Saturday Odds & Ends

When we jump from project to project and then back around again, it often feels like {watching} a chicken peck, peck, pecking away. That's the way I like to approach my quiltmaking--little bites. Thank goodness I have lots of lists. They help keep me on track so that my inevitable restlessness will eventually add up to something of substance. The Marsala quilt below currently has all the hand quilting completed, a binding attached and is now awaiting the final hand sewing stage. Which I will do later 'cuz I'm just not quite in the mood yet!

Marsala {An Unexpected Crossroads} ready for binding

All in due time. For over a year I have tried to sandwich and pin two quilts at the same time. It's such a hassle to get help moving the dining room table out of the way and finding that block of time when the whole clan isn't tromping through the room. Next up in the line-up is the scrap-bin tulip quilt and Learning Curves, where I challenged myself to get drunkards path units figured out once and for all!

Next in line for quilting!

I stitched-in-the-ditch in between every 16-patch block and now I'm coming back to hand quilt the quarter circle units. It probably didn't need the machine quilting, but it was fast and easy to do and now I can hand quilt without any pins in the way. This is a large quilt so the hand quilting may take awhile. We'll see how motivated I get!

In the hoop...

After much contemplation, I finally settled on a solution for the blue applique heart blocks that had been shown before. Sadly, they will not be residing with the brown coin units anymore. This idea has completely separated itself into a new project that makes a little more sense. When I distilled all the elements down from the project before, it seemed like the two blocks {blue applique blocks & the coin units} were both equally determined to have their own way. So different directions here we go! I found a classic, ticking fabric to use instead of the coins and a Liberty look-alike voile to use as the cornerstone squares. Together, alongside the blue applique blocks, it starts taking on a much more serene look. Hopefully that doesn't mean boring!

Preparing Blue Plumes project

My rough drawing pattern has been edited and changed so much it's starting to get thin in places, but it served well enough to allow the basic rows to be sewn together. So far I'm leaving them in 2-row sections. This will keep the units small enough to manipulate while I applique the blue 'plumes' into place. Most of them at least! The ones at the top of the quilt will have to be attached after the entire quilt top has been sewn together. Ughh. Hate that. But there's no way around that as the plumes will overlap the seams above.

Units ready for more applique work

In the end I just couldn't discard the 'plumes' or exclamation marks as one person called them. It feels whimsical and fun. Right up my alley and it always seems worth it after the work is done.*wink  So that's the prep work--just a few hours. That's all! Done and all ready for the next phase though, that's the important part. It helps more than most people realize to have the prep work totally ready for the exact moment {or window of opportunity} when our hands are itching to dive in and start stitching. I get tired of a project, look around for the next eye-candy project and you just never know, it could be this one!

I've also figured out the direction forward for the brown coin blocks and hopefully will have some progress on that front sometime next week. It's a constant source of amazement to me that even when I'm deliberately trying to tamp down on the amount of open-ended projects around here, they just sort of happen anyway!

Keeping Busy

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything on my schedule lately. It's a good thing I'm a list maker and my daughter likes to keep the family calender updated. Otherwise there would definitely be things falling through the cracks around here! We're about to burst full speed into summer and my youngest daughter finally got word that she has a job waiting for her after school gets out.

Mending because I have to....

What this means for me is helping her to find an appropriate black shirt to wear for the hostessing and bus boy (girl) position. Yesterday I was playing hooky from my book work and digging around in a second hand store. You know, looking for things to make the $1-a-bag-sale seem worthwhile! Anyway, I found a long sleeve black shirt that I thought might work until we can find her a nicer cotton one. Of course, she wasn't happy with the thought of pushing up her sleeves, so I reluctantly agreed to cut the sleeves off and move the cuffs up to elbow-length. Ugghh... Mending is not my favorite thing to do, but it was actually a fairly straightforward process and went smoothly considering that I do as little of that as I can get away with. The only glitch was when I forgot to switch from the zigzag stitch back to a straight stitch on the second sleeve. lol Good thing I have a seam ripper.

Since I was already in the quilting room, it was a simple matter to prep for the applique I intend to do on my Geese Tracks and Baskets quilt. It's all a bit dark and moody looking right now, but I'm hoping it will pull together and look funky and maybe a bit vintage and/or retro? in the end. So hard to tell when I'm right smack in the middle of figuring it out.

Prep work for the Geese Tracks & Baskets quilt

I'm also trying to hand quilt on my Broken Dishes Part Deux quilt every chance I get. It's going very quickly and as you can see, I'm currently working on the borders. Amazing how much difference it makes to get the sashing taken care of beforehand with the machine quilting. It's not a look I want to do for every quilt, but I think it suits this one very well. Please agree with me or say nothing. This is really, really not the time to be bursting my little bubble.*wink

Hand quilting on Broken Dishes Part Deux

And since the end is almost in sight for my Broken Dishes quilt, I decided to get a jump start on the binding. At the very least I wanted to know if I had any fabric in my stash that might work or if I needed to squeeze in a trip to the quilt store. That could be dangerous with my present state of mind! 

