Diving Into the Hand Quilting

Spring has been hectic around here. Nothing unusual about that. I've been finding great pleasure in opening up my hand quilting bag late in the evenings to stitch on this sweet quilt. Ooh, there is always a big exhale and then instant bliss.

Next up in the hoop

It was started as a response to one of our challenges over at Adhoc. Improv. Quilts. This challenge was 'Playing With Scale'. I started with a {freehand applique} floral centerpiece and made that background with coins or string sets. Then I moved to the border around that and decided to go ahead with the string look, but make these in a chunkier look/style.

Always a little applique

Since I was working with a stack of fabrics that had mostly been languishing in the stash totes for years, I decided to throw caution to the wind and make even more string sets. This time I went skinnier, but longer. This used up a boat load of old fabrics, but as usual, I ended up having to dig even deeper in the totes and come up with some fabrics to help ease the blending.

Sandwiching and Pinning

I made a conscious decision to try and use up every strip, thus the blocks with multi-color strip sets. Somewhere along the way I grew dissatisfied with the overall look and determined that it also needed the additional piano key borders, those horizontal, chunky pink and black/brown rows. Kaja is the one who helped me to realize that the bottom portion of the quilt would look better with two piano key rows rather than just one. I thank her for that as it really bring the whole quilt together for me.

Playing With Scale

There's definitely a utility style look and feel to this quilt. Kind of a plain Jane, I-used-up-all-the-ugly-fabrics feeling. Which, yeah, means they aren't all exactly ugly. Even after all these years, most of them still appeal. There's just something about florals! But maybe not as much as they did when I first bought them. You know how that goes. I'm loving, simply LOVING adding in the hand quilting stitches to this one. Does that surprise you? It makes me so very happy--almost beyond explaining.I pull this quilt out and my heart does a little happy dance every. single. time.  Something about utility style quilts and a soft color palette apparently combine to bring a lot of peace.

Third layer of petals for Melon Patch pieces

Last weekend we ended up making a quick trip down to Oregon to visit relatives. Kind of a last minute thing as we determined to attend the funeral of our daughter-in-laws grandmother on Monday and it seemed like a good time to visit an ailing uncle etc. at the same time. Such a good time visiting with the family over the holiday! We stayed up late every evening laughing and telling the stories of our life. Somehow it also ended up that we got to help out with our granddaughters at the funeral as our daughter-in-law was singing with her sisters and cousins. That was a sad occasion of course, but holding the baby and taking care of big sister made it kind of sweet too.

I took my hand work {of course} but only ended up sewing 9 out of 80 petals. This is the third layer and after that will be one more. I try not to think about how much sewing this really is, but just take it as it comes. It's the current 'forever' project and has been in the works since February of 2018. Wowsers, it feels like I've been working on it for much, much longer than that....

Getting Started On the String Blocks

Lori, over at Humble Quilts is having a Stringalong this year. I missed the first linkup even though all the scraps were sorted and the papers were cut to size. This month I was determined not to allow procrastination to win.

String blocks

There's something about foundation piecing that just gets under my skin. It's super easy, the end results are wonderfully accurate and I thoroughly dislike doing it. But I have my reasons for why I determined to follow that piecing path for this particular quilt. So be it. This little stack of string blocks represents approximately a quarter of all the string blocks that will be needed for my projected string quilt {a decent start}. It will have every other blocks of some yet-to-be-determined fabric as well. 

The last basketball season for this  #4

Saturday afternoon found us in Tacoma. We were there watching our sons last high school basketball game as they lost out in a regional game. He wanted to choose #4 for his uniform, because it's the same number his older brother wore. It's been great fun watching him play, but wowsers, this mama is a wee bit tired of the basketball whirlwind of games! He's pretty much decided to bail on baseball this year and will probably end up joining the tennis team 'just for fun' instead. Senior year is tough. We are just enjoying watching him grow up and become the wonderful young man that he is. I'm really curious though, wondering if he was the only kid to bring along a quilt for the bus ride? Ah... a kid after my own heart...

