Plodding Along

 There's not going to be a lot going on here quilty-wise in the next month or so, but hopefully I won't go completely dark! No matter what else is happening around me, I can usually squeeze in a bit of hand quilting, so there's that.

Sweet Hospitality is done!

The latest quilt finish is Sweet Hospitality. It's been in the quilt top stage since late in 2018. I loved the old fashioned pineapple blocks when I first started them, but somehow, somewhere, the quilt lost its pizazz for me and then, more or less became a problem child.

Still liking this pineapple block

As per my new normal, I was trying to use up fabrics from the stash and well, yeah. This was probably one quilt where I should have went out and bought special. Why am I so stubborn about this? Whatever! It ended up coming together better than I expected, but somewhere a bit below the standard that I tend to set for myself. 

Definitely looks better washed and dried...

Like I had hoped, the quilting texture really helped lift the look of the quilt. It's so funny that I oftentimes have wishful thinking when it comes to that hand quilting stuff. Surely, surely, it will cover a multitude of sins! Right? And that bright binding... Nothing like what I was expecting, but nevertheless, a very good save. After finally settling on it, I had to wonder why I ever expected anything else to work out? It was just so obvious....

Can a quilt be too scrappy?

I struggled mightily with how to quilt this one. Mostly because I get so tired of echo quilting all my applique efforts. Or do I actually do that? Maybe I'm just tired.*wink  Regardless, it all because so much clearer when I finally decided to put yet another quilt top on the back side of the quilt. Such a rare decision, but it seemed right for a 'just for play' quilt.

The improv. quilt back

It sent my brain into a tizzy at first wondering how not to end up with a complete and total disaster on one side or the other, then it all made sense. The only solution was to stitch some type of endless repeat. Of course! And I love the fact that it didn't even really matter whether it was a Baptist Fan or whatever else I chose. And don't let people dissuade you from extra piecing in the backing when it comes to hand quilting. With a curved stitching pattern, you rarely ever run into long stretches of 'too much seam allowance' to stitch through. A couple tough stitches here and there, and otherwise, it's all good to go!

Just had to see what this side looked like!

So I gleefully dove in with the idea of stitching simple looking 'Hills'. It's been a year and a half since I've done this, but I remember making a mental note to do this again some day. And it turned out to be such a good decision! Always rough to stick it out through the first row or two, but once it starts showing more, then it's time to relax and just enjoy the stitching. So crazy, I love the back of the quilt almost more than the front!

Looks cozy enough to use!

In fact, if my daughter-in-law hadn't chosen it for her next quilt, I'd probably be trying to hoard this one for a couple more years. Just for the improv. side. 'Cuz more and more, that's what I want to work on, even if I don't have a clue as to what I'm actually trying to accomplish! 

AHIQFlowers next up in the hoop!

And that leads me to the 'next up in the hoop' quilt top, #ahiqflowers. This one was a response to an AHIQ prompt and also, an interpretation of an 'Unconventional and Unexpected' quilt. There are many quilt tops that should be in the front of this particular quilt top, but you know how it is. Gotta grab the one that's actually making us WANT to pick up a needle and thread....

The sunflowers totally make it...

There are entirely too many have too's in our life at the moment, better to have a little bit of simple pleasure when I pull out the hoop in the evenings. At the moment it does feels like I'm trying to 'over-quilt' this one. Trying not to get too worked up about that though. One hoop at a time and the details will sort themselves out at the end. What is the worst case scenerio? I'll have a Kantha type look for my improv. quilt? Oooh... wouldn't that be terrible....

Reconnecting With the Process

 As usual, getting back into routine is harder than it seems. After my initial enthusiasm about getting back into the quilt room, I quickly found myself wasting a whole lot of time with indecision and dillydallying.

Finally, I started tackling an impulse project started back in December. You know, just to have something to focus on! At the time it was started, it seemed like a potential 'Christmas' quilt, but as the project has moved merrily along, many of the more holiday themed fabrics have been left far, far behind. Go figure.

This particular quilt was {surprise, surprise!} based on a quilt in the 'Unconventional and Unexpected' book by Roderick Kiracofe. Circles quilts are a real draw to me and these quirky, imperfect circles were just too much. At some point I made a practice block and then from there, a rough cut template to cut my units. I've worked sporadically on these ever since but never felt any special drive to speed things up.

