17 in 2017 and Other Misc. Stuff That I like to Chatter About

Don't forget to check in with my Quilty 365 Linkup and Giveaway. Lots of great variations and creativity on display! Also, I have EQ7 software for Windows that I've decided to sell. Shoot me an email if you're interested and we can discuss the details! So... there's been a little progress on Meredithe's 17ufosin2017 challenge. I'm lagging a bit behind for linking up, but wanted to record my forward motion.

Another border for Folksy Flowers

Folksy Flowers {above} has the next border all planned and prepped. What you're looking at will have to be appliqued as I don't like to sew fiddly little blocks together. Much easier to hand stitch! It looks so simple, but actually represents at least an hour or two of contemplation and fabric play to come to a final decision.

All of my alternate Rising Sun blocks are now appliqued and ready for the next phase. There are 12 in all as I quickly determined that the 9 initial blocks were not enough. Sometimes I have to laugh as my quilts always seem to grow and expand at rapid rates, quite beyond my control it seems! Bed size {or close to those measurements} just make me happier than most little lap quilts that won't even properly cover our toes.*wink

Looking at the alternate blocks for Rising Sun quilt

And yes, you've seen this border work already for the Improv. Woven Basket quilt. I haven't progressed much past this yet, but honestly, this is the project that I'm dying to work on. Every single time I get to work on these leaves, it just makes me smile. But... there are other things in the queue and these borders are {so far} working as a great carrot and stick approach!

The border work for Improv. Woven Basket quilt

Then, there's a totally completed, get-to-cross-it-off-the-list quilt finish! Woohoo! My Big Broken Dish quilt, otherwise known as 'The Creative Process' is DONE. After a conversation with my husband, I ended up gifting it to a longtime friend. It just seemed like a good fit. Hard to ignore those urgings!

So, at the beginning of May, I have managed to cross 7 out of 17 items off my list. Not all were actual completions, but the ones that weren't, were brought to the 'quilt top' stage which was the goal for about half of my projects on the list. Real progress. And what's funny is that it's not a whole lot different that what I've been doing for the last couple years. The thing is, I'm a lot more aware of the projects that seem to be languishing. Ahem. Could it be because I'm going to totally ditch them in the near future? lol  So very tempting!

The Creative Process quilt is finished!

And in other news, the city museum peoples approached me about putting my Fire Quilt in the museum for an extended period of time. There had been talk last year, but this time they wanted it asap as the 'firestorm' exhibit was finally coming together and there was a tour planned for the County Historical Society. The museum {which is in the converted old firehouse} only had a small room for the new exhibit and the quilt rods available were too short. Thinking outside the box, my husband and one of the museum volunteers suggested hanging a new rod directly onto the wall in the meeting area, immediately to the right of the exhibit. It ended up being a wonderful place to showcase the quilt as people come around the corner before they 'see' it and so the impact is magnified. Plus it brightens up that drab corner considerably!

I had lots of pains of anxiety, but weathered through it while frantically trying to find a good hanging sleeve tutorial. Both of these tutorials were of great help to me and to my relief, the quilt hung very well from the pole--no pooching out at the rod or having the quilt sleeve poke up over the top sort of issues!*sigh   {A big thanks to my husband for reminding me make two sleeves with a gap in the middle for the bracket hardware!} One long sleeve would have been such a disaster! Oh, and they wanted me to type up a legend for the quilt. Yeah. Uh huh. It ended up being a two page, abbreviated story instead and I was a wilted, wet tissue afterwords.

Things Will Never Be The Same on display at the local museum now!

But it's done now. Another chapter in the life of my crazy story quilt! I heard it was very well received by the Historical Society so that's something. It's just all so interesting as I really am generally very low key about my quilting adventures to the people I live around {immediate family and Internet blog posts aside}!

The Journey of Creative Process and A Reminder for Final Quilty 365 Linkup!

Somehow I didn't quite realize that this quilt was started 5 years ago! Absolute craziness. And now it's a true blue finish! Wowsers. So a quick sidetrack for all of you Quilty 365'ers: The last and final linkup is going to be on May 1st. This will be for all completed circle quilt tops! {Not finished quilts although that's fine too.} Please plan to join in. We'd love to see your Quilty 365 journey!

