All the 2021 Finish-It-Up Details and Looking Ahead At What's Next

It was a strange, bewildering year. A lot of us yo-yoed between depression and keeping our head down, just trying to get through. Why even bother with anger when the energy could be much better spent stitching our way to some sort of tranquility? Once again, I have been ever so grateful for this colorful, fascinating, soul-soothing hobby of mine. Though I often felt like the days were aimlessly drifting by, the 2021 finished quilts tell the real story. These hands of mine were busy, busy, busy....

I've been feeling a wee bit guilty about one particular quilt that never made it out of the quilting queue, but hey! What about that HST Medallion quilt? Huh? It finished at 102" square and the whole thing is hand quilted. Woohoo! And then I made up for all that effort by continually choosing out quilt tops that seemed easy as pie to hand stitch. Hmm... 

The baby quilts kinda took precedence this year as one of my nieces, my sister-in-law and also our daughter-in-law all had new additions to their families. The other baby quilt finished this year was the boy quilt. Of course, everyone decided to have girls this one teensy moment when I was actually on the ball and thinking ahead.

Another quilt that somehow insinuated itself into the line-up was Rhi's quilt. It was the lap quilt my oldest daughter asked me to make, starting from a cut up sundress she wore in her middle school years. It's one of the few quilts I've made with a large-ish amount of green included. One that actually turned out to be relatively successful. Yay me! Given another half dozen or so of 'green quilt attempts' and the dial might eventually be turned up to 'amazing looking'. lol  Working with green can be hard!

Okay, Details please!:

If you're wondering, the past year saw me bring a grand total of 16 quilts, plus a slew of doll quilts to fruition. Slightly less than in years past, but not too shabby considering that our family hosted a wedding and also had a new grandchild! I hoped to bring down the number of quilt tops languishing in the quilting queue, but alas, that number stayed fairly stable at 23. Apparently I reliably alternate the act of finishing up, with all kinds of excuses to start anew. See my worried face? Yeah. Neither do I.

Here's the 'finished' quilt statistics that I'm always looking for at this time of year:

• 11 Doll quilts 
• 4 Baby quilts
• 5 Lap-sized quilts
• 7 Bed-sized quilts
• 13 of the quilts were hand quilted
• 2 of the quilts were mixed hand and machine quilted
• Only 1 quilt was totally machine quilted {plus all the doll quilts}

Another number I generally keep track of is how many quilts are given away. This year saw me gifting 12 quilts, either gently used or new. As usual, there were/are mixed emotions in giving away so many of the quilts that I've poured myself into, and no doubt, spent countless hours working on. Some people are easier to gift quilts to than others and I'd never suggest it's a mandatory thing. I'll just link to an article written in 2013 by Mary Fons where she makes the point that 'Quilts are love, manifested.' When we find the perfect person {or reason} for one of our quilts, it's truly a beautiful thing.

As for what's on board for the new year? 

• More from-the-stash quilting for sure. I'm sincerely hooked--line and sinker. It's beginning to get more and more challenging as certain colors and tones are starting to be depleted. Still, I rather enjoy the adventure of make-do-till-you-can-make-it-work. 
• Absolutely more focus on specific colors where the stash tote lids don't close as well as they should. Gonna have to bite the bullet and attack browns and tans at the minimum. {Whether I want to or not.} Grr.. How oh how to make that seem fun?
• There is still an ever-growing list of applique projects that I'm yearning to dive into. Most are very simplistic with lots of repeats. Yawn.... I don't know why this is so appealing to me, but who cares? If it drives me forward, then I say it's probably worth the effort and needs to happen.
• I don't think there was a single project started from the scrap bin last year. That needs to change. Scrap bin quilts are just too interesting to write off completely. The main thing holding me back is the sheer amount of work involved in the doing.
• The Adhoc. Improv. Quilting party is still ongoing, and in fact, there is a brand new challenge issued for the new year. Definitely one that I intend to dive into, especially as this one pertains to playing with color. Should probably {deliberately} choose a color palette that includes brown...
• As usual around here, squirrel projects tend to beget other squirrels. 2021 will undoubtedly see me continuing on in some form of series work, whether it be playing with the cut-outs from behind my circle quilts or adding appliqued tulips in a slightly different style and shape than used before. Probably gonna see another basket quilt or two, and maybe even another log cabin quilt. The world can always use yet another log cabin quilt, right?
• More hand quilting with perle cotton thread is a given, at least until the outside world settles down into something more 'normal' and truck-loads less stressful. Oh, who's kidding who? I'm gonna hand quilt until my hands give out or I get too old too see. The thing is, I'm not going to worry about trying to push myself into more and more finishes with that faster method of machine quilting. Especially during this particular season of my life. The only time I don't crave snacky things is when my hands are busy with a quilt in the hoop. Can you imagine how large a person I'd be but for this craft? Uh huh. Bet you thought we all got the extra padding from the extra quilting time....