Binding all ready to go..

But alas, no need to go hunting the perfect binding fabric, I had a black/white print that will do just fine here at home. Now if I could just find the perfect outfit to wear to my daughters senior graduation next weekend. Guys have it so easy. Throw on a pair of dark jeans or khaki's and a nice button up and they're done. Me? I have to figure out something that doesn't make me sweat too much (that layered look I love), look like I'm trying too hard (no one is more proud of my daughter than me, but it is high school and we all know they're wearing shorts under those gowns) or my favorite, something that is age appropriate (skimpy little sun dresses are definitely out for this mom body). I'll tell you this, deciding what to wear for her Kindergarten graduation was much, much simpler.

Sometimes You Just Need to Follow Your Muse

I'm was being very, very good, getting my bow-tie blocks all cut out, prepped and ready to go when I suddenly went off the rails.

Prepping my bow-tie blocks

Yep, the baskets finally overpowered me. It was bound to happen, you all know that. And, well... I might have already had a couple of the blocks cut out. Maybe. Not gonna admit to anything incriminating here though. And I figured hey! If I couldn't even focus properly on other stuff, might as well dive in and get these little 'ol baskets out of the way. A girl has to do what a girl has to do.*wink

Baskets Galore BOM

A couple little tips for those that haven't started this Basket BOM yet. Don't sew the curvy piecing on the middle basket upside down. It really doesn't work out well in the end. Just saying! And the basket that is second down on the left? Hmmmm... lets just say that when my husband brought home roses that evening (a very, very rare occurrence in 20+ yrs. of marriage), it couldn't have happened at a better time. Ahem. (Working for 1 solid hour on a single block apparently turns me into a raving lunatic.) The puckering on the Cactus basket proves that in-set seam piecing still does not fall under my area of expertise and I have wonky handles on the triangle basket etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. I'm adhering to Lori's motto and enjoying my 'humble' blocks regardless of any and all error. What's not to like about baskets?

Totally Distracted

I definitely have some ufq's that are on a list just waiting to be crossed off.  You know the LIST.  It is supposed to help bring focus and organization into the quilting room.  Uh huh.  It's sorta, kind of working.  Occasionally.  I worked on the Vertical Basket quilt panels for a bit....

 2 Vertical Basket panels

Then I went ahead and cut out my applique pieces for the red and blue scrap attack quilt.  They even have the little snips in the curved areas so that they are completely ready to go.  Yay me!

All ready for the next step....

But the real distraction seems to be ahhh... apparently the Basket Medallion quilt.  It keeps capturing my attention and getting in the way of focus and dedication......

Basket Medallion center

It's not like the colors in this quilt are dazzling or anything brilliant like that.  I think it must be the whole medallion thing that is making my brain spin like crazy.

1st border on Basket Medallion

It's so terribly interesting and challenging to think about what another border should look like!  At least right now it is.  The best medallion quilts always seem complete 'as is' until you add the next border on and realize how much better it looks with the new addition.  Then you add on another border and another border until the quilt says enough already or it gets embarrassingly large and unwieldy.  That's the real challenge of course--adding on something that makes everything before look even better than you thought possible!  And of course, knowing when to quit.*wink

Hmm.... what next?

So that's why I'm linking up with Favorite Things Friday over at Quilting in My Pyjamas.  Her post totally made me laugh as it seems I'm doing much the same thing as she is this week. lol

Making Time For Prep Work

I know I'm jumping around from project to project, but that's the way I do things.  Working on the handles to my baskets really, really made me want to dive back into Scrap Attack #2 with the red and blue improv. blocks.  I've had several ideas for the border floating around in my mind and I just can't resist any longer!

New border on Scrap Attack #2

I had found this pretty taupe, gray fabric in the bargain bin a couple months ago.  It was for another project actually (hopefully they'll still be enough left for that!), but when I put it up against my red, blues and grays, it makes things go all glowy.  I know, you can't see that with my lousy pictures.  You'll just have to trust me on this.*wink

Honestly, the color is GOOD! I wouldn't lie to you.:)

I mitered the corners of the border because I want to put a funky, swirly shape on the corners and I don't want piecing to get in the way of the look.  Then I think I'll put a slightly primitive swag type design along the border in between the end pieces--all of this in black fabric.  We'll see.  I'm still playing with it and cutting out my shapes free hand as I think things through.  If you've never tried this kind of applique work before, you really should.  It's a totally different process than tracing and copying someone else's design.

Prep work makes all the difference.

My applique block is coming along too.  I need to readjust one of the leaves, but I'm ready to start sewing the leaves and berries on whenever I get a spare moment and I'm in the mood.

Bow-Ties forever project

It really does make a huge difference to me if I have things prepped and ready to go.  I get SO MUCH more accomplished even if it's just one block at a time.  Yesterday I remembered to take my applique bag with me when my husband and I went on a material run and guess what?  I finished an entire bow-tie block while waiting in the car at the lumber yard and then at the bank.  Woot, woot!  Maybe this forever project won't take three years like the last one! lol