The centerpiece of The Creative Process

Okay, back to 'The Creative Process'. This quilt was an interesting union of trying {for the first time ever} to make a quilt top with scissors only and being completely free spirited. No rulers or patterns allowed! I also put a restriction into place that the only fabrics to be used had to be on hand {in my quilt room} and I could not, under any circumstances, run out and buy anything at all.

1. Preparation, 2. Incubation, 3. Illumination, 4. Implentation

Which probably directly resulted in the two side borders being completely unreadable unless you are holding the quilt in your hands or standing quite close. Pfff...  Like I even care about that. lol  Do you know how much time it takes to applique letters onto a quilt and then not even be able to read them properly from a distance? Take a clue from my very hard earned lesson here and never, ever make that mistake....

The texture makes the quilt

At the time I was diving into this particular challenge of a quilt, I was also learning about the creative process {which later allowed me to recognize helpful habits}. As it pertained to yours personally of course. Years before that I was fairly certain there wasn't a single shred of creativity alive in my entire body! Anyway, it was a particularly intriguing concept to learn--being able to put all my thoughts and actions into a 'process' and find out that yes, I was quite, quite normal. Not some weirdo from outer space with this extreme push/pull thing going on with my hobby!

 Learning about the glorious ambiguity of creativity {and the normal learning curve} was actually very freeing. Wowsers, I just soaked it up like a sponge. Because I just didn't get it before, and was always sort of floundering around in those massive landmines of insecurity all beginning quilters seem to get hijacked with. It helped me so much to realize that yes! leaning into instinctual decision making, stopping that drive to do the 'right thing' all the time according to the quilt police, and simply 'listening' to the quilt do it's thing were all good and positive things!

A little bit lopsided....

But time has a way of dulling all the fascination off of a fun project--how this quilt represented something so very important in the growth of my quilting. Here in 2017, the finishing of this quilt was just an annoying detail on my finish-it-up-list! I was way past the 'putting the pieces' together of the process itself, quite inured to that basic, indelible part of my oh-so brilliant craft. These days I tend to wallow in things like finding my way forward in a boisterous sea of sly and tempting 'what-if's'. There are just so many options! Sometimes it just makes me want to go back to sleep rather than pile up another five quilt tops in the constant drive to make that 'one fabulous quilt'.*wink  But I digress.

The perfect binding for once...

This quilt needed to be finished up, quite properly honored and respected. It was {and is} an important piece of who I am now as a quilter. The delicious irony of the whole procrastination thing is that it looks so much better now, with my current {favorite} method of big stitch quilting, than it ever would have with my previous traditional threadwork. Perle cotton thread and the texture it invariably gives, could have been made for this type of quilt. I couldn't help myself, falling into, if not love, then real like, after each completed hoop of stitching. Especially after I gave in and added that bit of freestyle scalloped stitching around the center. That seemed to pull everything together and get rid of the I'm-only-stitching-this-quilt-because-I-have-to blues. To my quilting friend Kaja--that's exactly the point whereI finally forgave myself for this quilt having such a brash, unapologetic tone even while sporting so many obvious imperfections.*sigh  Quilters can be total whackjobs you know even if we never like to admit it....

The fabric I found for binding made me smile so much, an absolute charming match in my opinion. Even if I was about 10" shy of having enough! Oh who cares, a slight shortage just fits in with the rest of the quilt. So, yes! I'm sure you noticed. This quilt has plenty of chopped off bits, wonky {slightly} curved borders, words that don't shout quite loud enough, and hello? One side is almost 2" longer than the other side. Hands to my face in glee! lol  It really took a lot of restraint not to tidy this quilt up and trim it into {a properly squared} submission! It also has a touch of sentimentality wrapped up in the funky gold/yellow print on the border. That was part of the very last challenge given by my mom back when we were doing our little quilting group. Her fabric & quilt projects burned up, my sister moved away before finishing, one dear friend had a stroke before hers was completed, and on and on. 

In the funny way quilts have of surprising us, my youngest daughter went from not liking this quilt at all {she usually loves everything} to saying 'It looks so much better after being quilted and washed. I actually like it now!"  And my husband asked about the quilt laying across the end of our bed the evening after it was finished up. Could he have it for himself? He rather thought it was one of my better efforts. Hmmmm... My response was sort of a choked off, gurgley laugh I'm sure. Whew! I didn't see that one coming! This has been quite the journey, hasn't it?

