Third in the Melon Patch Series and A Tisket A Tasket Finish!

 Lovely to get the applique border on the Melon Patch Blossom quilt! I was ready to talk myself into another border and then pulled myself back from the brink.

Wrapping up the Melon Patch Blossom top

It really does look pretty good 'as is' and it's a large throw size now so why bother adding more onto the quilt and quite possibly ruining the look? Gotta know when to quit!

A lot going on in this quilt

In my planning, there was supposed to be some of those green leafy things inserted on either side of the corner whatchacallits. Just looks sooo much cleaner without them though. Had to leave them off of the quilt which of course meant less hand stitching and so I finished up faster. Yay!

Hard to get the true colors for this top

I've been determined to get this third Melon Patch quilt in the series {plus a couple other things} done and squared away before doing more on the Bramble Blooms QAL. And.... ahem! There are a few more of these leftover melon blossoms that may or may not be the start of a fourth Melon Patch quilt! hehe  I told you, these series quilt can be sort of addictive. But I won't start that just yet, promise!

Love the crumpled vibes

Also put my nose to the grindstone and got the binding completely sewn onto the 'A Tisket A Tasket' quilt. Now I just need to get the label taken care of.

A Tisket A Tasket is a completed quilt!!

This quilt was basically a project dreamed up just for the simple joy of using up some of the oldy gold fabrics. I don't know if you can tell, but the gold fabrics behind the baskets actually have an interesting green cast to them. I sorta love playing with these strange, oddball colors. Always so much fun to see if I can make them shine!

Looking across

I also managed to squeeze in as much of a red plaid shirt that I could. It's one that my dad wore years ago and I just loved the idea of putting it into a cozy, snuggle-up sorta quilt!

Up-cycling an old shirt from my dad

There was a lotta old, stale-dated fabrics used up in this quilt and I'm so very happy to see that it didn't ruin the look and vibe at all. Not one little bit! The few, newer bits of fabrics here and there were a big help in perking up the some of the more boring fabrics! Oh! Did I say that? Some fabrics are much more wonderful looking when carefully grouped together with a great supporting cast. 

Simple baskets

So that's that. I also managed to get six pair of jeans hemmed, all thrifted this summer. I'll be happy if three or four of them find their way into my new favorites stack as I wear jeans all fall and winter long. Last year there was way too many skinny jeans to choose from and that just drove me crazy. Ugghh.  Crossing my fingers these jeans work out better!  

Okay, now I'm gonna try and catch up with some of my blog reading. I have been falling so far behind with everything this year. Feels like all I ever have are good intentions....

August Wrap Up

There was a list of things that I was determined to do this weekend and one of them was throwing up a quick quilting post. It's been awhile I know. I was working on this 'Worthy' quilt before we made the trip to Oklahoma and it seemed like something to post about. But then my husband upended all of our plans and we left for our trip earlier than expected. 

Starting to see where Worthy is headed

This has been a very slow project, started in November of 2023. Basically I took a stack of fabrics and started free-cutting triangles, ala Sujata Shah. In fact, the progress has been so very slow that I really never bothered to post about it after the initial start. I mean, what was there to talk about?

 The fabrics are very soft, muted and have quite an old fashioned vibe. I've been pondering them for a couple years, but every time I decided they weren't enough to bother making a quilt out of, there was just something that wouldn't let me toss them back into the fabric totes. I'm not even sure there's enough value changes to come off as interesting, but I'm gonna try anyway. 

This is probably about a third of the fabrics in the stack. It's not been the most fascinating quilt to work on, but as I said, it's still compelling for reasons that make me want to continue on. Forward ho! At this point I'm dithering over sewing this all together and then joining in subsequent piecing later {as I go} or.... waiting until I have all of the various strips piled together and then start fresh. 

Part of me wants to be brave and sew it together and just make the rest fit on and around. Ughh. You know how that can turn out. Possibly lots of regret and frustration. Much better to go ahead and take it off of the too-small design wall, be patient and come to terms with the fact that it's going to be awhile yet. I'm almost certainly going to end up crawling around on my knees, moving parts and pieces around on my design floor before anything becomes truly cohesive!

