Working On the Foundation of a Quilt

I had finally dug out my backup sewing machine late last week and was making a bit of progress on re-familiarizing myself with the way it operates. Then I got one of those phone calls that turns everything upside down and inside out. Yeah, hello and goodbye to the weekend plans of completely immersing myself in quilting room!

Trying to see what I have to work with!

Oh well. That's just the way things go occasionally. I did manage to pick the loose thread and lint off of the four quilts I entered into a quilt show about an hour from here. That's the same show my fire quilt ended up at two years ago--a kinda intimidating show for me honestly, but they seem friendly and the quilts are definitely displayed very well. I decided it was time to quit being a coward, maybe stretch my wings a little bit once again. Always interesting illuminating to see our quilts hanging alongside other peoples efforts right?

So many options!

So yesterday saw me back in the quilting room and for some reason I was ready to play with the words on a quilt idea suggested over at Anne's. I'm running a little late with this challenge but have been thinking about it a lot. It needs to be something that has meaning to me and also be a bit challenging or I'm gonna run out of steam fast. That's just how I roll.

Since I do a lot of applique work around here, it feels like a good time to dive into my 'Word Play Quilts' book by Tonya Ricucci. It's been gathering dust for a long time now. First I had to rough out the basic foundation and idea of the quilt, which I quickly did by grabbing the leftover rising sun blocks. Love, love, love using up the orphan blocks! And no, it wasn't a totally impulsive decision. Like I said, I've been pondering different avenues for this particular idea for weeks now!

Then I played around with how to set them together and finally decided on a simple every-other sort of block in complementary colors. Since the intent is to ultimately add words onto the quilt, I knew there needed to be calmer areas in addition to the attention grabbing rising sun blocks.

The biggest trick was how to design these new blocks in order to have them end up at 17 1/2" square. Oh yeah. Because I had trimmed those big star blocks down to an oddball size thinking it wouldn't matter....  That math almost broke me, but last night finally saw me with some real progress up on the wall. The colors are making me very, very happy and for this moment, I'm thinking, words? Forget about the words! hehe  But no, it'll will be a fun quilt {if and} when it all comes together. Basically I need to decide if the quilt will be medallion style with words surrounding the 9 centerpiece blocks or if they will be rows of words breaking up each 3-block row, or even if it will just be a big puzzle. There are lots of ideas being considered, but nothing will be set in stone until the words start getting finished. At that point they will be auditioned with the rest of the pieces and well, you get the idea. That's when the real fun starts!

Because quilts are meant to be used....

Had to laugh as I wandered through my sons bedroom to get to the quilt room over in the corner. Apparently he threw off the blanket when he came in late last night {from a long weekend in Oregon with his older brother} and just curled up in his favorite quilt, never even attempting to get between the sheets. Gotta love these kids who grow up living with quilts. They sure do know how to use them!

Inch by Inch, They All Meet Up With a Finish Eventually

 You know me, always trying to move forward, one little phase of a quilt at a time!

Another quilt top closer to a finish!

Now that the hand quilting is done on Flowering Snowballs, then it's time for binding! Can't leave that hoop empty for long, so for now my Creative Process quilt is going to be getting some hand stitching details to go along with the basic machine quilting already done there. I went ahead and changed out the picture for my 'Current Quilt in the Hoop' caption at the top of my blog.

Getting ready to sew on some binding strips

But well, that might not take very long and I did have a very quiet day on Friday! Two more quilt tops sandwiched and pinned, including this Marsala challenge quilt. Something I've been itching to get my fingers on lately. The colors--they are calling my name....

Marsala quilt--the Unexpected Crossroads quilt

Summers End was the other quilt that got some pins in it and I'm really not feeling very thrilled to be working on that right now. I intend to stitch in the ditch around all the blocks and then come back and do some hand quilting on the little baskets. Big stitch of course. Is there any other kind anymore? Plus, I had a crazy idea that I might, just maybe, hand tie in the middle of each empty block. It's an idea. One that kinda makes me smile because it's different...

Summers' End quilt. An project that didn't do what it was supposed to do....

Really though, it's been one of those weeks where I've been focused on finishing and getting things wrapped up at the end of the quilting spectrum. I even sewed an extra two quilt backings and delivered the quilt packages to my longarm quilting friend. One has a deadline of the end of April and the other sometime by the end of summer. My friend is a busy gal and I don't want to pressure her, BUT I am loving the idea that within just a few months, my quilt top list could have 7 quilts checked off! {That's including the St. Paul quilt I'm still stitching the binding onto.}

All ready for action

Plus, all the rising sun blocks are done. Whew! I pulled out these five blocks to see if I could conjure up an idea or two for a traditional setting. So far my mind is pretty blank and everything I audition makes me feel very bored. They will just have to hang out on the wall for awhile I guess, soak up some creative spark from somewhere else.

