A Fresh Perspective

Even though it feels that all I do lately is fret, I am closing in on a finish with my current hand quilting project. Time to pin another quilt top. I do like to stay one step ahead and quilting/color/fabric feels good. It's not like I have the brain power to concentrate on design decisions and such right now anyway. The fire is probably not any closer, but ash is falling everywhere, smoke is choking us and our view is obscured. Fires are {or have been} burning on practically every side of us. I can't even think straight.

Getting ready to pin my Scrap Basket/Rolling Stones quilt

My daughter helped me to move the dining room table out of the way and then because I was already in the mode, it was easy to pin two quilt tops. Might as well. The Scrap Basket/Rolling Stones quilt top is one of my absolute favorites because of the different fabrics and colors involved--that red number fabric for the basket background and mixed light green sashing especially.

Every now and then I make a quilt top that just seems to stand out to me as special in several ways. I'm also extremely fond of the large basket that was pieced {on a whim} with a quickly drawn template, then sewn from little bits in the scrap bin. It was actually the impetuous behind the entire quilt and I cannot believe how 'me' this quilt turned out to be. It's been needing to get in the hoop for a good long while now because it just makes me happy.

A closer look...

The quilt top below is one that I intend to do some machine quilting on--stitch in the ditch etc. After I get all that out of the way, then I will come back and hand quilt some spirals in the pinwheel blocks? I'm still contemplating ideas, but that is my tentative plan.

Mom's Color Challenge Quilt

This quilt is a Kathy Doughty pattern from the Material Obsession 2 book, but our late quilting group made it as a mystery quilt. According to the guidelines set up for us, we gathered or bought our fabric according to warms and cool, then subgroups of types of prints. I can't remember exactly now, but it seems that we had print groups of dots, plaids & stripes, geometrics, medallions, paisleys and also florals. We were supposed to pay attention to print size and try to gather a mixed selection of small, medium and large prints. It was a very interesting approach and we spent quite a lot of time playing with our fabric groupings before committing to the start of the quilt. I didn't mind selecting fabrics according to print type before knowing the specific pattern, but others found it an extremely difficult process.

A closer look...

What I balked at was using a solid white background and then trying to gather engaging {to me} fabrics to go along with it. True white feels so stark and foreign to me that I can't seem to bond properly with it. I could have used solid black {the only other option available to us} but for some reason I went ahead and decided to stretch myself a bit with the white. Good call as it's easy to get complacent within our own comfort zone and start to get stagnant. Using the white made me question some of the fabrics I was instinctively drawn to--made me wonder if they would be a bold enough choice if placed next to a solid. I've always tried to have a well balanced mix of prints in each of the quilts that I make, but making a quilt in this specific manner really helped bring attention to individual choices made color by color. It definitely solidified how truly important the details can be, reinforcing a thoughtful but hopefully, instinctive process. Hindsight makes it very clear that this quilt top has been key in how I got to where I am now in terms of choosing fabric prints for all my quilt projects.

Having said that, this quilt is not something I'm very excited about. As a whole, it doesn't feel completely like a 'me' quilt. It doesn't dazzle me, melt my heart or make me feel especially happy. Not that I'm embarrassed or ashamed of it! It just is. So.... coming back now and looking at it with fresh eyes allows me the perspective of seeing the little, tiny bit of myself that I managed to instill into the quilt--regardless of how limiting I felt the perimeters to be. That's kind of interesting because I really couldn't see it before. And it's in the finish-it-up queue now because I fully intend to be giving it away soon. Don't you think it needs to go live with someone who will more fully appreciate it? Ha  Lets see if it survives round two of August fire season first....

Working on Another Unfinished Quilt Top

As I'm going through all my unfinished quilt projects, this quilt keeps nagging at me.  Finish me, finish me.

Border on #4 in 9-patch series

It's part of a series we did in our Pieceable Souls quilt group well over a year ago.  Let me explain.  The idea was for each of us to start out with a very simple block that would remain our 'constant' throughout a series of 4 quilts.   #4 is the only top that I still need to complete and it would probably be done except for the fact that I thought it needed something to liven it up.  Like an applique border or something equally time consuming.*wink

The 9-patch is inside the building block squares

For the first quilt, we chose out our basic block (mine was a 9-patch) and made a minimum of 9 blocks using no more than 2 fabrics.  Then we had to set them together in a straight setting, nothing fancy.  Everything else in this quilt (and the others) came later just for fun.