There will be more pink colors added in, more of the dark brown and also, more cream fabrics. I've even thought about expanding on the 'Worthy' block, perhaps adding in more applique in the form of a border motif. Something like that. I'm really, really liking the odd pairings and uneven rows of triangles. This definitely is not a quilt that wants to be perfect or even exactly aligned.

The goal is {for now}, taking each particular fabric as it comes and cutting it all up till it's gone. Really easy when there's just a small chunk of fabric left, but lots harder when it's a much bigger piece. I'm continually second guessing myself as to adding 'that much' of a specific fabric into the quilt. Am trying to quiet the admonitory voices in my head and just let creativity have full reign. At the end, my hope is to have a quietly charming and cozy {utilitarian-look} quilt that feels a little like it could have transported from the late 1800's. Ha! 

Needs some hand work before finishing

Though my goal was to have both of these quilts completely finished up by the end of August, life just got away from me. Again. Can't say that I'm surprised! Will have to squeeze in time to hand sew the binding on here pretty soon as one of the quilts is for a nephew getting married this month. At least there is serious finishing progress on both.

Applique border work

Have also been working on the hand sewing on these borders for Melon Patch Blossom. The middle part of the quilt has been done since late last year. You'd almost think quilting has become the lesser obsession in my life in the past year and you might be right. Family time has absolutely ended up being the top priority.

Ready for the next phase!

Finally got all the applique done on Bramble Blooms II-B. It wasn't complicated at all, so no real dragging of my feet. Just didn't want to take something this large with me on the plane! I get lots of looks when I'm working on my quilting in the airports, but rarely does anyone actually say anything. I wonder if it's like a houseguest once told me, 'Just makes me want to laugh! Quilting is such a grandma thing to do these days.'  My whole family was kind of looking at this man with their mouths hanging open. 

Seriously? Do you know how much money and time is spent on quilting these days? The incredible quilt shows that people can attend and feel inspired and moved by? Thankfully, I chose not to feel insulted. His grandma really was a hodgepodge quilter, quite artistic in other ways, but her quilting was strictly utilitarian and quite primitive looking. If he wanted to laugh at my old fashioned hobby, who cares? It brought her {and now me at this point in my life} lots of joy and that's really all that matters.

Sandwiched and ready for pins!

Next up in the hoop is Gold Crossroads. It's been finished up since about 2021. It's part of the 'Circle Game' quilts where I'm taking the cut-out circles from behind other applique and incorporate it into a brand new quilt. My latest Circle Game quilt top was Good Vibes. I already have fabric stacked up for the next one in the series and ideas for that and one more after that! Gotta love series quilts! They're a great next-up quilt when you run out of other ideas or are stalled with indecision.

Happy, happy mail!!

I also had this wonderful gift sent to me from an online quilting friend. This awesome box of fabric was waiting for me when we returned from our trip! Very generous and so sweet of her. Am always more than willing to mix brand new-to-me fabrics into the stash totes and see just where things might perk up a little. It must be my month because I was also able to buy a little fabric with some birthday money and also a recent surprise from the Tip Top Jar! Quilters are the best! While I am having great fun digging through all the older stash fabrics, there has most definitely been totes that are starting to seem quite, quite dreary. Always more exciting to throw in a few newer pieces occasionally to see what might start to spark and take on new life.

Okay, that's it for a what's happening around here on the quilt front. Lots of projects, ideas and stacks of fabric, but not nearly enough time to get it all moving and grooving. For all the Bramble Blooms QAL folks, will probably not dive into the last border prompt for a couple weeks or so. Lots of little things that I want to make forward progress on first, including hemming a couple pair of thrifted jeans. Darn it, when you're 5'2", the jeans rarely seem to come in the right length....

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....

Can't Believe It's Already November!