On a different note, after deliberately shedding a few minor responsibilities this past year, I have now allowed myself to be talked into doing a short series of quilt meetings with our church group. We will be making a simple, scrappy, improv. sort of baby {or sm. lap sized} quilt from start to finish, with yours truly as the teacher. Ahhhh... What a muddle that will be. Part of me doesn't want to do this at all. Period. End of story. But the other part of me thinks that it's important for women to have connections. Interactions. Community. Doing that while creating can be enormously nourishing to the body and soul, which obviously, might be a boon after the past two years?

I thought we'd have three or four women at most who were interested, but as of yesterday, we're up to ten.*sigh  All ages and states in life and involving all levels of quilting and/or sewing experience. The only stipulation I made is that everyone need know how to competently sew a straight stitch and be able take care of their own sewing machine issues. Yikes! So far out of my comfort zone with this. Though I'm not 100 percent an introvert, I'm way more of an introvert than an extrovert which makes this feel a little painful. And I personally hate to be told what to do in quilting. How can I 'teach' a method without doing that? So many questions. Am currently trying to walk through the entire quilt project and make notes; emphasis on the basics and trying to leave room for flexibility wherever possible. Wish me luck!

The Latest Cozy Quilt Finish

 The Patchwork Garden quilt is totally finished up, binding and label on and already gifted! I stalled some on getting the binding on just because there were other projects that seemed more interesting at the moment.

Patchwork Garden is a true-blue finish!

It has such a soft, cozy feel to it, I just love it! Why didn't I make one of these years ago? All the background fabrics have white, light gray, light blue, light green or very light purple tones. I've been stocking up on them for years and finally found a place to experiment. Ooh la la. So much fun!

I had to add the flower and leaf just because...

Now my stash is depleted and of course I want more. Isn't that always the way it works? The blue striped basket fabric is from a cut-up button down shirt. Just couldn't resist trying to see if it would work in a quilt. It's funny how I can't get rid of shirts anymore without wondering if the fabric could be upcycled rather than dumped at the 2nd hand stores!

Love the little birdie perched on the basket

I wasn't sure about using the dark blue fabrics for the baskets, but they just spoke to me somehow. I couldn't be happier with how the flower and leaf baskets turned out! The teensiest bit of elegance added to a quilt in an unexpected place. Just makes my heart sing.

Such a dramatic flower basket

All the hand quilted was kept simple as per usual around here. Lots of straight lines and 'x' markings through the nine patches. More and more I'm stitching on the inside of the applique shapes rather than just to the outside like I used to. I really like the look of the stitches over the top. The texture is so yummy. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever go back to regular hand quilting thread. Is there ever going to be a quilt where I think, 'No, Perle Cotton thread is just gonna be too much!' Ha! Somehow I doubt it!

Lots of hand quilting stitches

My favorite basket is probably the one on the bottom right corner. There's just something extra sweet about flowers that drape and fall gracefully from a basket. And that text fabric in the border. Still not tired of seeing words and text in some of my quilts!