Even with zeroing in on these as 'the current project to finish', it still took awhile. I'd only sew a few sets and be easily distracted again. Eventually though, I got to a place to try and audition some fabric for use in key layout positions. When I came to the set below, I actually thought 'this is it!' and turned off all the lights in the quilting room and went downstairs to do other important things. As you can see, I was so confident, that I even cut out all the wide sashing units to place between the circle blocks. So clever. Using up some of those 'So Tired' fabrics I've been itching to find a place for...

The first layout

Bad move, cutting up those sashing units. The next day when I got a chance to return to the quilting room, all that boring green just made me wince. Uggh.  Talk about dragging a quilt down! It didn't take me very long at all to find a soft dreamy floral to use instead. Everything inside me sort of melted and said, 'Oh yes, this is much, much better'. And then I tore all the fabric down from the sides and decided that I'd worry about that later. Plenty of time for that after the middle part of the quilt was nailed down and properly cooperating! And then I cut out and sewed a couple more circles because the numbers just weren't working out.

The second layout

Moving along, there was the challenge in deciding where and how to balance out all those lovely, imperfect circles. What a nightmare. No matter where I moved the red, the blue would squawk in protest. Or the reds would be too close together. Or whatever. And who's idea was it to make so many rust colored circles? I definitely could have paid more attention when making those last circles and tried to figure out where the need was. After awhile I remembered that the entire premise was based on a very make-do sort of quilt, and that nothing was supposed to balance. In fact, how odd would this particular quilt look if everything ended up perfectly matching and balancing?

Balancing color. Or not.

Oh yeah. So I got that all sorted out {in my head and on the floor}, as best as could be and started sewing the rows together. I saved the decisions on the alternate rows with two {or three?} circles for last, whatever was left over in fact! Gotta use them all, right?!

Sewed the main rows together super quick. Easy peasy, just simple floral sashing joining the circles, but then... it took an evening or two trying to determine whether to use green or cream or brown or what? color in the rows with longer sections between the circles. And how long a section should there be between the circles? Should the measurements be precisely equal? Honestly, I wasn't feeling super creative during most of this process. It was more a case of immersing myself in the process and forcing the brain to wake-up! Most of the final decisions probably came around when I uncrossed my eyes and relaxed a bit.You know how you zone in for so long that you start seeing things in a fog! Which is fine. Every quilt comes with its own set of challenges.

Sewing the rows...

And finally it all started coming together and the circles rows were totally sewn together. Imagine my shock when the fabric choices for the long connecting sashing strips didn't work out so well after all. Oh nos! What was I thinking? And who knew cream fabrics could actually clash? Thankfully I hadn't joined any rows together with the long sashing yet, and was laying them out for one last audition just to 'make sure'.

Without any forethought or really, much deliberation, I grabbed up all those green, pre-cut, wide sashing units and sewed them into a couple of long strips. Laid them out in the rows between and thought, 'Okay! That's good enough! Went on a sewing marathon and got the whole quilt top sewn into submission. And once again, I left the quilting room basically brushing my hands together thinking I had it all in the bag. Picture tomorrow, this quilt top is FINISHED!

It's a quilt top!

But no.... Something was bugging me about the entire thing. While I had basically looking at this entire project as an easy, no brainer sort of bridge between too much time off {brain full of mush} and a good place to dive into something I might actually care about, I had also rediscovered the bane of a creative mind. When something doesn't feel quite 'right', it just sort of haunts you. Good luck moving forward girl. First you gotta figure out WHAT the problem is and then, you have to figure out HOW to address it!

I do my best thinking away well away from a problem project. While doing the dishes by hand {easy since our dishwasher is on the fritz}. While hand quilting late in the evening. That sort of thing. Most of the fabrics used together were giving off this very sweet, subtle vintage feel, but well..., it just came off as too spotty looking when viewing the entire quilt top from a distance. Which we do occasionally. We're not always face down with our head in a pillow, glasses off and only catching a little teensy glimpse of the current, beloved quilt. Don't want to end up with a quilt that gives us a cramp of regret every time we catch a glimpse! 

Over and over I had went with the lighter, softer fabrics over anything with color and now all those funky circles were a little too prominent, screeching and seemingly not altogether happy. This was what I kept coming back to. What to do, what to do? I emphatically did NOT want to tear the entire quilt top apart to get rid of a few circles, though I would if nothing else worked out.