The Improv. Woven Basket Overload

This one feels like a good finish. You know how we always seem to have a question or two about things that could have been done different? We ponder, have a little debate with ourselves {and the quilt} and then settle into whatever decision we've come to. At that point we determinedly move forward, crossing our fingers we've followed the right path!

Improv. Woven Basket is completed!

This was one of those quilts that really felt like it could have any number of endings and my mind could never totally grasp the absolute 'best way forward'. Time and again I would make my decision, landing on the side of simplicity. Two-fabric basket. Lollipop flower motif. Utility style inner border done in fabrics that read as a solid. Unassuming border background with high contrast, but very basic leaf shapes. More of those lollipop flowers. And lots and lots of fabric repeats throughout.

2nd finish of the year

It was started back in August of 2016 on sort of a whim, just because I couldn't get the idea of a huge stringy basket out of my head. Once that was done I let it languish for a bit with pretty much zero idea how to fill the center of the basket. Until one weekend in October when I just went nuts with trying to put into place what my brain was telling me was needed!  Wow! That was a crazy weekend. It's a wonderful feeling to feel so much motivation to work on something, but then when it's done, I always sort of deflate and put the project away for a good long rest. It wasn't until February of the next year that I finally attacked the inner and outer borders.

A look at some of the stitching

Not because I was so terribly interested you understand, it was just something to throw up on the wall and contemplate at the moment. Part of my ongoing list of things to eventually check off! But as so often happens, just bringing a project front and center starts usually getting things moving and grooving along again. Fresh eyes can bring new perspective.

Approx. 73" square

I was deeply suspicious of the almost-too-simple inner border, but the more I looked at it, the more I just adored it. Such a wonderfully clean line between the basket and the outside border! And once I added that bit of cherry red there at the top? It didn't matter anymore if something else might look better. I wanted the framing this added to the quilt-- the movement that those blocks of color created by making my eyes do a slow circuit around the entirety of the quilt.

It has captured my heart, I confess...

In the little drawing {that I had doodled at the start of my improv. basket idea}, the outer border was about the only thing that ended up being the same as in the final quilt. The funny thing was, in translation, everything seemed to have a need to be brighter than anything that I had previously envisioned. In auditioning fabric colors and prints, I kept tossing out less vibrant greens and going to scrounge again and again in the stash for some more interesting fabrics for the leaves. Nothing seemed too outrageous for this particular quilt! This is definitely where I am seeing the shift in my quilts from 'before' and the choices I keep making these past couple years.

Gonna be hard to give this one away. May have to keep it!

Over and over again I am choosing brighter, lighter, or busier fabric prints. Not for every fabric in the quilt {obviously}, but most definitely for a chosen few. It's become a quest for me to find those specific fabrics deep in the stash totes! Why am I not buying more of these? My fabrics are so boring!!  I love the layers of interest it creates and the happy, sparky look it can so easily generate. The dull, plain light tan fabric in the outside border fabric was one of those 'crossing my fingers' moments. Would it be too muted and bring the whole quilt down? Or would it be the perfect foil for making those simple flowers look even better than they should be allowed to look?

Nothing like hand quilting texture to get me excited....

When the quilt top was finished, there was a 'flat' quality to the quilt that I didn't like. It troubled me. Should I add words or a date? Should there be another border? All these things were carefully considered until finally I just decided to let it be and see if the quilting stitches would create enough texture to solve my problem. 

Oh the angst in deciding how to quilt the inner and outside border! It honestly wasn't until I had those parts in my hoop and was threading the needle that a definitive plan started forming in my head. And I still had to rip out offending thread colors until I found the ones that made me happy.*sigh  

A quick dig through the stash totes found just enough of two purple fabrics for the binding and then a good long soak in the tub before drying. Just a little bit of the darkest colors bleeding, but when it went through the washer, my color catchers came out white as could be! Yay!

Now that it's done, I am so delighted by all the decisions that resulted in this sweet looking quilt.*whew! You just never know till you know, right? I look at quilts like this and I wonder, why would I ever want to go back to making other peoples patterns full time? In spite of the uncertainty and minor struggles that usually ensue, this process is wonderfully addicting. So exciting and enthralling! Figure out what makes a quilt capture your heart and start doing it! There is NOTHING that compares to looking at a quilt that is totally yours from start to finish. I heartily recommend it to all....