Colors are so much better in person

Can you tell that I love baskets and flowers? This was a pattern that I should have made years ago and just kept putting it off. The interesting thing is that years ago when first buying the pattern, I'm sure I would have stuck more closely to the original makers color scheme. Nowadays, I always want to experiment and play with a new color palette, always pushing the boundaries a bit on what I'm truly comfortable with.

Made from the 'Patchwork Garden' pattern'
by Jan Patek

This was a quilt that always seemed like it was destined to go to my next youngest sister {once I got the quilt top together}. So that's what I did after getting it washed up and ready for gifting--took it right to her house. So pleased to see the picture she posted, with it already being used on her bed! It's been a rough couple years for so many of us in various ways. Why not try and make our private space a little bit happier?

Looks so cozy and inviting!

And my daughter sent me a picture of their guest room all ready for the guests they were having. I admit to having a very, tiny bit of regret in giving this one away. Isn't it fabulous to see our quilts being used and loved by their recipients though? There's just no way I could possibly use all of the quilts that get finished around here. So much better to see them being appreciated and loved than developing permanent creases from being left folded in unused stacks.

Still working on their guest room, but I 
love the look of a good quilt on a bed...

And though I've been plugging along with the baby quilt and trying to bring it to a close, these crossroad blocks have been nagging at me. It felt really good to get the circles cut into quarters and then re-stitched with the sashing strips. On another day I sewed all the 20 1/2" background squares together. Most of the fabric I use is from fatquarters etc., so piecemeal it was, getting a large enough square.

Crossroads blocks in progress

In and around our rainy fall days, we've been having the occasional gorgeous sunny day. I've been trying to make the most of that and finally getting around to cleaning up my flower pots and the little garden my daughter left behind. We'll probably be turning the garden area back into lawn and moving it farther away from the house next year. The more grandchildren we get, the more it seems obvious that it's time to replant our lawn and get some designated area for the grands to play. Just getting our front porch cleared off this summer and having it actually stay that way has been enormously uplifting to both my husband and me. We have a long ways to go, but lots of plans for slowly working on some problem areas in and around our house. We'll see what happens. Nothing ever moves quickly around here!

A Little Bit of Applique and A Brand New Completion!

First things first, right? This past week has been for working on the Crazy Daisy blocks. Finally got the petals totally sewn down.*Whew! Thought that might never happen! Then it was time to cut out the flower centers. The bright citrussy greens just hit all the right notes so here they are, sewn onto the flowers by machine. No reason not to sew them raw edge style as the darker brown arches will be hand sewn down directly over the tops.

Crazy Daisy Blocks almost finished up!

Those arches are already cut out and ready to go. Gotta get the prep work done and out of the way to ever make further progress! This was one of those easy peasy phases that got taken care of while I was waiting in the car for my husband one day. We have to drive either 45 minutes or an hour and 15 minutes for most of our business concerns. Easiest to tag along with him occasionally and combine our shopping needs. Honestly, I think he makes me wait on him a whole lot more than vice versa, but as long as I have the applique bag along, it's hard to complain.

Getting the pears ready to stitch to the background...

Just as soon as the petals were finished up on the Crazy Daisy blocks, I jumped right into the pear blocks. I'm not sure where this 'half pear with applique' look came from, but if you get onto Pinterest, there are many examples. This one is probably my fave though it was too much trouble for this particular quilt. This fabric felt very retro and kinda sweet. Probably helped clarify the look that I wanted. Do you follow Campbell Soup Diary Blog?  She just posted about a shiny new pear project on her Instagram. Simply gorgeous! Mine are a bit more pedestrian but probably suits this project better, plus I already had mine prepped and waiting for the needle work. The background fabrics are currently cut out and when the larger pears are finished, I'll be ready to start hand stitching into place. Will need to get the stems and leaves cut out soon too I suppose!

A little bit of hand quilting soothes the soul

Always a bit of hand quilting going on around here most evenings. This quilt seems to be quietly absorbing the #8 and #12 Perle Cotton that I love to use. I've absolutely fell into a comfortable rhythm minus the occasional marking that has to happen. 