Finished! Calling it Comfortably Quirky

Thankfully, on day two, which feels really fast for the way things usually work around here, my brain had finally kicked into gear. The very next morning, during my shower, a possible solution hit me from out of the blue.  Ahh... yes. All those lovely floral fabrics that I wanting to input into the quilt? The ones the quilt kept kicking out because they were trying to steal all the limelight? Yep. They became the perfect top and bottom border units, pieced together in uneven lengths. Excellent spot of color to sort of pull in and tame the louder color from the circles. Almost surround them and say, 'you're not the only important thing about this quilt'.

Quilt with top and bottom borders....

Not a perfect fix for sure, but an easy one and more importantly, one that felt right. If the border went all the way around the quilt, then the circles would pop more again. It's a different sort of quilt, still a little spotty looking, but I very much enjoyed playing with these fabrics. It was a stack that felt destined to go into a quilt someday and yet, it never felt quite important for any project that I wanted to start. I think the best part about making this quilt was finally getting to incorporate more of these florals into the quilt. Simultaneously softening the overall look while subtlety ramping up the vintage feels.

Just enough red to make its presence known...

I won't try to pretend it's a masterpiece or even an especially striking quilt. In fact, you'd probably have to see it in person to even fully grasp all its quiet charm. Though it's been years since I read the book 'Quilt Me' by Jane Brockett,, I had to go find my copy and take a quick look-through. Yep. Uh huh. Hmmm... Did I finally just make a quilt that was really based primary on 'fabric inspiration'? Loving it? Showing it off? Using it? Me thinks it was just that simple.... haha  Laughing just a little here. Why is it that what should be the most basic of quilt ideas are never, ever EASY?

On another note, my phone died a couple weeks ago and I'm using one of my daughters old phones. Am very unhappy with the quality of the camera, but plan on holding out a couple months till I can more afford the one that I want. {My husband was out of work for a whole month from illness!} Bear with me please. It's either post bad pictures or have the blog go on vacation...

Moving Things Along

Directions From a Local is a true blue finish! The hand quilting went very quickly and then it was just a matter of getting the binding properly attached. A quick look through the stash totes, and no worries, plenty of fabric to choose from for binding possibilities. 

Directions From a Local is finished!

Not surprisingly, I ended up sewing scrappy pieces of odd blue fabric together for the binding as that color seemed to have the very best effect. Some of the fabrics had been in the totes for a very long time and I had begun to question why they were ever acquired. But that's exactly why we buy the odd/interesting/unusual fabrics as our instincts nudge us to. So they are there waiting for us when the perfect opportunity crops up!

Love the feel of this quilt

Most of the fabrics used in this quilt are not solids, but a very subtle print or tone on tone. One fabric in particular, the brown and white gingham, is not 100% cotton and seemed to want to warple and wave at the slightest provocation. Still, I absolutely love the vintage look of it mixed in with the quilt.

So happy with the fix-it corners in the middle...

The choppy, cut up corners of the log cabin are a result of sewing the first part of the quilt together without ever measuring strip lengths. Just sewing them on and cutting the excess off at the corners. Eventually there came a time when the quilt began to misbehave entirely too much and it just had to be addressed. I am so in love with how that turned out, there is absolutely nothing to regret!

Hard to see, but some of these fabrics are very sweet...

This quilt was started as an attempt to recreate or rather, interepret, one of the lovely quilts in 'Unconventional and Unexpected' by Roderick Kiracofe. You are probably so very tired of hearing me talk about this book, but it is one of the best buys that I have ever made, quilting-wise. Still finding lots and lots of inspiration within the covers of this book, sometimes just enough to pull me out of a slight mojo slump.

Probably could have added more stitching, but I wanted
to keep it loose and drapey....

I am still kind of in awe that these colors came out of my quilting room, much less, that they all came together in such a successful manner. Playing with color is one of my very favorite things about quilting. Building a different 'to us' color palette often feels easier when trying to base it off an already finished quilt and using it as the ultimate guide.

Whimsical touch to add the 'white line' piecing

Creating a 'mood' in quilting just feels ridiculously fun too. 'Cuz of course, that's exactly what we're doing. Oh sure, it can be a bit anxiety inducing during the attempt {so many decisions}, but after? If it turns out well? High fives all around!