The Courage to Feel Creative: Habits of Creativity

One of the most fascinating thing to me about the average quilter is the widespread belief that there are those who are ‘creative’ and those that just aren't. There’s a feeling of ‘We weren't blessed with the creative gene and thus all our work is doomed to mediocrity except for the rare great quilt that comes about when all the proper stars align.’ Personally, for the first ten years or so of quilting, I had no idea there was even a creative ‘process’ involved (that applied to quilters) for everyone to learn to tap into and take advantage of. Learning to recognize that process is very important in growing our confidence to the point of ‘feeling’ creative. It's only when we properly recognize the process, that we can begin to develop and take advantage of it.

The Big Broken Dish

When we read about the creative process (no matter the medium applied to), it’s pretty much a universal understanding that there are four distinct steps: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Implementation.

Preparation is basically what we think of as work. Like my daughter in band playing scales, warm-ups, drills and songs. Sometimes it’s enjoyable, but mostly it’s a part of the process that can be tedious and mundane. It's the learning and skills part too. Very important, but still, work.

Preparation

Incubation is a part of the process that is ephemeral. Mostly because we can’t pin it down exactly--it just is. This is where an idea is percolating. You hear of quilts being allowed to marinate or simmer? Nothing physical is happening, but our subconscious is trying to make connections and burning through a million ideas all in the background. If this phase doesn’t get too messed up by all the busyness and immediate concerns of life, then….

Incubation

Illumination can and will happen! We all know of it as the ‘light bulb moment’ and it never seems to happen at a convenient time. Usually, Illumination hits while doing something a bit brainless, like washing dishes, taking a shower, driving a well traveled road, or falling almost to sleep. This is the moment when ideas are literally spilling out all over themselves and we almost can’t keep up.

Illumination

Implementation then would be the phase where the ideas we've been preparing and incubating can finally be put into action. Again, with my daughter in music, it’s where the song finally starts to flow. Implementation is yet another phase that involves work. It takes time and effort to put ideas into place. It also takes trust, which most of us have to cultivate. Not every idea will work out, but we won’t know until we are involved in the actual implementation of the idea.

Implementation

It’s very important for us to take advantage of what we know about the process of creativity and how it applies to us as quilters. For instance, many of us put the brakes on our creativity simply by not making a record of our ideas when they occur to us. When the ideas starting flowing, we need to immediately put pen to paper so we will remember them for later! Other ways we short circuit our creativity is by the assaulting of our senses with too much computer/tv time, having jam packed schedules without proper time carved out to quilt, trying to quilt in a vacuum and not sharing, giving ourselves rigid unnecessary deadlines, or even maybe ignoring our own creative impulses in an effort to make something that we think will be well received by others. There are lots of ways we can sabotage our own creativity.

It's a series of steps that aren't always orderly...

Before I understood that there was a creative process that might apply to me as a quilter, I would get frustrated by my habit of wandering through my quilting room and fondling fabric or laying projects out for inspection but basically doing nothing.  I thought it was wasted time and it really annoyed me. NO! That’s incubation without forcing or rushing a seed of an idea.

I used to get almost paralyzed by the fact that I somehow always ended up with 3 to 4 open ended quilt projects. Often, I would force one to completion before it’s time. Or I would refuse to start a new project until I whittled away at my ufo’s to my satisfaction. It’s tough to work on quilting as much as we’d like to when we only have one project going though. When the time comes that we’re stuck and need to make a decision before continuing, what are we to do?

I personally find that having a slow quilting project (or two) gives me lots of time to let my mind wander where it will while still getting another project ever closer to a finish. Or even chain piecing blocks. Or piling up lovely combinations of fabric for a future project. You get the idea. When I'm feeling restless, I do something with fabric or in the quilting room whether it's work or not--and even if it's only for 15 minutes! Then at least my mind will be focused (without forcing it) on the proper subject matter (without any particulars staring me in the face) and my dilemma is usually resolved all the faster. I have definitely been known to throw my chain piecing or hand quilting aside in my rush to write some ideas down or dig for certain fabrics and blocks! 

