Ready For Big Stitch Quilting

I've been in an odd state this past week. So surreal that 2018 is over and done with and now we're well into February of 2019? We've had some tough challenges in the past couple years and it appears that we are starting to make the transition into better times overall. 2019 definitely looks more promising than I had hoped for and that's a huge relief.

Improv. Postage Stamp Baskets ready for quilting

No doubt we will still be confronted by the issues of our parents failing health and those sorts of concerns, but we'll have to cross that bridge when it gets here. My husband laughs and tells me that if life gets too good then I'll probably lose all my creativity. Hah! What does he know? But in fact, I sort of fell into a funk this past weekend and without any resistance whatsoever, curled up with a trio of books that absolutely riveted me. I know I'm way behind the times, but I picked up 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and subsequent sequel in a $1 a box of books sale. Luckily my daughter had the third book so I didn't have to wait for the library to open! Down the rabbit hole I fell for all of four days, only putting the books down for necessities like making dinner etc.

The new one in the hoop!

But finally I have came back to the land of living and addressed more important things like quilting. There's a new quilt sandwiched and pinned and after the most basic of machine {stitch-in-the-ditch} quilting, it's all ready for the hoop. It's been very cold here and so this quilt feels like a great one to have in my lap. All the blues and greens against the pale backgrounds remind me of early spring. When we're young we think that life just gets more simple as we get older, but in reality, things just change and our challenges are different. Yay for the foundation of a good life and a wonderful family all around me! Just one last thought.... Why is it that women {often} have to deal with so many life challenges at a time when their hormones are whacked? I don't want to be a man in any way shape or form, but wowsers, at least they have the ability to dial back on the emotional roller coaster at a moments notice.

An August Bit of Play With Adhoc. Improv.

I often feel like I'm flittering and fluttering from project to project, much like a butterfly, never sticking for the long haul. Then, slowly but surely I begin to see things start pulling together and wowsers! Why should I do things any different when it's mostly working out for me? Besides, it's so much fun to play, don't you think?

Testing out a center applique idea

This summer-y looking set of pinweels is a result of starting in on another one of Sujata Shah's block sets in her 'Cultural Fusion' book. I haven't gotten very far. Mostly because I mixed things up and am working with 5 fabrics per block set, not 4. Which incidentally makes balancing the colors a challenge. Not sure where it's going or how excited I am with it, but I'll say it's growing on me. I absolutely love the addition of the vintage floral fabric. Trust me when I say that it does add depth to these funky blocks.

Wonky Pinwheels

And then I just couldn't resist any longer. This strings project has been nagging at me for literally months, so what's a girl to do? I went back to my book 'The Improv. Handbook' by Sherri Lynn Wood and refreshed my memory on how string sets might be formed. Yah, yah. Recommended to use the complete width of your yardage....

Improv. String Sets

Oh, I just balk at trying to cut 42" strips in any freehand sort of way. {Pretty amazing that I even had anything larger than a fatquarter!} But my mind sort of freezes up and says 'no!' Not enough room at my cutting counter and I do so hate moving fabric while in the midst of cutting. So I simply folded the fabric in half and then once the 21" length was cut, I sliced the narrow end off. There. That took care of the {worst of it} weird ripply off-bias result quite well and no time lost trying to maneuver partially cut fabric masses.

I made sure to add enough strips on the horizontal {me thinking ahead for once} so that each strip set would result in two 8 1/2" string blocks. Which I promptly stuck on the wall and admired as a potential basket. Oh yeah! First part of this particular mission accomplished--just as soon as I sew them all together. And all the leftover strippy pieces can be revamped into the basket handle too. What's a basket without a proper handle? Sorry about the bad color in photo below. Too much direct sunlight I suppose?

A new large basket emerging

And because I know you're all wondering, here's the all-sewn-up version of my Chunky Crossroads quilt--yet another set of blocks sewn from the Cultural Fusion book. Plain and simple but with so very much spark.*sigh Believe me, I was a teensy bit worried about that concrete gray dulling everything down! Love the imperfect matching up of each crossroads blocks in the corners and those limey greens--just yummm....

Chunky Crossroads quilt top

But you know it's not finished until the applique genie has made the final decision. hehe  Yes.... that's right. I'm contemplating adding on a border with some, gasp! applique details. 'Cuz that's the way my mind operates and really, it makes me happy in a folksy, primitive, quilty sorta way.