Time to See All Those 2018 Finishes Together in One Post

Some years there are more finishes than others. The last two years have been especially good ones for bumping the oldest quilts off the list . It's often difficult to want to work on the oldy moldy quilt projects, but they never get any easier to work on by just ignoring them!

2018 Finishes

It's always great fun to slip a baby quilt or two into the mix and have a fast finish. And this year I even made an oversize doll quilt {hmm... is that actually a baby quilt too?}

2018 Finishes

As usual, I kept my hand quilting hoop busy all throughout the year {both of them, if you want to know the truth of it!}. It's become an oh-so-important part of my quilting journey and I can't even imagine life without that little bit of stitching time late in the evenings. Those peaceful, meditative hand quilting minutes have become something I unabashedly crave at times. It positively grounds me in the best way possible and dare I say, nourishes me as well.

2018 Finishes

The program used to group my picture collages didn't have a good 4-picture setting, so I put my Quilty 365 in two different groupings. It's been on our bed for quite awhile now. I adore waking up to it and then later in the day, snuggling back into bed with it once again. Move over husband dear, I got a good quilt now. lol  Sometimes I think that all my quilting years have led up to this one quilt, in terms of making a quilt that resonates on almost every single level.

2018 Finishes

Overall, I'm not sure how much these quilts represent 'me' as a whole--the way I've mixed up the old quilting projects with the new. It's something that I always find very interesting though, these end of the year quilt reviews. You pop over to someones page and in one click, get to see an entire lineup of the years finishes! What fascinates me the most, is the quilting voice that is always so immediately apparent! There's rarely any doubt whose quilt page you're viewing and that's the very best thing about this time of year. I bet most of us could look at any of these picture groupings and immediately tell what quilter made each of those quilts. Love that!

So now with the details: 2018 found me ending the year with 19 finishes again! That kind of suprised me as it didn't feel like so many. Yep, I was on a finishing mission once again. Trying to get some of those very old, not-as-interesting quilt tops out of my hair.*whew! It was very, extremely, tedious at times, I kid you not. Crossing my fingers things won't get quite that bogged down ever again! Want some year end statistics? I do like to keep track just for curiosities sake.

• 1 Doll quilt
• 2 Baby quilts
• 1 Comfort quilt
• 7 Lap quilts
• 8 Bed-sized quilts
• 6 quilts were completely hand quilted
• 9 quilts were a mix of machine and hand quilting
• 4 quilts were completely machine quilted

By the end of the year I had also given away 17 quilts, a mixture of new and old quilts. That was a little nerve-wracking at times. My family lives in dread that they'll wake up one morning and all our quilts will have been given away! hehe  One was given for a church raffle, for helping to make money to buy their building. Still waiting to see who winds up with that one as I do like to keep track of where my quilts end up!

Lots of ideas for the next year. Stacks of fabric that have been simmering on the counters for months and months and need a little bit of attention. Mostly I just intend to quilt the things that I find interesting without getting too far into the weeds with those pesky squirrels! There are 5 or 6 open-ended quilt projects that will hopefully get wrapped up and around and around we go. I loved diving into the orphan blocks totes and intend to try that some more of that. Adhoc. Improv. is definitely still a happening thing and umm..., there is a scrap bin monster that just has to be addressed soon. No ifs ands or buts about it! Taking up way too much room over there in the corner of my quilt room.*sigh Oh, and don't forget about those oh-so-tempting QAL's popping up all over blogland. Probably gonna join in on with the Unconventional & Unexpected one and also, Lori's String Quiltalong. Sounds like a good start to me!

And To Think, When I Was 16 I Hated the Color Purple

Basket Love is the fourteenth finish of the year! To some, it probably looks like I'm racing through the quilts and never stop to take a deep breath. Others see it for exactly what it is--Quilting is my happy place. Well, right after the husband, kids and grandchild. Never want to minimize the importance of those particular persons in my life!

Basket Love is finished!