What's left of the ruined Rising Sun blocks

Right now all the spark seems to be directed at the base blocks for the make-do rising sun quilt. The one where I'm going to chop those rising sun blocks in two and use them for an outside border? Yeah, that one.

The Make-Do Rising Sun Quilt

Very simple applique on very simple, but similar {18" blocks}. Sounds like a winner to me!

Growing Pains

I'm going to blather on today about a quilting issue I've been having for quite awhile. Last year I veered off into a very different {for me} way of working called Adhoc Improv. While I feel that it's been an important shift as far the style and originality I'm always looking for, it's quite thoroughly changed and interrupted the normal way I go about making a quilt.

One step at a time for Folksy Flowers

Maybe not obvious to you, but I've noticed something different. Digging a little deeper into my reflections of the past year, I sort of woke up to the reality of having growing pains. How I was working the past several years produced some wonderful quilts for me. It was a comfortable, pleasant, sometimes invigorating, place to be. So why change things up? Especially as the previous stage of quilting was so hard won in and of itself. I didn't just drop into that place without some very hard work! I guess the best answer is that I've felt a nagging desire to be challenged again and the thing that kept drawing me in was Improv., something very much out of my comfort zone.

And honestly, some of my quilts seemed to be missing just a little something beyond my grasp or understanding. This happened very gradually and mostly I thought the Adhoc. Improv. would just be something for fun and play. But then I realized that I was growing increasingly frustrated with some of my earlier quilting choices, even projects 'in-the-works'. It has increasingly seemed to me that I was betwixt and between.

Take the quilt below. I specifically remember wanting to work with these specific colors, experimenting with a challenging block and feeling pleased about adding the surprising twist of a tumbler block border to the quilt top. But as I was quilting it this week, it felt boring and much too predictable. Too formulaic and well, completely unoriginal. In my disdain for the quilt, {yes, I was essentially 'sneering' at it}, I basically placed zero importance in binding choices and simply raided the leftover binding tote until I had the proper lengths--something 'close' to the quilt colors. I didn't even check, okay? That's how uncaring I was. Then.... something very odd happened. After the initial phase of sewing the binding onto the quilt {it's still not hand sewn to the back}, my heart melted just a little and I started to feel that all-so-important connection again. All because of some unexpected color choices {pretty clashy in a couple cases if you want to know the truth of it} and a scrappy, make-do attitude. And I fell in love all over again.

Saint Paul quilt: Still learning even after the project is basically finished....

How obstinate is that? And then, the project below. Started from a Material Obsession book, I really thought it had the power to keep me interested clear through to a finish. But nope. Time and time again, I've recommitted myself only to procrastinate, be sloppy in my work, practice avoidance, blinker off into fun new projects, and always, always feel like I've been pulled back by the skin of my teeth. Is it ugly? NO. Are the fabrics impossible? NO. I just haven't felt any real connection. Which still leaves me three blocks left to applique.*grr...

The funny thing is, now that I've finally determined to cut up seven out of 12 blocks {terrible stitching issues} and just make do, I've actually started to relax. And enjoy. Hey? Is this quilt really salvageable? Be still my heart!

Rising Sun blocks to undergo some surgery...

And so I've decided to make use of those strange lighter, green fabrics left out of the original blocks {a decision that has always bothered me}, scribbled up some ideas for simple applique and well, yeah, I am back to being fascinated and intrigued by my quilting adventure. The methods that used to give me the basic framework for what my quilt might look like at a finish, are simply not working anymore. Occasionally yes. But not often enough to be reliable. Even though every phase of my previous quilts wasn't set in stone, I still had the comfort of knowing a basic outline. hahahahahaha

It's all been completely upended and I'm still not sure when {exactly} it happened. Not a comfortable feeling, that I can tell you. It's like feeling lost in the wilderness of too many choices at times, which is something I've always tried to celebrate and embrace. I can't even explain.....

A total restart

So I deliberately pulled out an old quilt top that I've been putting off the quilting forever. It's a clunky looking thing and almost no one likes it. That's okay. It served a purpose while I was making it, talking about 'The Creative Process so simplistically, and is serving a purpose for me now. So ironic how the old and the new always end up meeting up again and again! Reminding us that all the steps of the process are important. Just because I am learning to go with the flow, allow myself to cut into fabric without any definite, concrete plan, pushing myself to being 'free' and unfettered in every way possible with design, I cannot forgo the very important step of 'Incubation' and just try to make things happen!