I've been trying to make a little bit of progress on the growing list of applique projects. Why oh why does it never seem to shrink by much? Hmm.. Maybe if I'd quit adding to it so cheerfully?

Putting the applique in the sashing this time!

I finally got the first section of the Melon Patch Blossom quilt sewn together this week. It's not very wide so of course I will probably want to add on a border. These blocks are quite simple, but the orange fabric felt like a good choice to help make the applique pieces pop. I'm not sure what the little circle things are. At first the idea was to make little pomegranates and then this shape came into play. My daughter says it looks like a tomato which now, I cannot un-see!

Loving the happy colors

The 'petals' in the sashing are some leftovers from the original Melon Patch quilt, of which there had been many changes even getting up to that point! In fact, as many of you know, this will be the third Melon Patch quilt using up parts and pieces. The second one in the series is here if you'd like to take a look. All I know is, all three quilts together are already much, much more interesting than the original quilt idea ever would have been. Nothing at all like what I expected to end up with though!

Thinking about a border solution

I'm getting closer and closer to a quilt top with Good Vibes, another of the Circle Game quilts. Each quilt is made out of the cut-out circles from behind the one before. Some day I'll have to post my series quilts in order at the top of the blog just so I can keep track! These blocks are 19 1/2" inches so I may be making Circle Game quilts for a long time as it will take a very long time for there to be nothing decent left to work with. It's definitely been an intriguing bit of play, but sometimes it feels hard to be increasingly creative with large circles. Still have a couple ideas left in the tank though and of course, all the doing will undoubtedly generate something more. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?

Getting ready to sew some sashing to the blocks

I've also been trying to get the hand sewing done for the centerpiece to Bramble Blooms I. Several projects waiting patiently in line right behind it. Most all of the leaves and stems are sewn down and then next up will be the flowers. At this point I'm very seriously considering cutting the flowers out just a skootch bigger as I like them just this way. Don't want to lose any impact when the seam allowance is sewn under! It happens so often around here, you'd think I'd be prepared, but nope! Always surprises me to think I have to cut out another, slightly larger set.

BBI centerpiece

And, I finally, finally got all the hand quilting completed on the Positive Thinking quilt. Don't know why, but the hand quilting was not quite as soothing and meditative as it normally would be with this particular quilt. Love how it looks now that it's finished up, but I think the thread didn't show up quite as well as I generally prefer. So pleased to have it almost wrapped up now. 

This was a 2020 AHIQ Challenge that started the whole idea and I am quite, quite positive it would never have happened without that particular prompt. Still running a little behind with the other challenges. There's a sun I need to do {working on the applique prep right now} and now, an Improv. border to incorporate into a quilt. Hmm.. I can totally envision creating an entire quilt just to play with a special Improv. border!...... 

Next up is the hand sewing on the binding

I was super happy to find all the binding needed in the leftover binding tote. It has pink, blue and purple binding sewn on now and doesn't seem to be the least bit bothered by the scrappy, make-do look. Kind of goes with the upcycled shirts already used in it! Always thrills me to be able to use up any of the leftover bits and pieces of binding, applique parts and/or quilting blocks. Yay for frugality and making do!

Okay, that's the quick wrap up for what's been happening in the quilt room around here. I have been spending boat loads of time getting the posts figured out for the Bramble Blooms QAL. SO much work. I don't know why I didn't think about how much time the posts alone might take! Hopefully everyone participating is finding the QAL fun or at the very least, maybe being coaxed out of their comfort zone? I am absolutely blown away by all of the interest and creativity happening by the participants. Wowsers, how amazing is that we have close to 25 Bramble Blooms quilters on the list already? Love it! 

September Progress

The past week has found me tackling the ongoing project list. With only six open ended projects, I figured it would be an easy task to make forward progress on most of them!