But quilting and more importantly, working with my hands, keeps the endless worries and cares at bay. Long ago I made hand quilting an important and necessary part of my daily and weekly routine. The stitching isn't usually super complex or detailed, but it is extremely peaceful and meditative. In our fast paced culture and lifestyle, that fills a valuable space in my life. At this point, I honestly think I could hand stitch a whole cloth quilt and be happy. Oh wait! I already did that once before!

A little longer than I intended, but I think it works!

Also, I genuinely love to play with color. So much potential. So many unexplored ideas! The slightest deviation from something tried before makes for the most interesting change or look in a quilt.

Basket Love was started in May of 2017 as an extension of a AHIQ 2-block challenge. Mostly I just wanted to play with some more baskets and the idea of incorporating string/coin columns helped fill the quilt with minimal effort. Plus, the previous attempt at the challenge had left me feeling a bit let down. Totally my own fault but something to be expected after a series of missteps and a boring color palette failed to generate much enthusiasm.

The greens look different depending of the light

This particular blend of colors really intrigued me. Previously, I had scoured the stash totes for all the sour, sharp and/or muddy looking greens that I could find, and just sat there, looking and looking at them. It was way.... past time to move these out of the totes and make way for other newer, prettier fabrics. Was there any possible way to make these fabrics look well loved and appreciated though? Once upon a time I had paid good money for these fabrics because I just couldn't resist! Eventually other colors joined the stack and the bedrock of a quilt started to form. Imagine how incredulous I was when the quilt started getting more and more purple included. When I was 16, that was the color that I loathed with all of my heart!

Simple stitching as always...

The basket idea quickly coalesced into the perfect launching pad for these fabrics/colors and I was off and running. Quilting has a way of making us appreciate all the colors under the sun, right? When the supply of  'good' greens ran short, I dug even deeper and found more fabrics to add in. These later additions didn't feel quite as friendly, and I found myself working hard to spread out the brighter, happier colored green fabrics throughout the vertical string rows. Waste not, want not. Our quilting ancestors didn't give up in despair, they learned how to make do with what they had!

Probably gonna have to keep this one.
No one will ever like it as well as I do!

This quilt top went together very quickly. While it doesn't feel like the best, most vibrant, or even the most charming quilt ever made by 'moi', it does make me very happy. There's just something about the slightly imperfect balance of the setting triangles, the mishmash of basket sizes and coping strips, and all those improv. strings that fits together into one perfect whole. At least in my mind. And the hand stitching is icing on the cake, even in the areas where you have to get close to better appreciate the texture.

Love the carefree look to this quilt

All serious quilters understand what matters most. It's when a quilt made by our hands speaks loudly to our head and heart! I have to say that I also truly loved the challenge of working with long overlooked fabrics in the stash totes. Love, love, love when it works to the good in a quilting effort. Trying to manipulate oldish, stale looking fabrics into something that looks very purposeful and important. Boom! Dontcha want some nice fabric like me? lol  Cracking myself up over here....

The secret ingredient is always and ever the same though, isn't it? Usually just gotta add in a a few 'much newer' fabrics to hold the main stage--have that important 'contrast' so as to be used successfully in a limelight sort of effect. Then the less favored fabrics can do the steadfast and reliable work of filling up the background. What happens when a quilt is full to the brim of only fabulous fabrics? We've all seen it and yes, it sounds crazy. I call it an over-saturation to the senses--too much of a good thing. But maybe that's just me. I've always had a soft spot for those older make-do, utility sorts of quilts anyway. You already know that if you've followed me for very long! The best quilts are the ones that somehow manage to say 'Don't take me too seriously, I certainly don't!'......

Playing With Scale is a Finished Quilt Top!

Well, the Playing With Scale quilt top is done! So labor intensive sewing all the rows together. All those stitched, then cut-to-size strip blocks needing reinforcement along the edges. 

Looking at the centerpiece

I was very intrigued by the January challenge and had all sorts of ideas and intentions. Then as the centerpiece developed, the quilt took on a life of its own. Didn't turn out looking like most of the ideas floating around in my head at all! As per usual when playing with improv., the first thing needing to happen is a gathering of fabrics. This stack of fabric was a direct result of wanting to de-stash some of those older sage greens that had accumulated years and years ago.

