The Latest Quilty Progress

Believe it or not, I've been earnestly trying to scratch a couple long-ongoing projects off of the list. That open-ended, not-quite-a-quilt-top-yet list. This Improv. HST Medallion is one of the projects that has been in my sights for this fall. I kinda knew where it needed to go after the applique, just didn't have the heart to do it in the summertime. You know how it is with quilts of a certain color!

A few blocks organized for the border and leftover bits

First I quit fiddle-faddling around with how wonky the outside border should or should not be. It was just so exhausting. I ended up cutting out the hsts with the rotary cutter this time around and then let the 'wonkiness' be in the fact that I didn't square them up or try to match up any points. Turns out I'm more precise than I expected. Whoops!

Trying out the third border!

If you look closely, there's plenty of wonderful mistakes though, so I was happy with that. The quilt top looked so good at this point that I just almost called it a day and stuffed it in the finished quilt top drawers. So tempting.

Improv. HST Medallion quilt top finished up!

But no.....  66 inches just seemed a bit too small for one of my quilts. Onward ho! By this time I really wanted to be done. One more border and it's gonna be moving on regardless! I was running out of options for colors etc. so it was a simple matter to go darker {purple fabric} and a little bit dull {gold fabric} in order to not compete with the bright, sparky middle. 

I tried putting the darker triangles to the outside,
this looked much better

The dark purple was a cut up, recycled tunic shirt I had bought a couple years ago at a Rummage Room sale. It was a hundred percent cotton, but kind of loose weave fabric like linen. Hmm.. Definitely not cutting things too far off grain or everything in the outside border would be waving back and forth like a flag!

So glad the little bright tulips were added!

I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out overall, although I do have to laugh. How does almost everything around here {quilty-wise} end up being boxed in and tidied up eventually? Just can't seem to help myself trying to contain all the wild bits I guess. Still pondering the two purple hst's on the outside corner though. Could be better if those two corner squares were solid gold colored....

Really sparky looking quilt!

It's rapidly turning into fall here in Eastern Washington and so the colors in this quilt have been an absolute delight to work with. I kind of figured it would work out that way! Love it when I start seeing the trees turn yellow and all those other gorgeous fall tones! This quilt may be a limited color palette but it's not the least bit boring. I can totally see this quilt being pulled out in the future just for a Autumn vibes pick-me-up.

Even looks good folded up. Maybe I'll just leave it this way?

The hand quilting has been moving along so well on the 'Patchwork Garden' quilt, that I knew it was time to get another top into the hoop. Or at least ready to be put into the hoop! So not my favorite thing to do these days but you know, it's all part of the progress and at least hand quilting doesn't require very many pins.

A new quilt getting ready for the hoop

You might remember this one, Bullseye Medallion from a couple years ago. I've been really hoping there would be time to slide this one into the line-up for finishing up this year. Wasn't quite sure how to approach the quilting pattern {still don't know!}, but just love, Love the colors on this one so very much! It started out as an ode to making the most of certain fabrics, not cutting them too small and/or losing the effect of the prints.

That little piece of red vintage fabric on the corner!

Letting the fabric make the statement? Whatever. It totally made sense at the time. I played with a small, different element in every border just to break up the monotony of the 5" borders. A few people tried to warn me off the idea of making every border the very same width; however, I was intrigued with the challenge of attempting to make it look good. 

The floral basket handles {leftover from a long ago project} are my favorite part of the quilt. Something about how the printed fabric below sort of fades into the handles really charms me. Or maybe my fave part is the wide, red, retro looking circle in the center? The one that makes me want to do more with circles and applique in the center of a quilt? So many ideas to think about! 

You don't have to iron your quilt backings like a mad-woman
when you're hand quilting. Just get the seams tidy...