Finishing up with machine quilting for The Creative Process
quilt---next step will be some hand quilting....

With this particular quilt, I admit to being cheap, settling on dull fabrics for the 'Incubation' and Implementation' lettering part of the quilt as that's what I had on hand. Now it seems laughably prescient. I rushed the process. Part of Incubation is having the patience to wait on the right idea, making sure all the pieces are in place, recognizing those important connections, and never losing track of elements that work to make our quilting unique. Incubation takes time. There is no formula. It can be hours, days or weeks before things click, especially if you're already working outside of your comfort zone! Because of my experience, there are things I can do to make a quilt progress and probably look okay. For it to satisfy myself creative self, there needs to be specific elements {relating to personal connection} incorporated or really, I'm just phoning it in. Lets just call these practice quilts, because we all have a few.*wink

Part of 'Implementation' is giving respect to the quilt when it indicates something is missing. Paying attention every step of the way to making sure the very best color, fabric, and/or element we have available in our current repertoire is being used correctly. Being decisive and adamant about making the best interpretation of what we're 'seeing' inside our incredibly rich imaginations. Incubation brings all the separate ideas together, Illumination sets the scene, and Implementation is where the details come into play. The ones that can take our quilt from 'nice job' to 'Wowsers! How did that happen?'

It's quite clear to me that {thankfully}, I don't have to empty out my leftover binding tote for every quilt finished. One thing for sure though, as my blue and gold quilt so succinctly pointed out to me: 70 plus fabrics in a quilt doesn't guarantee a quilt will look scrappy enough--for me. Some unexpected color blends and possibly a make-do element will probably do the trick. If my stitching turns up wonky, intentionally or not,, then well, it probably needs to have some control elsewhere, perhaps in a repeated applique or block design. Those sort of things simply ground me and provide a personal connection. Your criteria will no doubt be an entirely different list.

I just can't, in any form or fashion, make color-in-the-number sort of quilts and feel good about them. Which sort of makes the old way that I was quilting feel stale and formulaic. Now. It didn't use to feel that way at all. Aghhh!! Okay. What I'm saying is this. It's not going to be all Improv. all the time, but that method is definitely something I can use to do the sorts of things my quilts are starting to demand. By embracing the new in the parts and pieces that make sense to me, I'm not leaving anything important behind. In fact, it's a way of ensuring that my creativity won't shrivel up and die.

An important thing to remember...

I'm slowly finding my way forward, blending the old method of working with my new found joy in Improv. Finding a style that more completely embraces all the elements I love, not just stumbling onto them willy nilly and hopefully pulling off a hat trick. You might think I love being a reactionary quilter, but really, it only goes so far. And right now? I'm very busy slowing things down until there's a new comfort zone. Because it will happen. The transition is usually the most difficult part of the process!

Trying not to lose the spirit of the quilt....

In closing of this impossibly long post: What matters to me these days is making sure to work 'intentionally', something that has always seemed to be at odds with Improv. I'm finding that it doesn't have to be that way.

I want to work 'purposefully', no matter how simplistic my ideas come off to you or anyone else. If that involves ditching a complex quilting plan and starting from the ground up {all in order to make a very basic foundation of a quilt}, then that's the way it has to be. 

There apparently has to be an element of the 'unexpected' in order for me to feel true connection to my quilting. How incredible {and ironic} to finally understand that it can come in the most basic of forms such as a binding. You just can't make this stuff up.

Growing pains are hard. Stretching ourselves to learn new things, learning how to incorporate those new elements and finding our way forward takes a real, concerted effort. And all without losing the best parts of what we've discovered before! I can see why some people shut down after years of feeling passionate about what they do. It's the path of least resistance. When their projects start feeling boring or they lose the personal connection, then the way forward can feel much too difficult to navigate. How do we know what specific part of our previous comfort zone needs to be shed? How do we grow without damaging our confidence and that very important, trusting-in-our-instincts progress we worked so hard to accomplish? Our originality and growth as a maker depend upon us finding some answers. I'm happy to finally be finding some of my own. Ought to be an interesting year!

Two Medallion-Style Quilts in Progress

I love to click onto my quilty blog list and see what all my fellow quilters are currently working on. See the progression of a specific project or where their muse is currently leading them. My favorite part is that 'Aha! moment' or the times we shake our heads and say, 'of course, why didn't I think of that with a similar project?'  There is so much inspiration to be had from following along on another's journey and making the inevitable connections--viewing the process from such unique perspectives.

Everything has a starting point...