As most of you know, this quilt is NOT my original made-up-out-of-my-head pattern. It's called 'Patchwork Garden' by Jan Patek, an older, stand alone pattern that I've had for eons. A quick search on the Internet showed that it's still available here and there for about $12. As usual, I had to change up a few things to make it feel more me and of course, interpret the whole in an interesting color palette. My days of doing the duller primitive vibe are falling further and further behind. Very sweet quilt to spend time with though if you love baskets and flowers. Which I do. So glad the motivation happened in regards to this pattern, it's a winner!

Patina is a true blue finish!

Ah yes. The completed quilt. I am not churning out the finishes quite like normal {this is is only #9 for the year}. In my defense, it's been a busy, distracting year. I finally snuck in the time to finish up the hand work on the binding for 'Patina', its been ready for awhile now. Binding is not at all difficult to do by hand, I just never want to stop once it gets started! This is the second in an intended series of Quarter Log Cabin quilts. Somehow I've never made it past this second effort, but there are plans in the works! Ideas. Dreams. Intended interpretations. There will be more Log Cabin quilts in my future. Just can't resist.

Looking across the quilt

There's something about an improv. style quarter log cabin block that makes quilting seem like the most fun in the whole wide world. From the cutting out and sewing, to the hand quilting, it's such a relaxing way to enjoy our older fabrics. Who cares about the waste? No worries if it doesn't turn out. It's just a free flow of implementation and almost a 'reset' to our creativity. Though the look is a bit utilitarian on its face, it's almost always a cozy quilt look in the end. Love it! In this one, I even managed to include an off-color shirting fabric. Score!

This one looks/feels extra snuggly

I'm ever so glad to see more of these older, tired-green fabric find a lovely home in this quilt. You probably can't even imagine the satisfaction this quilt brings me! Why I even bother is probably a question for many. There was a few years where I was diligently trying to build up the stash. I didn't pay too much attention at first to which colors were bound to end up with a 'stale date'. It didn't even occur to me that it COULD someday be an issue! lol  And apparently there was going to be a lot of green quilts in my future.*sigh  Okay. What's done is done. I'm evidently enjoying the challenge to make something good and sweet with these oldy moldies now. And rest assured, when it's not fun anymore, it will all come crashing to a halt and you won't be bothered by these weird color palettes anymore. ha!

Improv. cut log cabin blocks

Quick follow-up to the stale date fabrics, I'm quite a bit more cautious in my fabric buying these days. Much, much more frugal overall. I buy fabric I LOVE, find useful or am super intrigued by. Most fabric is bought without a single project in mind because I still believe in making projects from the stash. The shopping is spread out waaay farther between than it used to be, and yeah. I spend less and less every year because I can, now that I have a solid base to work with. And... lets not forget that there is an awful lot of stash fabric around here that has been gifted to me through the years. 

The challenge in using it up {or using it at all}, has absolutely changed the way that I approach many ongoing projects. Personally, I think it's a good thing! With the help of Kaja's influence, I'm not even above adding in cut up shirting fabrics. So interesting once you give it a try! Given the opportunity to go back and do it differently, would I? Well of course! Who wouldn't? I'm pretty sure there will always be fabrics that I just wait around too long to use though. That's just the nature of quilting. Too many ideas, not nearly enough time!

Loving this look!

It's a fact that this beautiful 'Patina' quilt would never even have come into being, if not for that annoying, lid-won't-hardly-shut, overflowing green stash tote. Can't/won't regret that for a minute.

Crossing These Two Off the List!

We had a quiet weekend which was wonderful. Long overdue. I was able to bring two different quilt tops up to completed quilt top status. Yay! Sometimes it feels important to clear off the lists a little in order to create some new head space for creativity!

Patchwork Garden

After getting the applique work finished on gangly flower baskets, I wiffle, waffled around about the border. A three strip border made up of equal widths {as per the original pattern}, isn't always a favorite of mine. After much pondering, it became obvious the quilt needed something there on the borders. Nothing I was conjuring up seemed any better.

A completed quilt top!