While I was totally procrastinating about applique prep {the stuff that needs done for the pear blocks}, I went ahead and sewed several quilt backings together. Yes, all for finished quilt tops waiting patiently in the drawers. I wouldn't sew random quilt backings together and cross my finger they would work! I think I managed to sew 8 or 10 before running out of steam! The one pictured above is probably about the best of the lot, unless you prefer backings made out of a total of one yardage. 

I tend to buy a smallish {yardage} amount of clearance fabric {sometimes the rest of a bolt}, and/or make do with whatever pops up in the stash in complementary colors. Yep. A lot of the larger pieces have been gifted to me and yeah, they're not always pretty prints. In fact, most of these backings are not at all fabulous. I get that! But what can I say? My creative juices are pretty much directed solely towards the fronts of the quilts. The rest of it just sort of ends up being make-do and cheap, and I'm completely on board with that. Usually..., until I see Julie's lovely quilt backings! Then I'm super jealous and think I'll just have to do better next time. But I never do.

I don't really know why I was in the mood to sew quilt backings for almost two straight evenings. Such a weird thing to want to do. Something I've figured out in all my adventuring, is that this sort of thing works out very nicely much later on when I'm actually in the mood to sandwich and pin a quilt. Might as well take advantage of wherever the mojo leads us!

A pieced together batting usually works out well for 
the baby quilts and saves money too!

The latest baby quilt was sandwiched and quilted at the same time as the Bullseye Medallion quilt. I have been dragging my heels so bad about this quilt from the very start of the making. Ughh. Just don't know what the problem is with baby quilts lately! I've already machine quilted 'in-the-ditch' around all the long pink sashing bits. And the shorter pink and/or peachy ones. Will probably go back and do some quick hand quilting {with Perle Cotton of course!} inside the brick blocks. All that can probably be done in one day if I get really diligent about it. Then the binding and yay! Giving it away! Which is the very best part.

Next thing will be cutting the circles in quarters and
sewing in the blue/green strips.

And of course, I had to start another quilt project. It's Fall. This is Me we're talking about. It's the Right Thing To Do. And I couldn't resist, obviously. Checking things off the list can only lead to starting new things, right? I'm making this one along the lines of Quarter Circles Round #2, a quilt that ended well, but didn't behave exactly as originally intended. I was trying to do an interpretation of an antique quilt and somehow hand sewed the circles onto the background squares 'on point' instead of how I wanted them. Or something. Still not sure quite sure what happened with that quilt, however well it managed to rescue itself. I'm going to study the original picture a lot before sewing these so hopefully, hopefully!, the same mistakes are not made as before. And I'm only working with nine crossroads blocks this time around, mostly because these are larger. Should go pretty fast once I get started!

Oh the angst and the frustrations of a quilt that takes a turn in the wrong direction. It's haunted me ever since and I'd really like a do-over. Do you ever feel that way with one of your older quilts? Imagine my pleasure when I stumbled upon some largish gold fabric cut-outs from behind some older applique project. Already cut out in circle shapes? Easy peasy to cut out a few more and even more fun that I left them in the same, not-quite-perfect circular shape. Hmm... This could be loads of fun. It's almost like serendipity!

Don't be surprised if I don't get back to this blog for several weeks. Lots of family stuff  in the works, no doubt to be taking up loads of my time. It's good to have hand quilting waiting in the wings and the applique bag packed up and ready for business. Of course, my good intentions are generally more than the actual output when life gets super busy. We'll see how it all shakes out! By the way, my opened ended quilt project list is now down to five projects, with another two 'gonna-happen-soon' from abandoned bits from the Melon Patch project. That feels like an excellent place to step back and take a short break!

Playing With Fabric

I seriously thought about not posting this week as nothing very interesting has been happening around here. Life has been very quiet and restrained and as Kyle noted, creative juices seem to be acting rather sluggish. But I still have my quilt in the hoop and it's almost time to move the current one along and replace it with the new.

I Am a Maker next up in the hoop!