So happy with the Turn Right arrow effect

The next quilt in the hoop will be Vintage Coxcombs. It's been a finished quilt top for a couple years now and one that lately I've been itching to get into the hoop.

Vintage Coxcombs getting sandwiched and pinned

I actually took the time to pin it between all the rows for machine, stitch-in-the-ditch sewing. Ughh! Takes so very long and it was while I was feeling pretty rotten too. Totally underestimated how much energy I had and how much time it always takes. My general optimism about how easy it would be to get it all ready was probably rooted in the idea that it is completely unacceptable to have an empty hoop. My goodness, however would I survive without a hand quilting project warmed up and ready to go?

Still happy with the pieced backgrounds

The unfortunate saga continues as I discovered when eventually getting back into the sewing room to actually sew. Somehow I totally forgot to engage the dual feed with my special Stitch-in-the-Ditch foot, which basically eliminated the entire walking foot effect as hello? There was no 'walking foot' apparatus engaged. Oh yes. You guessed it. I ended up having to rip out some of my machine stitching and start over. Fun stuff.

Going to keep the hand quilting very simple on this one...

Thankfully I didn't have to rip everything out. Apparently the benefit to quilting with low ebb energy is that I was moving the quilt slower through the machine than normal. Wonder of wonders, that helped everything behave better than it should have/could have. While the stitching didn't end up looking fabulous by any means, the quilt is in the hoop now and there's no looking back. I refuse to be a slave to perfection and choose instead to just pick my battles. Stitching lines meandering a bit over the top of seams? Fine and Dandy. Wavy outside sashing? Time to pull out the seam ripper!

My husband and I are both feeling loads better these days and even got to see our grandkids over the weekend. He will be taking a bit longer to recover to absolute full health, but if spending time with the granddaughters doesn't help accelerate the feel-good endorphins, I don't know what could! Still working on some hand applique when time allows and feeling very optimistic that this is the week we mostly return to a 'normal' routine....

Finish It Up January

It's amazing how quickly something can happen once we're in the right frame of mind. This quilt project has been on the back burner for practically forever. Then comes January and I'm chomping at the bit to clear off the 'in-progress' list. Gotta free up space to start new projects!

Shimmer is a finished quilt top!

All the blocks were done, but I was dragging my feet big time. All those strippy pieces cut, sewn and then cut again? Yep. Though I pinned at every seam, just the weight of the rows kept pulling seams apart until I wanted to scream. Finally, I hit on the solution to fold the rows up accordion style {while resting in my lap} to take a majority of the weight off. That was way better. And for the record, all the seams nested together wonderfully, could have eliminated many, many pins if the seams had just behaved better!

The full quilt

Love the scrappy look so much and yes, the design is a bit mushier in my quilt than in Diane's {look for this quilt pattern in Strip Quilt Secrets book by Diane Knott}. These fabrics choices pretty much guaranteed a soft look which is very sweet to see closer up. So glad that the red and yellow bits add just enough spark to keep things interesting. I was afraid they might end up being too distracting in the overall scheme of things, but hey, look at that, they might actually help! I spent so many of my early quilting years trying earnestly to make 'blended' quilts, that sometimes I think it happens almost subconsciously, my inborn saboteur. Then I can end up with these terribly muted, 'flat' looking quilts that I'm looking at thinking, 'What just happened here? {Never said my blended quilts were successful, now did I?} Seriously though, have to fight that habit off all of the time.

I had thoughts about adding a border after, 'cuz you know, BORDERS?  but couldn't come up with anything that set my pulse racing. Never say never as it's not quilted yet! There's still time to drag it out of the drawers and slap some fabric along the outside edges if I so get the urge....

Love the scrappiness!

Though it should be way down at the bottom of the quilting queue, I already have someone in mind for this quilt, so that feels good. Wonderful to have a destination already in the works. It just somehow looks like great potential for excellent snuggling and with all the purple involved here, maybe I won't have to intentionally make a purple quilt, which has been stressing me out. Just a little, nothing important. Definitely not my favorite thing though, to try and make a quilt FOR someone, with all their potential likes and dislikes in mind. Not that I ever ask, but we can only imagine?