#1 in the 9-patch series

For the second quilt, we had to use the exact same basic block and either alter the size of the block or change the colors used in the first quilt blocks.  Once again, a min. of 9 blocks sewn and the setting had to be a straight set of some kind.  In this quilt, we could also add in alternate blocks.  I chose to use up some sampler blocks that I had and then kept to a very simple look including the old fashioned straight cut borders.

#2 in 9-patch series

In the third quilt, we had to make our min. of 9 blocks in the same colors of a fabric swatch we were presented with.  We could change the size of our blocks if we wanted and set them in either a straight setting or on-point.  Obviously I chose to do the on-point setting and then later added everything else.

#3 in 9-patch series

In the fourth quilt, we had pretty much unlimited options and so I kind of went backwards and sewed my nine-patch blocks into a bigger block pattern.  I actually copied a quilt I found in a Sharyn Craig book called 'Great Sets'.  The whole idea was to restrict our creativity and then gradually loosen the reigns, hopefully stimulating even more creativity.  I love the idea and have since worked in a series with other quilts (such as my Broken Dish series).  But because we were working as a group and most of us value 'no time pressures', I think my fourth quilt was probably the least creative.  That's probably the real reason I felt like it needed a border so desperately!

For this project to work really well with me and my crazy brain, I think I have to be able to jump immediately into the next idea as the ideas are free flowing.  Still and all, it was a great learning exercise.  For instance, I had no idea how terribly hard it would be for me to be restricted to only using 2 fabrics for all my blocks as in the #1 quilt!

The Next Pieceable Souls Project

We had a Pieceable Souls quilt meeting the other night.  Almost no one is done with the last project, but we don't let that stop us from moving right on to the next one.  Each of us (the very few who wanted to jump to the next project) was given a chunk of fabric--all identical patterns, but different colorways.  My number was drawn first and this is what I ended up with!  It should be very challenging.

Inspiration Fabric

I've been busy staring at it for a few days, getting very distracted from more urgent projects, and then the light bulb went off!  It could go with this other project that I've been obsessing thinking about putting applique words on here and there.  Does any of this sound familiar?  I love combining projects.  It makes me feel very efficient and well, kinda sneaky too.  Sorta a two for the price of one.

Combining a new quilt project with an old one

Anyway, I'm trying to get permission to applique my words and saying onto this quilt top since I got the wordy saying idea from another site.  I know I could probably just do it and no one would ever really know, but I'd like to be able to post pictures without getting the copyright police involved.  I think I'd probably sleep better at night too.*wink

I am Simply Amazed at the End Result

There were a few moments of frustration, but the rest of this Pieceable Souls project went together fairly smoothly.  I am simply amazed and thrilled at how well it turned out in the end! Who would have thunk it?  This started out as a fun mystery project but then I could never seem to find the 'fabric love' that usually helps to sustain me through the nitty gritty detail of most quilting projects.  That ended up being the biggest challenge overall.

A quick pic outside in natural light
(This is a Material Obsession pattern made in different colors)

White is so, well, WHITE and STARK.  I was extremely irritated confused by the lack of blending and shading that I normally work with.  I'm a big fan of working with darks, lights, mediums and bright color combinations.  I had to learn to think differently.  Put away my preconceived ideas and trust that the fabrics were going to work together the same way they auditioned together pre-cut out stage.  Other than begging to be able to use twice as many fabrics as required (I seriously cannot even function without using a LOT of different fabrics), I followed all of the directions.  And it worked!  All I can say is Wowsers!  I am finally starting to fall for this quilt in a big way and I don't think I'll ever be able to work with fabric prints and color the same way I did previous to this project.  Learning and growing is always a big plus for me.

Taken inside my shadowy living room
(Only the corner blocks are different than original pattern)

Because it felt so good to get something else checked off of my list, I spent the rest of the weekend organizing my quilt room and working on my current project list.  I went through all my totes and made room for the onslaught of new projects I want to get started on.  Then I played with each one of my special stacks of fabric until I got a fix on what blocks/pattern I wanted to use with them.  Everything squared away and planned out.  Check.  Things were buzzing along just great until this morning when I went to this blog.  Oh wow!  These quilts are beautiful.  Once again, I'm reminded of why I keep working on mine a little at a time.