Playing With Scale is a finished quilt top!

Working with these mellow greens as the basis of my color palette, all the other colors just sort of fell into place. The blue arrived when I was looking for a 'spark' and didn't work well in the first place it was added in. I really like how it works in the large strips blocks now. There's just a little bit of blue here and there in the quilt--not too bright and distracting--but doing its part to help to keep everything from blending a little too much.

Later on I also added in some darker, brighter pinks and greens as well. Just had to. Things had started looking a bit too mushy and tho I didn't want to lose the subtleties of the 'weave'. I also wanted to emphasize some of the energy and motion going on and thankfully, intensifying the color range seemed to take care of that beautifully. Did you notice that some of the blocks are not adhering to a strict weave {or rail fence} pattern after all? It's something you might not notice right off the bat, but I like it ever so much better for not playing by ALL of the rules. Whatever those 'rules' may be. {Don't think we really had any here for this quilt!} It's a bit of whimsy that we often see in antique utilitarian type quilts and something I love trying to capture in my own quilting efforts.

Not all the blocks follow the proper rail fence look....

The 'playing with scale' part should be obvious. The background of the centerpiece is small coin strips and then the brown/light pink border and subsequent rows are slightly larger with chunkier strips. When I settled on the idea of making large strip blocks for the main background of the quilt, the plan was for even chunkier strips to happen. Turns out, my natural inclination while free cutting is to go more narrow when cutting longer strips. And after awhile, I just quit fighting and cut whatever and however it felt right. Remember, I most often cut from fat quarters or remnants of fat quarters. Wonder if that might make a difference in how I instinctively want to cut into the fabric?

It's a long one....

All along, I was hoping for an old fashioned make-do look. I wanted a very simple repeat of a single element, but something with the ability to take blendy, almost boring printed fabrics and make them shine. Proponents of saturated solid fabrics would say its just not possible and that I was wasting my time! Uh uh. I am such a printed fabric fan! I say there are always hidden depths within a good mix of printed fabrics!

A big thanks to Kaja for her suggestion to consider adding two brown/lt. pink border units at the bottom instead of the one. As soon as I read her suggestion, the idea was practically set in stone. Just made so much sense in regards to how busy the quilt was beginning to look. Those two border units grouped together give the quilt a perfect spot of focus and really, it's much more graphic and impactful this way!

Loving the finish!

The quilt top ended up being about 72 1/2" by 107", a crazy size for a quilt. And tho I tried {more than once}, there was no getting rid of one row of blocks between the centerpiece and the double brown/pink border units. With one row removed, the proportion of the quilt looked really 'off'. So be it!

Overall I really enjoyed this challenge. It's another one of those learning/processing/just-doing parts of the creative journey that should make me a better quilter in the long run. Attempting the making and building of a project from this completely different place makes such an impression. I have many more ideas percolating. Little granules of 'playing with scale' inspiration will no doubt be working their way into future quilts whether I do it consciously or not!

Yay!

In other news, look at my early Mother's Day gift from my kids! A brand new roll of Hobbs 80/20 Heirloom batting. They really love me! And hint, hint, want more quilts from mom.....

Probably Not My Best Work, But Having Fun Anyway

It's Ahoc. Improv. time again and I am still 'playing with scale'. It's gotten a little out of hand as you can see. So chaotic it's almost to give me a headache, but well..., there's maybe? possibly? a vintage vibe trying to peak through.

Trying to decide if the large blocks are a 'go'

I went ahead and ripped the blue tabs off the centerpiece. Oooh, that's much, much better. Thought that might happen, but when I decided on the big blocks, it was time for the tabs to go. Then I went ahead and added some blue back into some of the blocks. All the fabrics as a whole are so mellow and sweet {truly}, but in this particular grouping of blocks, the energy is practically surging. There was definitely an attempt to get value changes wherever possible {you know me!}, but I tried very hard to keep green in every block for unity. Or something important like that. Somehow it just didn't quite do the trick like I wanted and needed it too. So much for using up bits and pieces of a million fat quarters and expecting to get something that looks like background.