Don't you just love those kinds of solutions? 'Well, it's better than nothing...'. Yeah. But actually, it really is in this case. I had a problem coming up with a good blue or green or even blue/green, but eventually settled on the one pictured. I thought to use a good lavender or violet but the quilt wasn't having anything to do with those possibilities.

A few changes to the pattern

This particular blue fabric has a darker blue print design that echoed nicely with the dark blue baskets. Because it came off as fairly moody, the white text print combined with the bold coral/red ended up being the best pick {from the stash} to complete the trio of border strips. Yes, it's very sharp and sparky looking, not at all what I started out thinking the border should be. In fact, the entire quilt all but vibrates now that all the parts and pieces are in one place!

The one thing that I really liked about this border pattern was that the inside strip was made up of offset side strips. Since this coral/red fabric is so very bold, I was careful to make sure that it in particular, ended in an appropriate area of the quilt. Didn't want it to compete unduly with the pretty applique flowers and so easily switched which side of the quilt ended up with the longer red strip.

As you know, I'm very fond of text fabrics and so was very happy to find a good place to use this one. I know it's super popular and will date my quilt like no other could, but hey, when it works, there's no sense fighting! And it was on sale the weekend of the quilt show earlier this year. I always have to buy a little something to bring home, you know, like a souvenir.*wink

The blue border fabric has some of that darker blue in it too

Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of the Patchwork Garden quilt effort. It definitely ended up with a slightly different feel than the prim vibe to the original pattern, which is perfectly okay to me! It's still cozy and country, a little charming, even when made up in a significant departure from original color choice. That's the hallmark of a good design in my book. Good bones make for a good quilt!

Did you catch that about the 'souvenir' thing? hehe The things we tell ourselves when we're trying to justify buying fabric! The second quilt top finished up is the Bullseye Medallion quilt. Though the black and the green/blue borders were a little bit hard to figure out, the red border went swimmingly. So well, in fact, that I couldn't wait to tinker around with the yellow border!

Bullseye Medallion quilt

I really didn't set out to finish this particular quilt top over the weekend, but once started, it just wouldn't let go. It helped so much to have large chunks of time with no interruptions. Just me and the husband rattling around in the house. Bliss! Ha! That's my absolute favorite part when the kids are gone. So much more quiet time. I mean, it's only for a weekend usually or maybe a week so enjoy it, right? But my man, it doesn't take long before he has to have the music playing, wanting to fill up the entire house.

Busy corner with a little touch of applique

Anyway, the yellow border took more time to cut out and sew together than it did to puzzle together. I waited a full twenty-four hours and then started attacking the {next} black border. My big empty floor space adjacent to the quilt room? Yeah, well.. ,the husband took that over sometime over the weekend. 'Sorting' stuff. I can see that I'm gonna have to dial back my expectations about that as well.

When a quilt is done, it's DONE. What can you do but listen!

The plan was to have a black border and then finish up the whole quilt with a final darker blue border. After the initial layout for the black border {sadly uninspiring}, I went ahead and laid out the blue fabrics in a potential mock-up last border. Ughh. Just awful. For awhile I even considered making the black border a very thin sashing-look border as it didn't seem to make any sort of meaningful impact on the quilt. And the blue was so wrong, it almost hurt. But that seemed like cheating. Doing the default thing without half trying.

So happy with all the different fabric prints used!

What is it that the men always like to say? 'Drop back ten yards and punt?'' Sometimes our plans just aren't going to work out and then it's time to make something else happen. Instead of giving up on the 5" border round idea, I decided to try combining the black and blue border into one. If the black was sucking up all the joy, maybe it just needed a lift. Thankfully, it didn't take any time whatsoever to see the immediate change in the quilt.

The wider 'different fabric' break in the red border is
one that actually acts as a spark in better lighting

It's really amazing sometimes to see how well a quilt can react to certain fabric/color additions. Or subtractions even. Whew! Scared me for a minute there. I thought the quilt was going to go from being bright and spunky to a defeated fit of melancholy! Trying to work fat quarter lengths into longer and longer border pieces was kind of tricky, but somehow it all came together. There are a couple lengths that are carefully pieced to make the length a smidge longer and not be super obvious about it. Other places I deliberately joined right into a different print fabric even though I had more of the same fabric if needed.