Okay. That's my Adhoc. Improv. wrap up for the month of August! I had to smile at Ann's mention of the 'need to quilt'. Such a real thing for so many of us! And taking off on that theme, have any of you read the latest installment of the derivative work discussion going on in blogland? I am personally enjoying the refreshingly, frank look at how all of us {as whatever genre of quilters we happen to be} inspire and are inspired by others--regardless of the increasing dictatorial narrow view of the current 'modern' quilt leaders. Playing with fabric is what we do. There's bound to be some crossover and eventually, if we're dedicated and serious about our passion, a bright new spark of originality!

String Play a Reminder to Keep Playing With the Scraps!

Picture heavy post! String Play is a completed quilt now. This is a quilt made almost entirely from my scrap bin. Before quilting her {I want to call the quilt a 'her' for some reason}, I would have said she wasn't one of my favorites. Now I'm completely besotted.

Looking across the quilt

There's just something about a scrap quilt made up of hundreds of little pieces from other quilt projects that really gets to me. Upon starting this quilt, I dug through my scrap bin and pulled out specific colorways. As you can see, this quilt does not have any green--it's not the entire rainbow. For me, a crazy, million-pieced scrap quilt has to have a certain level of control or it just feels like chaos. Which just makes me nervous.

String Play on the railing!

I've come to realize the value of a pre-sort. I pull fabrics in specific colorways, pushing the boundaries as far as I dare. In this case, the yellow and golds included some rust and orangey tones, and of course, plenty of brown. The purples went all the way into black, excluding most lavenders. Pink colors included the entire spectrum from the lightest of pinks clear to the rosiest of red--no bubblegum pinks or tomato reds allowed, but yes on the peachy, apricot pinks! The blues included a wide range as well, starting from lightest of light all the way to almost black and I skipped most of the aqua tones I stumbled across. This kind of 'control' really helps to establish cohesion in the new color family as the quilt strips started being joined together. I tend to leave the different colorways in separate totes while I sew, randomly grabbing the strips as I choose to.

Love seeing the bits and pieces...

When I was working through making the scrap blocks, the only extra fabrics I added were yellow, gold and a reddish purple. They were pieces that I thought might help carry important colors throughout the entire quilt as this is a largish quilt and I was running out pieces from the scrap bin. It helped that a couple of the fabric pieces were very sentimental for me, being pieces from my late grandmothers stash and a shirt from my deceased brother.

All that lovely texture...

Before, I would have said this one was a somber, moody sort. But after quilting her, I've discovered she's a soft, rich, comfort giving quilt and I sincerely doubt she will ever be given away. Honestly, I am feeling as good about making this quilt as any I have ever made. And what does that say about me and my quilting?

Want to curl up with me?

It's a timely reminder to make time for sewing from my scrap bin. There's a lot of joy to be had from taking the bits and pieces and trying to make something beautiful. After the initial fabric sorting, there's also a lot of freedom in grabbing and sewing strips together without worrying about what they'll look like snuggled up next to each other. In this method of quilt making, we'll often find ourselves wincing at the pairing of fabrics we're sewing together. And over and over we'll find ourselves delighting in yet another pairing! It's a different sort of process, but it can be very revealing to those of us who get caught up in controlling the color in our quilts. We have to learn how to let go and just allow the fabric to tell the story it really wants to tell.

It looks like it belongs in my home...

I wish this sort of quilt could have happened around here even ten years ago, but I was too unsure--too insecure about the outcome. I didn't know how to tame the scraps without losing their innate goodness. And I tend to forget now how working with scraps helps me out in the rest of my quilting.

Looking at the pieced backing....

Did you notice the entire quilt was stitched on my machine? I did it. I actually stitched the entire quilt on my recently serviced Bernina! About halfway through the tension started giving me problems again. It was stop and go, fixing and adjusting clear to the end and yes, the machine is going back in the shop once again--for the third time this year.*sigh  I won't bore you with the details. Just hoping this time will be a true-blue fix....

What Imrov. is Teaching Me

So here it is time for the AHIQ March link up and I'm sort of betwixt and between. There's definitely been progress made on one of my previous improv. projects, but it's improv. of a different nature. After adding on a narrow red border, I went neutral and very unobtrusive for the following one.

Upper border applique not looking so good...
Maybe try the large berries on the side?

Because.... yeah. Neutral is often a good choice for the background of those nifty applique borders that I love so much. Not that this quilt had to have applique, but you know me. There was a picture in my mind that beckoned and then after auditioning it, my stomach sort of clenched up. Nope. That is NOT going to work. Which was kind of unfortunate, because I was so confident in how it would look, I had already sewn the flower stems to my border panels. Ouch. How does this happen?