I often wonder what it is that people see in my quilting, why they keep coming back to this blog. Does anyone really know what I'll be doing next, because I certainly don't! And then I think about the connections and inspiration gained from checking in with other quilters. Oh yeah. Maybe it's the same right back.

So, having said that, how bout some background on my latest? This little centerpiece was started a couple months ago. I found the background fabric {a fat quarter} in a box of oldish fabrics my husband bought at an auction. Probably the best find in the entire box! Immediately my mind jumped to ideas involving an applique centerpiece. Which lead to all sorts of vague ideas about a sort of 'cameo' applique used at the center of oh... a medallion quilt perhaps? You know how I love those medallion quilts.

The ideas sort of ebbed and flowed and finally I had a plausible rough draft drawn up of what my quilt might 'possibly' look like. The problem was, the cameo was not being cooperative. So I dithered around until eventually there something to move forward with. Not nearly as much applique in the center as imagined, but oh well. This is what 'fit' into my oval--everything else had to go.

The Cameo quilt

On to the next phase then. Which involved a border with diamonds. Yikes! I hate those! But the drawing. It just had to be! So, stall, stall, stall. A few tentative looks into border books and templates. Ughh.  Stall, stall, stall. Until finally {I love that word don't you?} parallelograms made their way into my consciousness too. They seem just a teensy bit easier to understand than diamonds. Uh huh. 

Fast forward to last Saturday where my entire day was made up of constructing that little bit of green and white border. I played it safe and did not try to wrap the pointy bits around the corner or make them fit together into nifty little lemoyne stars. No siree, I did not. What happened was more like this: how many repeats does it take to extend beyond the corners? And then where do I chop them off to make it look like I did it on purpose? Oh and what about a coping strip in between borders? Because, gulp, it's looking very wan and anemic without that sparky bit of color. Whew! It's done now and no-one in my family seems to get how hard all that calculating/stressing and speculating is for me.*wink

Folksy Flower with one border added

I also finally dug out my Folksy Flower centerpiece in the last week or so. It's a fallish looking project and I have not been in the mood. The first border is attached now though and awaiting the second before I trim off the corners. The plan is to turn this one on point with multiple borders on each corners. It has sat simmering in the tote for months while I pondered the setting. On point or not? Pros for? Cons? I am a ditherer plain and simple, and refuse to rush my projects just for the sake of simply moving ahead. Details matter, and sometimes more than you might think!

I have also been stealthily working on my rising sun {twirly ball} blocks. All the middle circles have been sewn together forever. You knew that. Well, now the outer rings are sewn together as well. All 12 of them! And so now, all that remains is the part where I clutch my head in terror and try to sew the inside circles into the outside rings. I may even stall for another year or two. It's not completely outside the realm of possibility when it comes to something I dread so very much.

Starting to see the blocks come together....

And looky, looky what the postman delivered the other day! This is the results of winning a giveaway over at Kyle's lovely blog. I can't get over how cute the little bag is and of course I am always thrilled with getting to add new bits of fabric into my crazy fabric totes! Talk about inspiration, Kyle is always making the sorts of quilts you and I positively drool over...

Winning is so much fun!

So that's it for now. I'm finding myself in the quilt room a little bit more these days as the days have turned cooler and fall is a lovely time to quilt!

Another Quilt Top Finish

What a wonderful turnout for the Quilty365 December Linkup! Sooo many great versions of our daily circles. I even spied some when I hopped over to Josie's blog yesterday. Such a surprise! Her friend Sally has been feeling very creative lately! A big thank you to everyone playing along. I am loving the company.

My Scrappy Lone Star quilt now a finished quilt top

Alas, there are other projects that demand attention as well. I've had the green borders done and ready to put onto my scrappy lone star quilt for a couple weeks now. Just trying to find the proper outside border fabric as that could change things up in the middle. It has happened you know and I don't like to use my seam ripper any more than I have to!

I'm renaming this 'Love Me Do' of course and my daughter
somehow thinks I made this specially for her, which I didn't.
Although I do know she loves the Beatles...

As you know, this quilt started out as a square and then I decided it needed to be elongated. Hmm.. What to do? I played with a few ideas and then added the red border, a bit thinner on the sides of course. Okay. Good start. Now what?

While sewing the floral background fabric to the diamonds, I kept having the Beatles song 'Love Me Do' playing in my head. Don't ask me why, but some songs just go with specific quilts and that's that! Well... I do love having words on quilts and this one seemed like a no-brainer, especially considering my quest to make the quilt longer than it was wide.