One of the challenges of using these shorter lengths is the choppiness of the piecing look. If you're not careful it all just starts looking blocky. I used a trick that I discovered while making my Big Tipsy Basket quilt--break up the shorter lengths with thin contrasting strips. Funny how making the breaks in border lengths more obvious can actually create a better flow overall! 

There were two places where I didn't get the look quite right and had to go back with the seam ripper and insert a different width fabric break, both wider and more narrow depending on the area. In the case of the the blue fabric breaks on the outside border, you can see on the left side of the quilt where I ended up chopping the busy blue print apart and sliding a strip of the gray in-between. I really liked the {necessary} energy of that specific blue fabric, but it wasn't showing up very well attached to the end of the blue striped fabric. Inserting a calm space in between helped that {kinda magical} fabric work harder.

There are applique additions in two different border areas of the quilt. The first is the basket handles on the red border and the second spot is the far top left corner where I stitched a not-quite-perfect gray circle cut from a homespun plaid. Both times it felt really, really satisfying to take a moment and do some hand stitching on the quilt--something not quite as 'rigid' looking as machine piecing tends to be. I'm not sure why that satisfaction was so deeply felt, but I'm not gonna question it. Maybe make a note for future quilting? The quilt looks {and feels} like a 'me' quilt now and that's really all that matters. So that's it! No more borders. The quilt said it was done and I can't see any reason to argue....

Enjoying the Hand Work

It's been a very productive couple of days here lately. Always good to take advantage as it won't last forever! The hand quilting on Tidbits is coming right along. I cut out a cardboard template in the shape of the outer 'hill' and then marked the entire quilt. One hill fits just inside my frame with a little to spare {yes, I totally planned that}. All the inside hills are marked completely freehand, frame by frame, once I get to them.

Tidbits in the hoop

As always, starting out with the freehand stitching is a little bit nerve-wracking. It usually takes me a couple rows {or three or four} before I can totally relax and feel good about the look. Side by side comparison never looks quite as good as the whole enchilada. That's the hard part to freehand hand quilting that nobody ever wants to tells you! You just have to listen to your gut instinct and move forward regardless of the screeching naysayers trying to stomp out all of the fun. I've never had to rip out all the finished stitching, not even one time. That gives me courage to try again on yet another quilt. I tremendously enjoy the wonky freehand look though, you may not!

Patchwork Garden

I've also been plugging through the hand work on Patchwork Garden. These pictures don't do the quilt justice, but it's been a joy to have this one in my lap. Loving these colors! The picture above is at the point where I am supposed to be done. Uh huh. Then I laid the quilt out to peruse everything and just wasn't quite feeling it.

How about some more baskets?

Hmm... what if I add just a couple more baskets? While rummaging through the stash totes I discovered a fabric that I've always wondered why it even came home with me. Never been able to use it because it's just so busy compared to what I usually use. It really seemed like serendipity in regards to this quilt though! Could it be any more perfect? 

In the second pic {above} you can see where I cut out three baskets in that particular fabric and then put them at the base of those lanky looking flowers. I also cut one more smaller basket in a dark teal to stick up there in the top right corner. I'm seriously considering adding a tiny dark coral flower in that basket as well. It just seems needful somehow? We'll see. It would have to be a very small flower.

Trying to decide

Is the quilt getting too jumbled looking and chaotic? None of the latest additions have been stitched down yet as I'm still pondering. There was just something unfinished looking in the first perusal of the quilt top. It haunted me a little. Finally I decided that while I adored the pattern, all the flowers needed to be in a basket or none of them did. Does that make sense?

As you can see, I made several other changes to the original pattern. Only one bird, no stars at all {they looked terrible in any color and fabric I tried} and lots of extra little baskets. It's pretty much impossible for me to properly follow a pattern, so I don't even try anymore!

Next up, I have no idea what will happen with the border or if there will even be a border. All the good fabric options in this quilt are about tapped out already and it's just gonna take some more time simmering for a solution to pop to the surface. Nothing wrong with that.