So after playing with several different flower ideas {all based on a bright red stem???}, small and large berries, weird looking leaves, plus all of the above in several different colors, I settled on the bright red {solid fabric} berries with no leaves. Just a whimsical, but monochromatic, sort of repeat--every berry placed by eye not exact positioning. And hopefully it won't end up looking like my improv. sprouted a strange bright red fungus....

Almost through with the first border...

On to the machine stitching sort of improv.! Wanting to play, I dug into a lovely pile of marinating fabrics and made some free-cut string sets. For some reason the strings are still calling to me and I'm wondering if they could possibly be part of something new around here. I love applique. Am always trying to insert it into every possible quilt project. {Perhaps you have noticed?} So what if I use the improv. play to make what I have been thinking of as  'intentional backgrounds'. The idea being that the base improv. unit; ie, the quilt background, would not need to be outstanding, just sort of loose and fun. Then I would have this area to do whatever I wanted to with some whimsical applique. It's an intriguing idea so we'll just have to see where I go from here.

A small stack of string sets

All of these are a minimum of 17" long with 1 to 2 1/2" widths. I didn't want anything too narrow and stringy for the first cuts. I actually do have the faintest idea of where this is {should be} going. Which doesn't mean it will work out 'cuz the first audition hasn't exactly lived up its promise. But I'm discovering more of what improv. is all about. Being open to different endings. Finding creative solutions to unexpected problems. Listening to what the mix of fabric and pattern is trying to say. Leaving opportunity for surprises. It's all good and I'm having fun. Isn't that the most important part? Why don't you check out what Ann and Kaja have going on for this months link up!

Always a 'Next Up' In the Hoop

It's time. These hand pieced bow-tie's are saying they want to be quilted. So what's a girl to do?

Hand Pieced Bow-Ties

These are the only hand pieced blocks that I have made an entire quilt out of so far. I mostly hand piece when {and where} the block seems to be better off for the effort. Like these bow-ties. I just really, really had to have a bow-tie quilt with the original, square looking center. Looking at my work as I pinned the quilt made me realize how desperately lacking my piecing skills are though. Galloping horses, people. Just pretend you're on a galloping horse while you're viewing my quilt!

Looking a little closer

And then because I have gotten into the habit of pinning two quilts in one session, here is String Play, a mostly out of the scrap bin effort. I am aiming to machine quilt this big monster of a quilt and ooooh, I am nervous about that.

String Play

I totally forgot to take a picture of the quilt top before the pins were added, so you can see where I intend to stitch long vertical lines. The goal is to completely stitch the top with organically {ha, ha, all my lines are organic} straight lines. Not sure how closely I'll end up stitching the rows, but these will be my first 'reference' lines.

Almost ready to get started!

Hope my machine is up for this like the repairman said it would be! Crossing my fingers on that. I'm determined to get in the mode of at least trying to machine quilt the occasional quilt top instead of sitting on my chicken-hearted fears and letting the quilt room practically explode with unfinished quilt tops. If you only knew how long I sat and stared at this quilt top imagining how wonderful it would look with hand quilting....

Linking up with Nicky and Leanne for Scraptastic Tuesday! I haven't been sewing anything from the scrap bin lately {except my circles}, but this quilt was an 'all-in' effort from the scrap bin back when I made it. Definitely makes me think it's time and past to dig in and try another. There's nothing quite like seeing an entire quilt top made from scraps! Everything inside me just sort of melts and I'm like a proud momma. See here? Look! This is good stuff!*wink

String Play a Completed Quilt Top Now

String Play somehow slipped right into the middle of all the open-ended projects I am currently working on. It just happens. I don't even know why or how, but sometimes it feels really good to go with the flow and just see where you end up.

String Play

So funny that this is the type of quilt I personally will soak in for awhile during a quilt show. You know, just  because I'm trying to see all the interesting fabrics people will DARE to put together in the same quilt? I am most definitely a 'Look ma! Can you BELIEVE they stuck these two fabrics side by side?' {giggle, giggle} kind of quilter. And then I'll think about it all day long and dream of the day I get to be so brave and fearless myself.*wink

String Play a little closer

For the record, all of the fabric in this quilt are out of my scrap bins except for two smallish pieces of my grandma's fabrics and several strips cut from two of my deceased brothers shirts. Then, just to be completely honest and forthright here, I think I added in a few strips from three different purple fabrics in the stash. I'm not sure what happened there, but for some reason I was determined it needed a smidge more purple. Always gotta go with your gut instincts!

How about in gray scale?

