on the outside of this very calm and peaceful quilt. There are times that I make my own eyeballs twitch. Can't even imagine how the rest of you feel following along with all my odd and somewhat unexpected tangents!