Referencing the pattern

I wanted to show you the flowers in one of the larger baskets. The inner fabric on the flower was driving me crazy, how it was competing with the pretty coral fabric. So I flipped it over and muted the boldness of fabric. Works wonderfully every time! As you can see, the fabric stem got twisted just a little when it was stitched down. Not paying enough attention! It's something that annoys me {I can do better!}, but not enough to rip out and redo. Once the quilt is finished and washed and dried, it's something that I'll never notice again. What about you. Is this something you'd have to fix?

Close up of applique

This is the baby quilt I've been working on. As you can see, those square-in-a-square blocks were the starting point. They aren't fabulous, but it gave me something to easily build on. Baby quilts are so small, sometimes I muddle around wasting time doodling through a hundred ideas. I sewed them together with a dark blue fabric and then that length became the official 'quilt length'.

Sewing the strip units together

Everything else progressed from there. Most of the strip rows were sewn from repeat cuts of the longest length of a fatquarter. I tried to piece the lengths so that it wasn't immediately evident that they've been pieced, but also, didn't stress if/when the print didn't match up perfectly.

Auditioning the extra blue and also the green fabrics

There wasn't enough of the darker blue fabric on the left side, just a little shy of having the right length. On impulse, I grabbed the last little bit of the darker blue print used between the blocks. Just slapped it up on the wall over the top of the solid blue and then of course, loved the make-do look. Nothing to do, but try to recreate it! Now it's my favorite part of the whole quilt.

A completed quilt top

This quilt went together really fast. The main goal was to end up with a definitely 'boyish' quilt and this seems to work. In fact, it almost looks like a sports quilt if you didn't know better! All the fabrics came straight out of the stash totes and only two of them have been in the totes for less than a year. The totes even coughed up a complimentary backing fabric so we're good there too!

Sandwiching the quilt

I don't intend to start keeping track of the total yardage being used, but I am trying to make a more concerted effort to move the older fabric along. I'd love to incorporate some old orangey fabric into use as the binding fabric, but somehow don't think that will happen. There's an older 80-90's calico print in blue that might be just the thing. Would totally make my day to move that particular piece along!

Nothing Very Inspiring

Where to start? I don't seem to do very well with being over-scheduled and/or missing out on having good chunks of time for my own pursuits. In fact, it really messes with my creativity which we all know is of absolute importance in the general scheme of things. Right?

Patchwork Garden applique prep

After fiddling around in the quilting room here and there, mostly wasting time, I finally was able to buckle down and get the applique prepped for Patchwork Garden. This quilt has been quite the roller coaster ride of loving it and then hating it. You know how some projects seem to have the highs and lows primarily intended to keep us on our toes and second guessing every other decision. 'Ha, ha. You only thought navy blue was the absolute perfect color for ALL the baskets.' And many other self defeating thoughts that can lead to hair pulling and a dreaded feeling of malaise.

Replacing some of the fabric

The lovely tiny-print floral fabric that I just had to put into the quilt has turned into an eyesore. It is way too yellowed looking in contrast to the other whiter background fabrics. After wincing at it one too many times, I decided to take some of it out. Make it less obvious. Not having a lot of extra of the background fabrics {or actually anything else that might work well} created another dilemma. Do I buy? Turn fabric over and use the back of something? I did all the problem solving, decided to piece and make-do, and then happily found justification to add the stripey larger floral print in two separate places. 

Trying to figure out the best placement for the new fabric

When you throw a much loved fabric out at the start of a project and then later find reason to add it back in? Yass!!  Lets just say that it felt really good...  The seam ripping didn't even faze me at that point! As a reward, I started a new project, 'Roman Stripes'. The fabrics had been simmering together for over three years and were really starting to annoy me. I wanted to throw it all back in the fabric totes but just could not make myself take that particular step.