See, even my quilt is waving HELLO! Wake up!

Learning about the creative process is where I feel like I crossed through an invisible barrier with my quilting efforts. Being able to recognize my actions and feelings plus being able to take advantage of them and FOCUS helped me tremendously. I have a dedicated quilting space. There is pen and paper in my purse, by the side of my bed, in my kitchen and in my quilting room. I have a bulletin board with ideas in my quilting room. I have a design wall, albeit a small one, where I see some of my process all of the time. I have a blog where I share and open myself up to criticism (and hopefully support too). I include time in my schedule to quilt, sometimes even as a reward. I keep slow quilting projects available for when I visit, travel or wind down in the evening. I'm not afraid to have lots of open-ended projects or take a year to work through a single quilt top. Once in awhile I toss a quilt project aside to cut something out because I just can't wait to work on it. I work, do, make and create. It isn't always pretty. And as you can see, my creative process is sometimes even a rumpled mess.*wink

On another note, I've decided that although I'm returning to this conversation, it would be an injustice to try to do it on a pre-determined schedule. My priorities have to be, as always, my family and their particular concerns.

Trying Not to Get too Sidetracked

While digging through my orphan blocks the other day I stumbled upon these star blocks. Whoa! I didn't remember that there were six of them left over. Then, the very same day, I happened to see the orange leaf fabric I had bought for a border forever ago and never used. Click! You know how it goes. Blindsided by the new project that literally appears out of nowhere and all because of a fabric that's suddenly too great to leave languishing in the totes for years....

The new project

There's really no controlling the next chain of events. Might as well give in and enjoy the ride.*wink  After the initial whirlwind of work, I arrived here. I think it needs a couple of simple borders on the quilt (more of that orange fabric for sure) making it lap size and then I will probably give it as a gift. Easy peasy. Don't you just love these kinds of quilts? The thing is, I do try to be realistic too. We're kidding ourselves if we ever think it's possible to just sneak a quilt in. Ha! The time it takes to work on this quilt is most definitely taking away from time I would be working on another.

Still working on my letters

I am still plugging away at The Big Broken Dish. Found out that I mixed up the fabrics for the #3 word and the #4 word, which really doesn't matter except it DOES. Because the sequence thing is sort of important in this quilt and the right layout of light and dark fabric are important in every quilt. At this point I am just laughing inside (all of the time) at this quilt. How ironic to make a quilt based around 'The Creative Process' and struggle with it at every point! I've decide to just let it be, mistakes and all. It's my quilt, my struggling creative process and my personal joke after all.

A few more arcs

Got a few more arcs done as well. Now there are 20 sets done out of 48--definitely more than half done. It was suggested that I burn through them now and put them behind me, but this is paper piecing we're talking about. I don't HATE it, but it's still not my favorite method of piecing. For now I'm very content to be making forward progress. lol I think I might just be that kind of quilter. Peck, peck, peck....

The Big Broken Dish--Sometimes the Hard Part is Getting Started...

There's something about this time of year that makes me want to burrow into my little sewing room and quilt for days on end. Probably not very wise to completely ignore my family, so I try to have projects on hand that I can work on in the living room occasionally too! They might appreciate that or not, but I do make the effort.

Applique work on The Big Broken Dish

There's usually not much guilt with my ufq's because I know I'm gonna get back to them eventually, but this 'Big Broken Dish' quilt? Wowsers, has it really been pushing all my guilt buttons lately. You know how people like to say that if you're avoiding a quilt, not moving into the next phase, then there's something wrong. That's anxiety, doubt, blah, blah, blah. Uh uh. Not with this quilt. I just. Plain. Dreaded. Sewing. The letters onto the quilt.

So I decided to attack the beast. I made lists. (I do like my lists). And I made sure that this quilt was at the very top. (See, that increases my guilt substantially if I keep trying to ignore the quilt). Check. Now for the real work. I've heard that it helps if you actually put thread to fabric... Check. One word down, three more to go! Looks like it was mostly all in my head. Memo to self--previously trimming and clipping the pieces was pure genius. lol

A Little Here and There

I have learned that my Pickle Dish quilt project is not actually a Pickle Dish, but rather a Wedding Ring pattern. The knowledge crept up on me slowly, but finally I am left with no choice but to admit to being an idiot. Drat! I hate that, but making a wedding ring quilt was always on my bucket list too, so all is probably going to be well in the end.