This is me freaking out with the layout possibilities.
My daughter is hiding around the corner laughing at me.

This Blackbird Design quilt has been popping up occasionally in the quilt blogs lately, which is incredibly inspiring, but also a bit of a nerve-wracking situation for me.  Most of these quilts you see around the blogging world are primarily done in fall colors (like the original pattern).  They look beautiful, as did the original quilt.  The problem I have, is that I chose to do a very different color palette, and now I'm worried that it may not work out quite like I envisioned.  So this morning I just couldn't take it any longer.  I had to go dig out all of my little basket blocks and see what was happening with my own personal color scheme.  After a brief session rearranging blocks in my very limited space on the floor of my quilting room, I determined that I could probably relax.

Okay, maybe I can starting breathing again--
it's doesn't appear to be a total disaster.

Seriously though, go look at that quilt that I linked to.  The on-line quilting world continually encourages me to 'think outside of the box' for every style and quilt pattern created.  Love that.*wink

A Marathon Day

Somebody once told me that I was stubborn.  Believe it.  I blithely cut out and started sewing the first Texas Twister block thinking 'I can do this!' because you know, I'd made this block once before five or six years ago.  Apparently I was a better seamstress a few days ago too....

1st one's a big fat FAIL.

It ended up in the trash where it belonged and I almost bagged the whole idea right then and there.  Who needs fancy schmancy cornerstone blocks anyway?

Test block looks like it may be do-able.  Maybe.

 After a very stern nice little talk with myself, I decided that I was better than that.  I could rise above and at least give it a decent effort before I just gave up.  I decided to at least try a test block and maybe try some simple remedies like making sure my 1/4" seam was really 1/4".   Who knew?  My machine was set for a sloppy scant 1/4".  Good enough.  I've never tried to push myself off as a precision seamstress.  Never ever.  The test block wasn't great, but it was just good enough to goad me into going for the big four.  Okay.  Good place to break for the night and press on the next day with a clear mind.

Love these centers.  They would make perfect flowers!

Honestly, it was a marathon day.  I'm out of practice.  I am not used to pointy things that have to match up just so.  And I had to use a crazy amount of pins and sweat a lot.

Can you believe this mistake?  Seriously?
The sun must have been in my eyes.

Then this block happened.  And I couldn't fudge anything because it totally messed up the other block and made things look really bad.  Again, I almost gave up.  These are not even my favorite colors to work with!

Okay, definitely not perfect, but they'll pass the
galloping pony test and that's good enough for me.

 I took another break to make dinner because the natives were getting restless and I just needed to get some air, flex my fingers and stretch my back.  How do people make this look so easy?

Coping strips added on.  Now I will have
floating cornerstone blocks.  Good job me.

In the end, I had four blocks that looked kinda like the picture in Judy Martin's quilt book.  They're a little poofy in the middle and I have a least one pucker that won't go away.  My spinny little circle in the middle isn't super great--not by a long shot and the points don't match up like they should.  Did I already say that?  THE POINTS DON'T MATCH UP!  Oh yeah, and I cut the tips off of a few stars.  Seriously, it was an agonizing day.*wink  You should try it sometime.

Working Off One of Those Horrible, No-Good Awful Moods

I left my back office in a horrible, no-good, awful mood yesterday and somehow ended up in my quilting room.  Can the economy possibly get any worse for those self employed in the construction business?  After prowling around there for awhile trying to figure out where to settle, I ended up pulling out this 'Pieceable Souls' project.  Maybe not the best choice as it's not always been my favorite quilt, but somehow it managed to work its magic anyway.  Gotta love quilting and it's ultimate soothing qualities...  

Working with the 1st border

At first it didn't seem very soothing at all.  Basically, I just kept chucking blocks down into the line-up hoping that eventually something would start looking like it grew there.  I kept rearranging 9-patch blocks and forgetting that I need the corners to be filled with a larger (12") blocks.  Grrr...  

