Finished and Gifted!

In spite of my initial ambivalence towards this quilt, I was very happy to be gifting it today. Tomorrow is my oldest brother and his wife's 25th anniversary, something that I love being able to celebrate with them. 

Straight & Narrow is a finish!

This was a very fast finish for me, only just started in October of this year! Normally I would just dig through the completed quilt top drawers to find something suitable for gifting, but in this instance, I wanted something a bit more 'formal' or even 'modern' looking in terms of design. Not for the fabrics and color though. Oh no. That was the conundrum. I wanted something that was obviously toned down and perhaps mellow looking {not eye catching at all}, but of course, at the same time,  it simply had to exude that cozy feeling I'm always trying to instill directly into my quilts. Agghhh! Quilting can be so hard.....

Looking across the quilt

I finally narrowed it down to this muted color scheme of tan, creams and country blues and then of course, ended up thinking it looked so plebeian and  boring. I second guessed myself a half dozen times and had all that wonderful angst that ends up making me insist I'll never, never, in a million years make a quilt specifically for someone ever, ever again! Adding the darker fabric with the golds and orangey-red crosses definitely helped perk it all up and bring a level of interest back to the quilt. Totally helped reestablish my equilibrium.*sigh  Why do we do this to ourselves?

Outside in the frosty winter air...

I was mostly following a pattern {Quilt Sampler Fall & Winter 2013 magazine} which makes it even more incredible to see it actually finished. Following patterns is like falling into a coma for me. My entire brain just wants to shut off. But once again, I proved to myself that it's good to trust our instincts. That gut level that prompts up to continue on even while the rest of our being is trying to enact a full on resistance. But, but, but... can't I just add a little bit of excitement? Change things up for more energy and 'first look' impact? hehe   This may not be the most exciting quilt I've ever completed, it did exactly what I was hoping it would do. It looks exactly like what I WANTED, NEEDED and EXPECTED. And that's important to be able to execute and see come to fruition.

And in terrible lighting in the stairwell!

I had some struggles with the machine quilting, having to deal with some drag on the fabrics at the connecting seams. Finally I realized that if I just stitched in-the-ditch down the length of the darker strip of fabric first, then that would take care of the bulk of my problems there. And of course I came back and hand quilted in that darker area with the applique, both inside the crosses and also along the lighter blue stripes. That is most definitely my favorite part of the entire quilt, seeing that lovely texture come into play.

A closer look at the hand quilting....

Overall, I was impressed and amazed to see the quilt start coming together in such a good way that I was feeling happy about the end result. Truly, it was a good challenge. Didn't hurt me at all! On another note, the binding fabric ended up being an easy pick. I just went with a burnt orange 'feather' fabric that added a nice bit of color to the edges of the quilt. My brother has an eclectic interest in chickens and ducks {manifested into a barnyard full} and so including the feather prints just added an important bit of personality. He'll notice the feathers even if nobody else does! And yay! for me, getting some of those oldy fabric used up and out of the stash bins. That's always a win to see them used up and hopefully well appreciated.

Not My Normal Way of Working

This has been one of those 'what was I thinking' sort of quilts. All the time I am sewing parts together, my mind is wandering and it's so very hard to stay on track.

The largest chunk of my Straight & Narrow quilt sewn together

I can't say there is any real regret as this quilt will be very easy to give away and the time involved is not extreme. Even including the seam ripper time caused by random strips joining up in an unfortunate way! The picture below shows how it should look after the final rows are joined. As usual, the applique work needs to be finished first.

Looking at it with the next two panels

At this time, those chunky crosses are just pinned down and those last two panels aren't sewn onto the rest of the quilt. The original pattern had 12 crosses, but alas they were pieced. That just seemed like a lot more work to me and would also ruin the directional look to my background fabric. So now there are only 9 chunky crosses in which I went totally wild with and free cut with scissors. Wow. I. Am. So. Clever. Maybe I can get that stitching done this weekend though?

Free-cut crosses still need stitched down

And yes, I warned you this would be a bland quilt! Of course I couldn't handle keeping the crosses to one fabric so had to dig around and find some fabrics that would play nicely together, but more importantly add a bit of spark. Just a teeny, tiny bit of spark. This is why I don't like making quilts especially for somebody! There is just not enough freedom to properly play.....

An impulsive make

Not surprising then that last night found me pushing that quilt aside and impulsively making a little pillow. Just because I could! It will be a gift for our annual secret sister thing we do at our church. Every year the ladies {who are currently interesting in being involved} draw/exchange names and then throughout the year we give a 'thinking of you' gift--once a month. Next week is the reveal party and this will make a nice little addition to what I already have prepared.

Fun to play with fabric!

And I don't usually enjoy making things like this. Not really. But compared to working on the bland quilt? So much fun!

Always An Excuse Handy to Start a New Quilt

Although the picture is a bit deceptive, please believe me when I say this hst medallion is actually square. Every added border is definitely an experience though. Wowsers! I certainly don't have the most accurate piecing skills these days after playing with so much improv. in the last couple years...

Hst Medallion

Not sure what I think about the first blue hst border, but I'm gonna leave it be until the next couple rounds of pink and blue are added. They are going to be switching back and forth every other row so hopefully it will all make perfect sense eventually.

It was interesting to pull out the next potential quilt tops slated for sandwiching and quilting. There are a couple ones older than these {of course}, but I just couldn't bring myself to care too much. Apparently I am in the mood to work on fallish looking quilts, but maybe not drown myself in browns like the two quilt tops I am steadfastly ignoring. We shall see. For now I am just contemplating.

So many choices

I also jumped into another brand new project. This one is a little different than  what normally happens around here these days. Uh huh. I am mostly attempting to follow a pattern. Yeah, crazy stuff! It's from the Quilt Sampler Fall & Winter 2013 magazine--a very simple and straightforward pattern that should go together super fast with no major design boondoggles and hopefully just lots of mindless sewing.

Straight & Narrow, a new start

I need want a quilt to 'gift' to someone and there is nothing in my quilt stacks or even the quilt top drawers that will work. It needs to be very nice looking but honestly, perhaps a bit bland? Just not thinking the recipient would be pleased with one of my more creative adventures. I went digging around in the binders where I store quilt inspiration from magazines and found this pattern. It's a little modern looking but when it's made up in these particular fabrics, I think it will present more 'formal' than modern looking. And that's okay. Nothing wrong with that.

The cut list

As usual I had to re-write the cut-list. It really helps me to not make weird mistakes and mess up those precious bits of fabric. I'm actually really happy to be using these {mostly} older looking fabrics and look forward to how this quilt might look in the end. And too, I've already made a mental note to make changes to the long vertical strips of chunky crosses. IF, and I say 'if', they remain in the quilt, they will have to be sewn into the quilt in an applique process rather than piecing. There is a subtle, but cool looking reproduction fabric that wants to be the background for that particular strip of fabric. It won't look good with lots of seams so..., I guess I'll be making some changes and not following the pattern to a T. Did you really think that was possible with me? Oh well, I'm getting the cart before the horse because I certainly don't intend to do anything with that part of the quilt until all the rest is sewn together. Onward ho! Still scratching my head that I'm actually making a quilt for someone specific. I don't do that. Like ever.....