So much easier to end up with a great 'match' at the end of a enjoyable little quilting adventure that had nothing at all to do with anything, other than the fact that we were just having fun. Did you catch all that? The point is, I'm exceedingly happy to have another stalled project checked off the list and team that up with 'maybe I don't have to make a special quilt for so&so after all, 'cuz hallelujah, this little quilt will work out just fine there.'  There's something about starting a new year that helps motivate me even more towards crossing things off lists and moving them along. It seems to come free with the frosty air around here!

Pattern is much more obvious when it's laid flat..

I put the last {quilting} stitch in 'Gather Ye Roses' quilt just the other day too. I had completely underestimated how much time I would be willing to put into this one. One area would be quilted and then I'd go back and add in more stitching. Just because it didn't look right. There's even more stitching that could probably be done, but I just don't wanna. I'm done. This isn't an heirloom quilt after all, and it's time to move on. The binding was put together from various, scrappy lengths of complimentary red fabrics, though darker than the reds used in the center of the quilt. It's a perfect quilt for the make-do, use-it-up binding look, and much, much easier on my pocket book!

Waiting for binding work

The next quilt in the hoop is 'Directions From a Local'. It has such an old fashioned, serene color palette, perfect for our very cold, winter weather of late. Been itching to get this one in the hoop! So looking forward to the simple quilting too. Nothing complicated about a big 'ol Log Cabin quilt.

Directions From a Local next up in the hoop

This project was started as an interpretation of one of those 'Unconventional & Unexpected' quilts that I so love to play with. Then later, the idea morphed into a blend of that, and also, meeting the Maps challenge over at AHIQ. I obviously went my own direction, but it's something that has made me smile. Never underestimate the power of a quilt that can make you smile!

Getting it sandwiched and pinned

So yeah, it ended up being a 'don't-take-me-seriously'' type of quilt, which is good, as I am absolutely loving jumping into the hand quilting now. Some quilts want to be stubborn and reticent, won't tell you right off what they need for the stitching. They make you attempt several different designs or colors of thread, and basically waste a lot of time with guesswork and what-ifs. This quilt doesn't seem to be the least bit interested in anything complex or different. So relaxing and chill, makes easy to settle into my corner of the couch and dive right in.

Already started with the stitching!

It's been a little challenging to carve out enough time to hand quilt,as my mind has been turning to hand work and attacking the applique projects once again too. You know how I sort of cycle back and forth with the hand work, sometimes expending big chunks of time on it and others, barely pecking away. Lately I've been wanting to do more with the hand work projects {they are starting to squawk loudly from sheer neglect}, but then found myself getting completely sidetracked on the latest Ugly quilt. Was gonna get it totally finished up and then... once I started working on it, decided to play with even more applique. Why do I do this? I have perfectly good applique projects begging for attention! Anyway, the real problem is that my sit down time is about the same time of day most days of the week, and it's usually either or. Either the hand applique or the hand quilting. Do one then their's not a lot of time for the other. I've been trying to squeeze in more minutes there and that does help. Maybe if I could kick myself off the computer more often?

Also, the upstairs has been in a constant state of uproar since sometime in October when our youngest son moved out. I wrote a long segment about that and then deleted it. Suffice it to say that my husband has completely taken over most of the upstairs with all his stuff, sorting, organizing and even tossing. Good stuff, it definitely needed to be done, but wowsers does he take forever. And a day. My brief time with laying quilts out flat on the floor nearby the quilt room has been done and over with for at least 2 months now, and now I'm basically just squeezing through, past all the rubble, just to get back to my area . I'm trying to be patient and supportive and have gained extra shelving in my quilt room as a result. Yay! No extra floor space, but a good place to get stuff up off the floor and help in de-cluttering the counter tops. Pretty amazing. Of course that means a little bit of time sorting and tidying myself. So ready for that chaos to be over and done with, but I keep telling myself, 'At least it's not in the living room'. Right?*sigh 

Last Project for 2019

In June of 2019 we were issued an #ahiqflowers prompt that basically said, 'Make a flowery quilt--all design perimeters are up to you'. Well, since I make a lot of quilts with flowers popping up here and there, it actually felt like a pretty tough challenge. It took a long time to get started and then only progressed in fits and starts. So good to wrap up the year having this quilt top out of the way!