Then the second border

I thought I had separated my blocks out and tried to 'balance' the colors somewhat evenly.  Gah!  Does it even matter with all this scrappiness going on?  I think not.  Amazingly, by the time I had taken my little temper fit out on this poor quilt, both borders were sewn together and ready to go.  And I was in a much better mood.  Unbelievable.  Imagine if I'd been working on a quilt I WAS IN LOVE WITH?  Huh?  No way.  That would be a very dangerous thing to do.*wink

Last 2 borders now complete--waiting on corner blocks

So now I'm looking at all the leftovers.  However did I end up with so many extra blocks?  I'm thinking that somewhere between my desire to have plenty of  'choices' and my inability to concentrate on mathematical equations while I'm in the midst of critical basic quilting decisions, I wasted a whole bunch of prime fabric.  Oh well.  I think maybe there is a fabulous baby quilt in somebody's future?

All my extras!

Now I'm wading through 'The Block Book' by Judy Martin trying to determine if the 'Texas Twister' block will satisfy the requirement for the 4 corner blocks I need.  I do so love the block, but it's just not big enough.  Hmmm... Maybe I can work around that somehow....

Border Work on Pieceable Souls Project

I decided to take a little break from the Broken Pieces quilt and work on my Pieceable Souls quilt.  I worked on it off and all during the weekend and managed to get two borders pieced and sewn together.   Considering how crazy things are around here lately, I have to feel good about getting even that small amount accomplished!

Working on border pieces

2nd Border almost done

The most time consuming part is laying out the blocks and checking to see if the colors are blending well, if I'm repeating any fabrics that are immediately to the side of the border in one of the pinwheels and of course, my 'gotcha' problem--accidentally lining up two identical placement 9-patch blocks.  Umm, that would probably mean I need to shut off the lights and just go to bed?  I can see that I'm going to have quite a few 9-patch blocks leftover when I finish all four borders.   That should make for a good addition to the back of the quilt as I do get tired of the single fabric backings.  Hopefully I can start in on the cornerstone blocks here pretty soon and get them out of the way.....

The Mystery Quilt Has Been De-mystified

We are getting close to another Pieceable Souls quilting meeting.  I have all 20 of my pinwheel blocks finished--just yesterday I completed my very last one.  Because we are a very busy little group, our meetings are spread out and expectations are kept to a very low key.  No pressure!!  The next meeting will be about lay-out and (I'm assuming) the corner blocks we still need to make.

How I wish I had a bigger design wall!

As soon as we started sewing together these pinwheel blocks and then I realized the other blocks were going to be cut and re-sewn into 9-patch blocks, I've had this feeling that I've seen this quilt before.  Sure enough. This mystery quilt was based on the 'Playground Days' quilt from 'Material Obsession 2' by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.  I actually own the book, but honestly, I barely even glanced at this quilt because I was too busy drooling over 'Gypsy Kisses' (the eyelash quilt) and 'Now and Then' (the scrappy tulip quilt).  I do so want to make those quilts some day!  They're totally on my SomeDay list.

Aren't these sweet?

I can definitely see why my mom chose this quilt to use for our mystery project. It is based on very simple blocks, so that all of the impact relies on the fabric--our latest and greatest challenge.  Three out of six of us own this book, so that just leaves the others to make sure and get their copy so as to satisfy the copyright laws etc. etc.  We've done this one other time with a Kim Diehl pattern and it worked out very well for our little group of quilters.

Gotta say thanks! for the inspiration.

We have a very limited range of quilting stores to buy from here in the back of beyond, especially when it comes to the more modern, contemporary styles of fabric.  I ended up buying about a third of my fabric on-line at the 'Fat Quarter Shop'.  If I would have realized this was a 'Material Obsession' design, I would have completed freaked out and bought everything on-line instead of trying to scrounge through my stash for a base.  Seriously mom?  My normal fabric does not EVEN belong in one of their luscious designs.*sigh

On To The Next Phase

Well, I have been slogging through this Pieceable Souls project and finally, finally! I have proof that I am making progress.  I got the paper for the next phase and I guess we are making pinwheels with the half square triangles.  I knew it had to be a simple design because originally we had a newbie quilter that wanted to join in on this project.  She has since backed out, but I'm actually relieved that this is turning out to be such a basic design after all.  These colors and fabrics are not my 1st choice and as I've mentioned before, I'm really struggling with this.  Laugh all you like, but when the muse is absent, it's terribly hard to get excited about the busy work, no matter how much character building is involved.*wink

All the first phase sewing done.