Laying out the blocks....

So yeah. This is not exactly what I set out to do, but of course, there are always deviations and distractions, quirks and surprises when working improv. At least in my quilting room. Guess I can't say for sure about yours! Can I calm things down with a strippy border around the centerpiece?

Considering other options...

Nah... Not working for me in any of the colors auditioned, tho deep red was the best bet. I do like the light pink and dark brown strippy inset border there on the bottom though. Maybe if I repeat that on the top of the quilt, just one row into the quilt? I threw these leftovers into a rough looking row just to 'see'. There's nothing quite like having it right in front of us to help make up our wishy, washy minds.

Probably not....

And the railroad tracks border idea was definitely intriguing, but just too much, too much. Can't handle all this strong 'look at me stuff!' And now I'm back to the strippy bars border minus one row of blocks for the length of the quilt. It's a really busy look, but somehow ties everything together regardless. Not a design to win any awards, but it will still probably keep someone nice and warm some day in the future.

Maybe a yes....

We have been gone several days in a row and there has been lots of craziness going on since we returned. This was farther than I expected to get today, but still not nearly far enough to satisfy. When the middle of the living room floor is the only design wall that's big enough to work with, time for auditioning becomes very limited. As it was, I had several of my family carefully walking across the quilt blocks. What to do? Once it's picked up, then it's who knows how long till there's another opportunity. So be it.

I did go ahead and start sewing rows of the quilt together tonight, randomly turning quilt blocks in a different direction when I got the urge. It was annoying to me that they were all placed so purposefully in a 'weave' pattern--that carefulness was the unintended result of hurrying to move things off the floor. I prefer a bit more randomness, but it might be too late to make it happen. 

Hoping to lay it all out once again with enough of the strippy lt. pink and brown border sewn to make a difference.  Wish you could see the true colors of this quilt--it's not nearly as mushy looking at it looks in all these horrid pictures! This project has been fairly mindless, surprisingly fun and also, really good to get rid of {more} sage green fabrics stock piled so many years ago. What was I thinking? There's nothing wrong with working with the old and languishing when we're focused on design possibilities, right? And it's always good to practice with the pieces we won't cry over if we mess up too terribly. Linking up with Kaja and Ann for AHIQ #32! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to catch up on the emails and blogging comments too...

A Little Bit of Improv. Progress

So I spent so much time on the Vintage Lily quilt that I basically ran out of time to spend on the other Improv. quilt projects. There are a lot of different ideas for moving forward with my Playing With Scales quilt but nothing seems absolute.

Auditioning ideas

Which in my book translates into just get started cutting and sewing and see what happens! I'm really on this fence about letting this turn into a medallion quilt, but that being said, it felt like it needed one border surround. And as soon as that was in the works, these little strips of blue jumped directly onto the quilt.

Trying to see what works

I played with a couple ideas for the pink and brown border and eventually settled on what is pictured below. Okay, that's it--carry on. Right?

All sewn together

Well maybe not. After sleeping on it, I thought this particular border needed just a touch more energy. The lighter ends on the top and bottom border especially bother me, how they just sort of drift off into blah, blah, blah. I tried auditioning extra strips on the sides, turned in the opposite direction thinking that could be a bold move. Yuck.

Auditioning again....

And then you know how it happens, I basically went back to the original {sewn together} border audition. Maybe with just a slight 'off row' alignment? Now to just get the seams unpicked and the new segment cut and sewn in. Right now it's just resting on top there in that bottom right hand corner.

Sorry for those of you who will greatly dislike them, but the blue 'tabs' on the applique centerpiece are completely sewn down and there to stay. There is just something about them that intrigues and won't allow for their removal. At least at this particular moment. If, at any time, my opinion changes about their value to the rest of the quilt, it really is an easy fix to get the seam ripper out and discard them--minutes is all it will take. It will be like they were never there. Much easier to sew them on now while the quilt is little, than to try and add them in at the monster quilt stage!

This could be the one...