Peace Always Medallion progress

First off, the 'Peace Always Medallion' center needed a smallish border. I've been dithering over the colors for this, but when finally settling on the very light pink and darker blues? Yummm.... Love it so much! It was super tempting to leave it in the rough, slapped up on the wall, make-do look, but I resisted and tried to sharpen it up a bit. After the border was sewn on, the basket looked way too plain. Had to dig through the orphaned applique tote to see what might help! Now it has a much, much better presence and feels ready for the next go-round. Which is intended to be baskets, because, why not?

Looking a lot better!

I put my fingers to the grindstone and managed to get all the hand stitching taken care of for the petals on the 'Melon Patch Blossom' quilt. These units are going to be used as sashing. The orange rectangles and squares plus lighter peach triangles are the cut-out pieces for the blocks in the quilt. They will be a chubby X looking thing. Very simple, leaving the sashing to convey the vibe of the quilt. I'm also in the process of figuring out the cornerstone units. Will probably be little pomegranates, mostly because I adore the look of them! Have the cherry red fabric soaking as we speak! 

Happy to see these petals moving on

Another quilt that I've been having great fun playing with is 'Tatterdemalion'. It's the orphan parts and pieces quilt that quickly captured my attention after getting back from so much time away from home.

Will have to do something good with this fabric

The improv. 9-patch blocks had already been determined on, cut-out and sewn up. Then I stumbled on the older Ana Marie Horner floral in the totes. Yeah, it briefly got my hopes up with the lovely, moody, look and feel and the almost haunting combination of utility and large floral. You probably can't see it, but it almost gave me the shivers.

Gonna have to go with these colors!

Then I threw the 9-patch blocks at the quilt and delighted in the lighter, easier look to the whole thing. It's like it lifted the quilt to a whole 'nother level of happy and I just don't want go down the road of moody and broody right now. Don't wanna at all! Feeling all kinds of pangs about this decision, but I know it's the right thing to do.*sigh

Have to cut new units

All the blocks are trimmed up and ready to go. The only problem is, they ended up being quite a bit smaller than the 12 1/2" that I expected and hoped for. Nope. They all had to be trimmed to 10 3/4" because of the smaller improv. squares. Soo... Will have to add another two rows or so of 3-patch strips to each side of the quilt. Oh the joys of doing things the improv., fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants way!

This could be a good quilt someday

Which brings me to the wheels quilt. I had these dresden wheels all ready for applique before taking the month of August off. Didn't sew a single one. They were a bit worrisome in the amount of stretch and how warped they were. Just didn't take enough time with the precision sewing like they so clearly needed! Anyway.... I finally got a couple of them sewn down to the background fabric and ughhh... Don't want to deal with this right now at all! {Are you sensing a theme?}

Next up will see me using a seam ripper, getting them into the half circle shape once again. Then I will cut the background fabric in half and start working on the hand applique. After that is kind of up in the air as to the overall look of the quilt. All I know is, these wedges are just too darn cute to leave languishing in the orphan totes. My daughter calls this the 'Mistakes Squared' quilt, but I'm sure we will find it a more fitting name eventually.

Loving these fabrics together

And the last project on the moving forward track is 'Good Vibes' from the Circle Game series. I'm thinking #3 in the lineup? These are big circles, needing background squares a slightly larger than a fat quarter {what most of the stash starts out as around here}. So yeah... pieced backgrounds are my new go-to as you've undoubtedly noticed! Good thing I'm learning to love and appreciate the look!

Never take pictures in the evening

Each circle will have a 9-patch circle shape stitched into the center except for three of the circles. They will have a rough, somewhat awkward looking tulip shape appliqued right over the top. It's been a whole thing getting the leaves and petal shapes figured out, but wowsers has it been a joy to work on this quilt! Will see how the quilt shapes up, but for now I'm positively thrilled with the way the colors and fabrics look together. 

Sometimes it doesn't even seem to matter what the design of the quilt is, we just need to sew specific fabrics and/or colors together and see them rest side by side in a quilt. It's like they belong together and our job is to facilitate that, no more and no less!