I've noticed this before in previous projects, but it still confuses me.  I lurk on several modern quilting blogs and seriously drool over some of their quilts.  The scrapified quilts especially get to me and if they add in some hand quilting, I. Am. In. Love.  Then, when I try out some modern fabrics en mass, using clear, bright, fun stuff, I almost start to snore.  Why can I not be more versatile about this?

Just a few more....

So...., back to my comfort zone.  I have finished up a few more of my Scrap Attack blocks, making for 29 finished blocks now.  I am still not sure if I want to add in another color yet--so far I'm feeling good about this.  On another note, I like to hang up pictures and patterns for inspiration and future project ideas, but I'm getting tired of taking down patterns to hang up blocks on my design wall.  It's definitely time to get a bulletin board or something the next time I go 2nd handing.:)

Playing With Fabric

We had a Pieceable Souls meeting the other night and spent virtually the entire meeting playing with fabric, ours and each others. This has been a very different and somewhat difficult project for us. This next project is a mystery quilt with the focus on fabric textures and temperatures. It's amazing how liberating it is to pick fabric out without knowing in advance the pattern and YET how frustrating it can be at the same time. What is so interesting though, is that no matter what the guidelines are, we each instinctively pick fabrics that fall within our comfort zone and reflect back our personalities. Maybe we stretch things a little as requested, but the final results tell the truth and our stacks of fabric might as well have had our name on them! Here's hoping that by helping each other pick and choose our final fabrics, we also giving our final selections more depth and clarity. The little bit of fabric sharing we engaged in should have helped too. I think. I hope.:)

Not the Project I Want to Work on

Been working on a project for our 'Pieceable Souls' group. I have to say that it's not going where I want it to go. It could be that I'm not in the mood to work with a black background right about now, what with spring and all. I wish I could just blow this particular project out and be done with it, but I know from experience that if I push it or rush things, I'll end up with something I literally detest AND that would be a crying shame. Every quilt deserves it's day in the sun.

Lots of Productivity in a Very Random Way

Lots of progress this weekend in a random, restless sort of way. I got my trees appliqued on my quilt top with an extra branch for an owl perhaps? I know they are terribly trendy right now, but they make me smile. I just about settled on red leaves for my trees which is very folky I think. I admit to totally stealing this idea from an ad somewhere and remaking it to fit my quilt (not for sale or anything, just for my personal pleasure). I wanted SO BADLY to go buy fabric this weekend. It was a itchy craving that would not go away. It's been several months since I had the privilege of buying fabric and I just keep telling myself that I'm happy to still have a house to live in and a car to drive--fabric is not that important in the scheme of things. lol! I'll keep telling myself until I believe it, okay? I did get my binding sewn on the log cabin quilt, so that is done. I've wanted to make a log cabin quilt for over 10 yrs. Crazy. My sister and I were walking around a quilt show a couple years ago and were consistently drawn to the simple, but subtly complex quilts. And what was stopping us from making them but our own inner critique of thinking we ought to make more difficult patterns. huh. Like that was more worthy or something.:) This Log cabin pattern is based on a quilt in the 'Quilter's Color Workshop' book by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. The biggest lesson I learned from this was "Not to Paint out all the White". I adore the faint tones of yesteryear with the mix of floral, darks and scrappy prints. And last but not least, I started in on my Series #4 quilt from our Pieceable Souls challenge we've been working on since last year. I'll post about that another time. I just wanted a picture on my blog as PROOF of my productivity.*smirk

No Commitment Quilt Exchange

Our Pieceable Souls quilt group finally had our 'No Commitment' quilt exchange we've been talking about for about 3 years! Anybody bringing a lap size quilt got to take somebody else's quilt home. We ended up with only five quilts to exchange, but everybody was excited. It's funny how much we appreciate other people's quilts when we know the effort involved in getting them to completion. All the quilts were quilted on long arm machines except for mine, which was hand quilted. I ended up with the scrappy squares quilt at the top in the greens, pinks, browns and blues--made by my little sister so I am extremely happy to get this springy quilt.:) The quilt I contributed is the next to last quilt with appliqued flowers of course. The light in my living room is terrible in the evening so the quilts don't look anywhere near as good as they did in person. They were all much more vibrant and colorful than the photos show.