More fans for what was formerly known
as my Pickle Dish Insanity quilt

Now I'm in a quandary as to the name since continuing to call it 'Pickle Dish Insanity' would probably just be confusing? On a good note, quite by accident I learned that sewing my fans or melons (or whatever those things actually are) to background music like Tanya Tucker, Eric Clapton, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill and BTO somehow made me forget about the fact that I intensely dislike foundation piecing.  My quilting room is carved out of the (best) corner of my sons upstairs bedroom and so I don't ever always get to choose the background noise. How amusing to learn that the right music can actually increase production, especially in my case where I love and cherish the sounds of silence!

Prep work for The Big Broken Dish

I also surprised myself last evening by pulling out The Big Broken Dish and mulling over what needs to be done next. I know, check me for a fever. It's not that I'm really interested in appliqueing the words onto the borders of The Big Broken Dish just yet, but recently it has occurred to me that it has been a bit neglected.  It would probably help if the letters were cut out and properly prepped for when that big moment of motivation does arrives as it always does eventually. I keep hearing rumors about our Pieceable Souls group getting together again this coming fall and this quilt is kind of tied in with our last project in the group. Motivation may come knocking sooner than later and won't I look good if progress has been made since the last time we met well over a year ago? lol

Learning Curves and the Creative Process

Easter weekend is always so busy.  Once again I found myself in the grocery store on a late Saturday afternoon trying to find candy for my kids.  Every year I tell myself it'll be different next year, but it never, ever is.  Not to worry, I wasn't the only mom rushing around the candy aisles looking frantic because all the best candy was gone!

Learning Curves Quilt--Drunkards Path

I did a little bit of sewing Friday night and Saturday too, but really, it was hard to settle into work on my Learning Curves quilt especially.  Sometimes, there are other projects calling my name a whole lot louder than that one will probably ever be able to.  You know, because of those dreaded curves and all.

Getting Started on Drunkards Path block

I wouldn't want to admit to anything that could possibly incriminate me in the future, but these blocks are actually getting a lot easier to sew.  I am finally able to sew at a faster pace than a snail!  Smooth and steady, that's me, plugging along one section after another.  The tweezers really help at the end of the block too, keeping everything aligned and straight for me.  I did cut all the blocks just a smidge too big (room for error) so when I get the initial curved sewing done, then I have to trim them down.  Ughh...  Not always what I want to do.

Working on The Big Broken Dish Quilt

At some point this weekend, I jumped back into my Big Broken Dish Quilt.  With the help of Linda from Quilts in the Barn (thank you!), I had previously figured out my light bulb block.  I think it sort of looks like a skull right now, but my daughters assure me that with properly applied stitching it will be just fine in the end.

Ready for the applique words now...

With the slightly curved borders, sewing the corners blocks on was a bit of a nightmare.  I had to lay the border and the blocks out and mark just 'so' and then pin a lot.  I used my seam ripper more than I wanted to and almost peed my pants once when the phone rang while I was deep in concentration mode.  I forgot to trim a 1/4" from my marked seam on one particular border and started sewing before I even realized what I was doing.  And the phone rang and rang and rang.

Then it was all together, laying fairly flat and looking back at me like, 'See? that wasn't so hard after all!'  (Can you slap a quilt?)  It was only after my kids gathered around and asked me to explain once again what this quilt was all about when I noticed (thank you my dear youngest son for pointing it out) that the light bulb block and the palm tree block had somehow switched places.  I think there must be a subliminal message in that particular 'oops', don't you?  And honestly? Right now, I'm leaning very heavily toward leaving it just like it is.

25 of the Best Quilt Blogs

This quilt is possibly the craziest quilt I have ever attempted--flying by the seat of my pants just to see where I end up!  I finally figured out how to sew those slightly curved seams together so that the borders lay flat.  Yay me!  I was grinning so much my kids were probably scared to be around me.*wink

Border work on The Big Broken Dish

Lots more work to finish up the 4 applique corner blocks plus all the words I want appliqued on the borders (still missing one of those too).  One corner block is supposed to have a light bulb appliqued on it and for the life of me I can't see to draw one properly.  Agghh!!  How hard is it to draw a light bulb?