'I am a maker' is the next up in the hoop apparently. It's not the one that seemed like the most logical or sequential choice, but nevertheless, here it is! This quilt was put together last year out of orphan blocks and random bits and pieces that I just cannot throw away. Love the happy, sunny vibe to it. Should be extremely therapeutic to have in the hoop as there will be absolutely no wrong way to attack the stitching.

Orphan blocks and leftover bits & pieces

Most of you know that I generally sandwich and pin two quilts in the same afternoon. It's such a hassle to move the dining room table and get everything out of the way, I always try to be efficient about it.  This time, sewing two quilt backings turned into a several day affair, and wowsers! I somehow ended up with seventeen quilt backs!

A whole stack of quilt backings. Will properly iron when it's time...

They are each made specific as to size for the quilt top {of course}, but I am very blase about the backings. It's a sad failing of mine. No fabulous quilt backing around here. Oh no. Except for the fact that the colors have to at least 'blend' with the wonderful quilt top, anything goes.

Took a little bit of extra time with this one, just because it felt good to do so....

Most of the time there is a larger chunk or two of fabric that starts off the whole venture and then it's a case of finding some complimentary fat quarters to add on until the needed size is attained. These are almost always older or more awkward fabrics that I have fallen a bit out of love with, or perhaps they have proven to be difficult and grouchy about playing nicely with other fabrics. Putting them into a backing absolutely helps get them out the door in the nicest way possible.

The quilt backing for 'I Am a Maker'

A good solid ironing and then some careful attention to stretching that backing out generally takes care of the worst of the warples--all from not measuring and pinning precisely while sewing. I know it's a bit casual for some of you, but I never seem to have trouble with puckering on the back of my quilts except for that rare occasion when machine quilting more densely. Which I abhor doing anyway. Ughh. So not good at it. Hand quilting is much, much more forgiving.  

Fabric that I don't need anymore....

Throughout the year I tend to check the clearance bin at the local quilt store and buy several yards of potential quilt backing as the frequently updated list in my purse indicates a need. If a quilt needs 5 yards and I only find 3 yards in an appropriate color, then I don't sweat it. Usually there is something in the stash totes that can make up the difference. I'm always glad for a reason to use up some of these picked-over fabrics, whether I actually spent money on them or perchance they were given to me. It's just one of life's sweet little pleasures, getting to sew a languishing piece of fabric into its lovely new home and know that it's finally going to be appreciated.

After slogging through a couple days of making quilt backings {more than I've ever made all at once}, something did finally occur to me. There are fabrics in those totes that I will never, ever, in a million years choose to incorporate into a single one of my quilts. Not even cut down into teeny tiny little strips. It just isn't going to happen!*wah!!  Hard as it is for me to get rid of any fabric, all the truly awful {to me} prints have been culled today. I actually did it! An entire white kitchen bag full of fabrics is now awaiting the day they can be handed off elsewhere.*whew  That felt good!

Still trying to use up these old tired greens....

And....  because I was digging through the stash totes for days, it's only logical to assume that some new sparkly fabric stacks have appeared.

Second go around for this color palette...

They are simmering on the countertops for now, right out in plain sight.

Just appeals to me right now & yep, more of those old greens....

If I like them well enough, they will end up being moved onto shelves here and there with potential ideas drawn up and slipped into the smaller totes {kept just for these purposes}.

Might be a baby quilt for my sister-in-law. Maybe not....

Some of them might end up with more fabrics included before they become a final fabric 'pull', more colors added or deeper value exploration needed.  Others might end up being dumped back into the stash totes when I find them ultimately uninspiring. You just never know. Every quilt around here doesn't have to start from a well gathered stack of fabric, but it's often the first place I go looking when an idea flashes into full-on illumination. Where are those fabric stacks? Will this one work? No, this one? Maybe, Ohh... This one... Yes. This one.... And then I'm off and running, all ready to cut out and get started on a moments notice!