And as for the Improv. Postage Stamp Basket quilt, there is definite progress being made, albeit slowly. Thanks for all the great suggestions to help make the baskets look more like baskets. It really made me think. For the time being tho, I'm fairly content to let that be an abstract thing and just soak up the colors. This blue,green and blush pink color palette is making me feel very happy and I don't want to over think the quilt to the point that it loses it's simple charm.

Improv. Baskets

'Cuz that can happen. I've been there, done that. Striving for a lost element can make us totally forget to enjoy the good things already going on in the quilt. Linking up to Kaja and Ann for AHIQ #31.

February Adhoc. Improv. Play

The next AHIQ challenge is an interesting one. It's all about playing with scale--in whatever manner we'd like to interpret. I've been contemplating the idea of making a quilt with rows of simple blocks and/or shapes. Something in subdued colors and just playing with value changes to see if I could make something with an antique 'utility' look.

Playing with Scale--The start

It was an obvious choice for incorporating scale changes as I already had the fabric pull and rows can be easily tweaked for size. As I went digging for inspiration, I kept coming back to the idea of having a centerpiece though. There's something about the idea of a pretty center with radiating piecework that just appeals to me. So of course it had to be applique. Everything lit up when I saw this on my Pinterest boards {sorry Lori for not linking directly to the pertinent post}.

Sewing together the foundation piece

So as things go when we're making things up as we go along, I doodled some quick ideas until one looked about right. Not an exact copy, but something with similar vibes! Then it was time to start making the drawing happen in fabric. I started with rows of small strings or coins for the background. Just a mellow blend of sagey greens and a piece of cream/black toile. I deliberately left the middle of the foundation free of pieced units as I didn't want to cut any of that fabric out of the back of my applique. It's really not large enough, but I also needed enough foundation to securely sew the applique 'circles' to.

To get the appropriate sizes for the applique, I re-drew my doodle drawing onto a perfectly sized piece of freezer paper. Then I carefully cut out each circle, ironed it onto the chosen fabrics and cut out with plenty of seam allowance--especially the inside brown circle as it's easy to move overlay applique a little too far in one direction or another. At that point, I sewed the outside seam of the brown applique with a quick straight stitch on the sewing machine. Who cares. Nobodys ever gonna see that seam! I trimmed the pink circle a little bit, especially at the bottom where it was too flat looking and hand stitched the outside edge of the circle. I cut the cream {applique foundation} circle out and carefully slipped it inside and underneath the brown circle. And yes, I deliberately chose a fabric with a smaller scale of print! Ooh... gotta love layers of interest!

And so I stitched the brown circle to the cream applique background and then the pink circle to the brown circle. On and on until it was time to cut out my flower pieces, still from that same freezer paper drawing! {So efficient!} It was tough on my fingers stitching over areas with seamed rows, but like I said, NOT going to cut the background out on this one. Too much fear of raveling. It's a good start to my 'playing with scale' quilt and for now I'm mentally calling it 'The Quiet Quilt', the centerpiece notwithstanding.  Lots of the fabric pull are soft, quiet and a little blendy. We'll see where it goes from here. At some point I definitely intend to start with some vertical rows, but just had to establish the beginnings to get a feel for the rest!

Adding some applique details

I was hoping to be farther along with the Vintage Lily quilt, but these snowball blocks have been soooo tedious to sew. Easy as pie, but just yawn inducing. All are sewn now, but next up is the ironing and trimming.*ughh  Not my favorite part of the quilting process! Robin is doing something similar with her scale challenge, so it should be interesting to see both of our quilts progress. My snowballs are a little different than hers as I wanted the corners on mine to end up looking very scrappy and a bit messy. You might remember the look from my Scrappy Tulips finish?

Improv. Snowball blocks for Vintage Lily

So the other adhoc. improv. work in progress are these postage stamp baskets. Originally I had plans to mix them with my pineapple applique, but that flew out the window in a hurry. These baskets are just a little too strong to mix with sweet looking applique shapes. First I laid them out next to each other and tried every which way to be happy with the look. I'm certainly intrigued at the intersection where each basket joins up, but it's so not me. It just feels like a waste of all that time I spent stitching on the basket handles!