People keep coming back to read this post from last year, so I decided it's time to do an update.  I'm always looking for quilt blogs written by people who love the process, aren't afraid to admit to struggles and mistakes, show their work--not just the pretty finishes, and continually manage to find plenty of time to post about a love of quilting from their unique point of view.  Listed in no particular order, these are the 25 that popped out from my link list today.  It could be a different list on another day.

• Blue Mountain Daisy
• Tim Latimer Quilts - Quilts Etc.
• Humble Quilts
• nifty quilts
• Inspired By Antique Quilts
• blue elephant stitches
• Log Cabin Quilter
• Butterfly Threads Quilting
• Patchwork Jitka
• Collector With A Needle
• Stitched In Color
• Quilt Duffy
• Kathy's Quilts
• Quilting In My Pajamas
• Quilts... etc.
• Little Island Quilting
• Oh, Oh, Quilts!
• Quilts In The Barn
• Material Obsession
• simplebirdapplique
• Quilting Jeannet
• Empty Field
• Orange Crumpled Napkin
• Be*mused
• andie johnson sews

It's a Strange One, I'll Admit

Still working on the purple flowers and then there will just be a couple leaves left to applique on this part of the quilt top.  It's a strange little quilt project, but considering that I'm working without any pattern, templates, or really any sort of plan other than the name of the quilt......  I'm calling it '4 Stages of Creativity' and it's my tribute to how the creative process works as can be applied to me and my quilting obsessions.

4 Stages of Creativity

My kids don't understand the weird blue wormy things coming out of the flowers but to me, it's so obvious--flower stamens anyone?  And, big AND, I'm still trying to use that weird piece of yellow fabric that we're required to use for our next Pieceable Souls project.  I just love combining a couple projects into one in case you didn't already know that!  So... In the event you are actually interested, I plan on appliqueing the words 1. Preparation, 2. Incubation, 3. Illumination, and then 4. Implementation onto the lighter black borders--probably in a purple-ish fabric.  Years ago, when I first read all about the 4 stages of creativity, it felt like a light went off in my brain.  Hello?  All those years of barely passing art classes and feeling like a total failure? They should really be teaching quilting classes in the public school systems.  Kind of like offering both algebra and business math as math credits.  Okay.  I'll just stop there.

The last of my Vertical baskets

Skipping around from project to project like I do, I still managed to get the last of my baskets for the Vertical Basket quilt done this week.  Now for some hard decisions about the handles, which should go on lickety-split when I actually set down to do them.  Hopefully now that most of our local wildfires are slowing down, the air quality will get better fast.  These last couple weeks of low-grade headaches and sinus troubles are wearing us all down.

Just a Little Bummed

I've been cruising right along the last couple days.  Little by little I could feel things start to come together as I jumped from one project to the next.  My big plan for the upcoming weekend was to get at least one quilt top completely finished up before my kids came home and life resumed it's normal chaotic schedule.

Looking more like little cake stands every day

Alas, unexpected out of town company has arrived.  Momentum is fizzling away even as I write.  Positively draining away.

Clipped and ready to iron.  (well, sort of clipped)

 I still have a few hand work projects in the works.  It's not like I'm completely at a standstill you know.

Ta da!  150 mini cake stands all finished up.

Ha!  But really, I just don't think I'm brave enough (or crazy enough) to tackle this in front of my unsuspecting company.  Have you ever noticed that there are some people who just don't GET the whole quilting thing?  I mean, like at all.  It's very exhausting to try and explain the unexplainable.  Even my most faithful readers don't always understand where I'm going and no doubt fear to peer too closely into the dark recesses of my mind.

Still noodling around with this monstrosity.

I'm so glad I didn't give up on this sweet little project way back when.  It's almost too sweet for me at this point in my life, but I'm gonna fix that up real quick.  Some prim. applique, sporadic wonkiness, and probably some unneeded borders just for fun.  This project has untapped potential.  I know these things.*wink

Just 'cuz it's old fabric, doesn't mean it's worthless...