I dug around and found a brightish but dark, green fabric that honestly I have had since about 2002!, considered my other options and finally settled on a sweet limey green for the letters. I just love how it glows against the darker green. The vine and the flowers were a little more difficult to figure out, but I knew it had to be simple, yet still pack a lot of punch. Leaves or no leaves? I finally said an emphatic 'no' as the rest of the quilt is quite, quite busy. Simple is good. But then I worried. Would the bright red inner border look weird if the outer border of green was only on two sides?

It's a bright happy quilt, with that kind of beachy, cottage charm I love...

It actually made the border fabric a bit of a problem--I had myself a design dilemma! Or not. I auditioned the darker blues, greens, reds, hot pinks, even the orangey tones, but nothing jumped out as me. The greens made the appliqued borders disappear. The reds and hot pink looked brassy and make my teeth practically clench. The softer bubblegum pink, bleh! I threw some of the turquoise floral at the quilt--not happening! I briefly considered making a patchwork border, but then, what if I lost the lovely look of the floral/scrappy center? At one point I noticed the pink/orange plaid fabric with the light background already incorporated into the quilt and a light bulb went off. Ahh... That could be the perfect touch. Large, bold print with just the right combination of light and bright. And of course I only had a couple inches left of my original fat quarter.....

So... I did something I never, ever do and combed the Internet for this specific piece of fabric. It's one of my hard and fast rules. There is never just one piece of fabric that will work and only that piece. Ever! Uh yeah.. About that. It's last years fabric and sold out everywhere. Did I want the green/blue plaid? Finally I found the right color on a site for full price, had it in my cart and then, finally, my brain kicked in. Seriously? Was this the only fabric that would work? I don't think so! So I clicked out of the Internet and went to bed. So sad, boo hoo. Then, a few days later I visited my most local quilt store and would you believe this particular fabric was in their clearance bin!! My eyes about bugged out of my head! Happy dance! So now I just think it was fate and really, I didn't have any choice in the matter after all.*wink

What's hanging around on my design wall right now...

And I've also worked on more of the rising sun blocks, finished the other six out of twelve. Well, sort of. Except for that pesky triangle border they will need and the applique centers. I just thought this was the tricky part!

Also, I've been having computer problems so if I disappear for several days you'll know why. The computer guy is supposed to tell me tomorrow if mine is fixable or beyond hope. Keeping my fingers crossed he can tune it up enough to get me through the winter before we have to buy new!

Getting Serious About Sewing the Rising Sun Blocks and Other Stuff

So I finally quit procrastinating and started work on the rising sun blocks again. The only one I had sewn was the one on the far right bottom. Things were going well, or as well as you can expect with curved piecing, when things started getting interesting.

Rising Sun blocks

When sewing curved pieces, I generally use the one-pin method as in the picture below. Convex side up means the pieces sew together almost by themselves. lol  If you look at the top left rising sun blocks, the blades are going in the reverse direction as the others. What I didn't realize is that by reversing some of the blocks {I only reversed 7 out 12 blocks}, I would end up with a really tricky situation in doing the curved piecing. No matter which way I tried to sew the blades together, I ended up with two options: either sew them from the bottom up (no way Jose!) or sew them with the concave side up (no way Jose!). Arghh! I cannot believe I got myself into this situation! Anyway, long frustrating story later and lots of 'un'sewing resulted in my doing the two reverse blocks with the concave side up whether I wanted to or not. So now I only have 5 more of them to do. 5 more!! Thankfully, it gets a lot easier after I reach the middle pin and fabric isn't constantly trying to get wadded up underneath my needle! But oh! I am not happy about this at all!

Some curved piecing

Also, I've been trying to decide on a setting plan for my Lil' Red Riding Hood blocks. I think this is what I'm going to go with. It is a bit old fashioned, but still allows for the blocks to stand out and do all the hard work. I bought the pink floral fabric for another quilt altogether awhile back, didn't use it and then found it later in the clearance bin. Yep, I bought some more thinking it would work for a backing and then, well, it starting intriguing me as a sashing fabric. You know how I love to play with sashing in my quilts! Love those scattered darker bits of flowers especially and how they will {easily} add just a touch more interest to these mellow, very sweet blocks.

Playing with layout

And of course I'm still plodding along with my circle a day--picking out the fabric. Stitching is starting to be about a three-circle-at-a-time thing, twice a week or so. I am just completely blown away by all the creativity I'm seeing with others circles though! I keep thinking, 'why didn't I think of that?'

A few more circles

I think that's the best part of quilting, taking a project or an idea and making it very personal and unique. It makes our quilts so much more special and meaningful! If you'd like to know more about Quilty 365, the link will take you to a description of what it's all about. Please feel free to jump in at any time! Love all the interest and support with this project. I think we're getting a good little group to prop us up and help motivate us along the way!