Roman Stripe, the new project

I love and adore this blend of fabrics, but.....every time I thought to start the project {a forever type applique project}, something held me back. Finally, in thoughtful, contemplative sort of reasoning, I ditched the slow approach and went at it from a totally different angle. If I love the fabric, how about making the quilt all about that and forget the fancy hand stitching details? You all know what comes next. Of course you do. NOW the fast and easy seems boring and so I have shelved the entire project until a later day when I am almost craving the tedium of chain piecing. Because that's a real thing.

Starting to see progress already

Being so very busy tends to make my brain feel sluggish and awkward. Hand quilting is the very best antidote, even if the quilt that's being stitched on is not terribly exciting to any of us. It's very important in my day to day survival of all things life, and so I tend to jump into the next quilt up for the hoop with reckless abandon. {I'll have to throw up a post for the finished Make Beautiful Things here in a couple days so you can see the extremes to which I swing, hand quilting-wise.} Not sure that's a good idea to go from such a bright, happy quilt to such a dullard, but well...., what can I say? Things happen.

Coins and Baskets getting sandwiched and pinned

It's mostly because here is a LIST that keeps up a steady drum beat in the background of all conscious and probably, subconscious decision making. Coins and Baskets was next up on the list of Have-Too's and my brain was just too fuzzy to fight it. I started out with machine stitching in-the-ditch style to stabilize the quilt and make the successive hand quilting a breeze.

A little stitch-in-the-ditch work

Then into the hoop it went and wowsers! While the colors weren't making the endorphins sit up and smile, hand quilting the pieced coin sections definitely made everything feel much, much better. Repetitive hand stitching and minor amount of marking? Total walk in the park. Which just goes to show that even the subconscious knows what its doing at least some of the time!

In the hoop for maximum enjoyment

I hand quilted all the baskets, coin sections and then was quickly moving on to the top and bottom borders when.... ta-da!  I had a late night brain wave. What if? Oh yeah. What if I took this really unexciting quilt and added some sweet little 'Count your blessings' words onto the quilt?

Trying to cut out the perfect letters

Having decided the quilt was destined to go live with a friend of mine, it all made perfect sense.*sigh  Even sleeping on the idea and revisiting it in the morning didn't diminish the 'Oh this is such a great idea' balloon taking up real-estate right above my head.  No pressure for myself at all. None whatsoever. Just needs to be done by this weekend!

Ready to trace the letters onto fabric

Want a piece of advice? Don't applique words to your quilt after it has been sandwiched and MOSTLY quilted. Really bad idea. I tell myself that every single time that  I've ever done it and the fact that I've done it more than once tells you an awful lot about me. The time to applique is before the sandwiching and quilting, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a blooming idiot. So sad. I'm not even sure it makes the quilt look better 'cuz this one is design challenged as well. It's just that, once the idea presented, it wouldn't leave. It felt right. Like I would be denying the quilt the very most important thing it needed in order to be loved. So it got done in spite of a very intense feeling of resentment. Do I dare admit to liking the quilt better now? After all that work has been accomplished and that cramping feeling in my hands has faded away?

Time to finish up the binding!

So yeah. That's my brain waves on stress, over-scheduled days, exhaustion, inward pressure and the importance of having a good dialogue with my very own quilts. I'm not crazy, my quilts are. Or my quilts make me crazy. Or I'm crazy about my quilts. Something. I'm sure I'll figure it out some day.

Having that out of the way makes room in the hoop for something that I'm lots happier to look at every single evening. Even though it will end up being gifted too and there's sort of, kind of a deadline here as well. Nothing hard and fast though. It could take clear up to Thanksgiving to work this quilt through the hoop and that would totally be fine.

Loving having Tidbits is in the hoop

Plus, it's unlikely that I'll be able to generate an excuse to add applique to this one. It probably already has too much of that, and in fact, is another one of those clunky design efforts. At this house, not every quilt is going to end up amazing, but hopefully it will end up 'finished'. That's a good thing. Finished is better than perfect! Too, this one has a wonderful 'feel good' sort of vibe while in the hoop. {I'm loving these serene looking fabrics!} Hopefully its the sort of vibe that will translate well into good times snuggling and sleeping. Gotta get our priorities straight!