Trying somewhere new

On another tangent, I have belatedly decided it's time and past to order new clamps for my QSnap quilting hoops. Uh huh. Out of two 17" hoops, I am down to three clamps and even one of those is now showing a crack.  Decided to take a chance on this company instead of Amazon like usual as their prices and references seem good. Isn't it nice to order from a smaller company instead of the huge monopolies? That's been my goal for the past year though there are a few things I can't seem to find anywhere else. In a couple cases, I've switched out the product brands normally bought {not usually quilting related}, and am trying to see how I feel about that.

Okay, that's the quilting round up for what's been happening in the Quilty Folk quilt room {and living room}. There's one more project that needs lots of attention and then..... it's fair game. Gonna start a couple brand new projects guilt free!!

All the Current Projects

So one of the questions I get asked pretty often is this: how many projects are you currently working on? Well, most of the time, it's a number somewhere between 5 and 10. And that doesn't even count the quilt in the hoop or if I'm finishing off the binding on yet another quilt. 

The new medallion quilt

Right now there are 8 work-in-progress type quilt projects. They have fabric stacked up, blocks started or applique prepped, designs doodled onto paper, or something serious going on. They are the real deal and not just a dreamy little idea for the future! The first one is 'Peace Always Medallion'. Just barely got the centerpiece stitched down a couple days ago. Love, love, love having a free-style medallion quilt in the works!

Needing a sashing

'Primrose Path' is a project based on a textile print that I pinned on Pinterest years ago. Just love the naïve look to these  flowers. Took me a couple years to finally decide that yes, I did actually want to do the backgrounds in dull black colored fabrics. Next up is working out the measurements for the pieced sashing. Really intrigued by the way the sashing forces the applique into being front and center.

Getting ready to stitch these down

'Melon Patch Blossom' is part of the ongoing Melon Patch series. It will be the third one in fact! When I changed direction in mid stream, these petal look motifs didn't relish being completely abandoned. The bright green rectangles are probably going to be a sashing element in this quilt. Maybe. We'll see where things end up.

All ready for the love and attention!

'Improv. Hourglass Abstract' is something that has been nagging at me for a very long time. Really wanted to do something with the leftover hourglass units {wrong size so more like useless hourglass units?} and this seemed like the answer. Will need to be figuring out a larger scale applique flowery vine to stitch down over the top of this. Don't want it to be so small as to not make a proper impact!

Looking pretty sweet!

Then there's the 'Happy Accident' project. Cut out all the Dresden units much too narrow for Ring Around. Are you getting the message yet? Many of my projects seem to originate from leftovers and random mistakes...

Piecing is not my strong suite anymore. Feeling a bit boring...

'Old Fashioned' is just a sappy, mellow yellow quilt that I wanted to make. Supposed to be answering a Sun challenge prompt, but can't quite get there in my mind until I work with these quieter yellows. Don't know why it works that way sometimes, but there's really not a lot of point in fighting it.

Making sure I want to do what I think needs to happen

'Good Vibes' is the next quilt in the Circle Game series. #3 I think. These circles were cut out from behind Lillabelle. It's interesting how the circles are getting less and less truly circular and more obviously lopsided. Do I care? Hmmm... Probably not. I also find it fascinating that the circles really aren't getting substantially smaller with each new set. For some reason that has surprised me more than it should of. 

All prepped and ready to go

And then there is 'Prickly Pears'. Yep! Another quilt with cut-outs from a previous quilt. I thought they would be kinda weird looking pears in the gray, but this is looking rather sweet and spunky to me. Will see how it plays out in the larger layout, but for now, my fingers are positively itching to get started stitching! 

So that's that. Lots of applique as usual which tends to keep my skirt blowing up and the endorphins running at high. Will probably try to finish up another project or two before I dive into more brand new projects. The next ones should probably be something other than orphaned bits and bobs too. The thing is, we should all work on exactly the amount of projects that make sense to the way our quilty ebb and flow work best. I feel very good about this amount. Not overwhelmed and too over stretched, and yet not too tied down or boxed in. Isn't playtime fun?