Anyway.... It was quite the free and easy quilt to make especially after I decided to quit over-thinking things. At one point I thought I was done with the quilt top and then, well, it didn't look quite right at approx. 74" x 77". Too square and blockish looking and not properly balanced. Big sighs and much dragging of feet until finally, someone faced up to the fact that there was no choice but to make enough blocks for two more rows. Yep. Definitely one of those decisions that you know exactly what the right thing to do is, but OOOOHH the time it will take! It's so hard to think pleasant thoughts after that initial I am done! thought starts banging around in your head. I'm sure you get the picture. Or not. Maybe it's just me? lol

String Play Progress and the Winner of the Traveling Stash

I haven't had as much time to quilt lately as I'd like to with everything going on around here--mostly basketball, basketball, basketball. Dinner gets to be quite the odd event around here too as the first high school game starts at 3:30 (our youngest daughters JV team) and we don't usually get home before 9:30 as my husband runs the clock for all of the games and I help out with the booster club.

String Play starting to come together

It's been a lot of fun watching the girls varsity team this year as once again we get to watch our oldest daughter play on the same team as one of our nieces. They are delightfully scrappy players to watch. Lots of action going on around them all of the time! Last year they got 5th in state in the 1B's and we have high hopes for them this time around too!

So... I am sewing one row of these string blocks together at a time, measuring to a uniform length and then making sure the ends aren't cut off too wonky. Sometimes I seam rip two strips apart and insert a new string if I think it will help make the ends look less 'chopped'. I try not to get too picky because after all, it's just a scrap bin quilt, but I really hate 1/8" strips and such at the end of a row.

It's crazy how much time it's taking to actually sew the rows together. I always seem to forget that part! Lots and lots of pinning too, which I think is well worth the time spent as it will lay flatter in the end. Also, I was trying to make sure that I didn't have a string of yellow flush against a yellow string etc. in the next row, but now I've decided that's just nuts. They will land where they will and that's part of the charm--end of story.*wink

String Play rows

When my girls came home for lunch today, I had them draw a name out of a bowl for the winner of the Traveling Stash. Cathy from Big Lake Quilter--you are the winner! A big thanks to everyone who threw their name in the hat! I've had my fun and now it's time to move this Traveling Stash along to the next person.....

Always Love to See Progress

I knew I wanted to add some more applique to my Geese Tracks & Improv. quilt but wasn't sure where that would be. A couple people had suggested that I needed to add a red basket but I just couldn't quite see it. Big? Little? Fat? Wonky? Until it managed to sneak into my quilt all on its on. (Absolutely no help from me at all.)*wink

More work on Geese Tracks & Improv.

One basket just doesn't look right though. I decided to give the red basket a supporting cast and make it the star. That is, if I can get this layout figured out to my satisfaction! I'm at the point where everything just needs to be transferred to my design 'floor' so there is room to spread out. And wowsers, could the color of my wall be any more terrible than it is for this particular project?

Trying to figure out the basket layout

Still working on my String Play blocks too. The are moving along at a whizzing pace. That's the lovely thing about working straight from the scrap bin you know!

String Play Blocks

After I get a nice stock of fabric scraps piled up right beside my chair, then all I have to do is reach over and grab what I need. I don't pre-iron or pre-cut my scraps. There's no need. The only thing I might do is whack off about 5 1/2" inches--for the length (roughly with my scissors) if I grab an overly large scrap.

String play blocks before ironing and trimming

Grab and sew, grab and sew until my blocks are the appropriate width (remember the length on these has to be min. of 5") and pretty soon I end up with a nice little stack of blocks. Yep, they're rumpled and thready, but all that can be taken care of very easily later on.

String Play goodness

See? Proof positive that scrap bin blocks can be tamed! I iron the seams in each block all one direction and then when I am finished with that step, I trim them all to 5". With these blocks I decided to go with variation #2 so I just have to trim the length of each block to 5" and then trim straight sides to the width. It shouldn't matter if the width is different block by block because I will be sewing them into horizontal rows and I can even up the rows later.

After doing some calculations, I decided I better do about 30 plus more blocks. That will give me about 225 blocks in all. Thank goodness I remembered my plaid strips tucked away separate from the other scraps and a couple shirts that could be up-cycled too. Two of them were actually my brothers shirts (he passed away about four years ago) that I haven't been able to even contemplate cutting up until now. It's a good time and a good quilt for this, esp. since I have already added in a bit of my grandma's fabrics. I really don't want to use all of any one shirt, but it will definitely add character and sweetness to my quilt.