Improv. Postage Stamp Baskets

On to other plans! There's not much I can do to make these look more like basket blocks and less like loops with stripey corner units. I contemplated adding 'feet' to the basket like someone suggested the other day, but it just made a muddle at the point where the baskets met. There's probably oodles of different things that could be done with these basket blocks, but what appeals to me right now is giving them lots of breathing room.

Auditioning a layout

So yep. The're going to get the good old, classic sashing treatment. Kind of a fall back around here, but when you like something, there's not point in trying to reinvent the wheel! I cut up all the rest of the pale background fabrics {had barely enough} and started auditioning placement. Two brighter blocks got tossed out immediately and the rest seem to be cooperating. For now, I'm using little fussy cut roses I cut out of a fat quarter for all those inside sashing squares. There's not enough for the outside squares, so that and the setting triangle fabric still remain a mystery. 

Overall, I'm quite pleased with where this quilt is headed though I admit to being a wee bit disappointed when the original plain went south. It's not a bad thing to be surprised by a quilts independence though. Just makes us more determined to try and get it right! Linking with Kaja and Ann for AHIQ #30. Are you having fun yet? 'Cuz I certainly am.....

The First Finish {or Two} for 2018

It's past time for a finish around here. I was seriously starting to get a little twitchy seeing my completed quilt top list growing and not ending up with any real finishes. Do you do that too? Blue and Gold Strings has been in the hoop for well over a month, so it ended up being the first true blue finish for 2018. Such a great quilt to be stitching on though, couldn't have planned it better.

Blue and Gold Strings

I have adored getting the hoop out and just letting my mind wander, while working with this free style quilt. It has such a happy feel to it that it always worked like a magic elixir in making me relax and unwind. Ahh.. just letting the tension and stress of the day slip away while enjoying some fabric and thread play...

Looking at the corner applique

Though hand quilting is rather slow going, it has so many benefits I cannot imagine ever quitting it completely. {Not to mention that I can't afford to have everything professionally quilted!} Getting to spend quality time with fabric in the hoop is like that extra bit of sweetness that we reward ourselves with sometimes. I've contemplated giving this quilt away, but honestly, it might not be best time yet. Most of my family doesn't appreciate this one quite as much as I do.

Just enough stitching....

Stitching on this quilt has really helped restore my flagging faith in my personal ability to make unique and charming quilts. I think anyone who regularly quilts knows very well the normal ups and downs of creativity. There is always the 'better' quilt just over the horizon if only we can just focus for an extra minute or two. Maybe next time we'll get everything just right! Haha  You can believe that I'm already in the quilting room diving in to the next three or four projects with much more enthusiasm than they probably warrant.

Hanging off the deck railing

So, no, you don't need to feel that I'm down in the dumps and need a morale booster. Some quilts just speak a little louder, tell the story a little better, and perhaps more importantly, reflect more perfectly what we feel that our muse looks like in our head. It's just a wispy feeling that doesn't always gel correctly in every single quilt that we complete. And that's okay. We get parts and pieces of it right all the time and that just propels us to keep moving forward.

Cannot even imagine this quilt without the border!

And not to bore you, but the second finish of the year was that quick little picnic quilt I pulled out the other day on a whim: The 70's Are Calling. I skipped the batting and put a flannel back on it like Beth so nicely recommended. I'd have never thought of it myself and it just makes me like the quilt all the more.

The 70's Are Calling

Just a bit of diagonal wavy line machine quilting and smaller than normal width binding and it was done! Easy peasy. It has a lovely weight to it and any stretch you see is from the blocks not being squared prior to sewing.

A fun flannel backing....

It will be used primarily for covering up cold groceries, throwing across a wet patch in the car, sitting on the grass at the park etc., and just generally making sure that there is quilt always available in the car. I'm not sure I would ever go out and specifically buy these types of fabrics for quilt making, but it turned out to be a fast, fun little project. Who knew where this quilt making addiction would be taking me 20+ years after that stutter-stop beginning! Linking up with sew, stitch, snap and SHARE #19!