#ahiqflowers

I love to over analyze things and then unintentionally wade into really deep waters. It's a particular charm of Virgos. After envisioning all sorts of super complex ideas, I ditched all the crazy and settled onto making an interpretation of this scrappy, make-do quilt pictured below. As mentioned before, it's from the Kiracofe book, 'Unconventional and Unexpected'. Anytime I had ever flipped through the book, this quilt would catch my eye and that jumbled up LeMoyne star block in the bottom right {do you see it?} would want to stand out as a flower. Only it wasn't. But it could be with a little work, right? Easy, peasy.

#Unexpected&Unconventional quilt

Though the quilt looks deceptively simple with it's pour-out-the-scraps-from-the-scrap bin look, there's really nothing simple about it at all. Oh no. The color palette for one thing, is just all over the place. So many yellows and golds, clashing merrily with each other, muddy tans, strange gray fabrics and lots of murky blue/greens. And if that's not a strange enough combination, the obvious blues in the quilt are bright baby blues all the way to country blues. It's just odd. The pinks range from bubblegum to coral and then back to mauve. There's some lavender in to shake things up even more, and don't forget the in-your-face reds and then those greens and bright whites.

This was HARD for me to get a handle on until I finally started going through the stash totes color by color, pulling out anything and everything seemed likely for the quilt. Honestly, I didn't even really like the combination all that well. But whether they matched, clashed or sat in a big sulky pout, the fabrics needed to be settled in, nice and tight together, ready for me to reach in and say, 'eenie, meenie, miney, moe!' And boy, oh boy did it help to have that part out of the way. Sometimes it was a choice of 'this is better than that', but most of the fabrics ended up finding an important place in the quilt.

Starting to come together

During the first part of December, I had most of the left side of the quilt sewn together, and from the gray vertical divider strip over, was playing with a basic outline for the remaining vertical, pieced units. Up to that point, the picture in the book had been open for constant referencing. Though I didn't stick to the design 100%, it felt important to stick closely to it, in order to retain the look and feel of the original. When I got to that busy area around and above the LeMoyne Star, things got really hairy. Just too cluttered and well, ugly. Couldn't handle it at all.

Finally, I closed the book up and set it firmly aside. It was getting in the way of me truly 'seeing' the quilt which meant all decisions were becoming abnormally dissatisfying. I really had to take a big step back. Leave the quilt up on the wall and play with other things while 'thinking' about it. It only took a couple days, but helped enormously when I came back to fiddle again. And believe me, I didn't include the book from that point on unless I wanted to compare what was already sewn together with what the original maker had done. Then there was no 'Well, I should have done that.' It was more like, 'Hmm... that was an interesting difference.'

Finally seeing the foundation for the first flower

Back to the top I went and replaced fabrics here and there, cleaning things up, sewing unit by unit until I finally got down to the Star area again. All the darker greens were tossed, brighter pinks were included. The black and white piano key strip was moved up and changed to a vertical, rather than abutting horizontally into the Star area. {You can barely see it in the original photo, but it felt like important energy.} The base of the Star area was majorly cleaned up, but the area below needed a little more going on than the original photo indicated. I tried more piecing and another hst. It was painstaking, relentless, focus-till-your-eyes-burn sort of work. Late, late into the evenings.

The full finished quilt

The yellow flower ended up being appliqued onto red star background, with the extra red triangles appliqued onto the middle edges of the square after the entire vertical strip was sewn together. It felt kind of like cheating not to figure out a way to piece it, but finally I just threw up my hands and went with what felt obvious. And easy, lets not kid ourselves. But who really, truly cares how it goes together, the important thing is to bring it to the point of being together? 

The flower 'stem' was a random piece of fabric I had picked up off the floor. Yep, straight out of the junk pieces, a very thin cut-off from when I used the fabric earlier in the quilt. The curved edge {a remnant from some other completely different project} was absolutely perfect for the look I wanted. It sang to me in all it's unpretentious glory. Thankfully there was enough of that same exact fabric left to copy the cut-off and add the necessary seam allowance, as well as cut out a leaf and the flower center too. I was so, so glad, because nothing else would have worked nearly as well as that odd blue fabric with the yellow flowers. Perfect! How does that even happen with a quilt like this? 

All of that was stitched onto the quilt before the long pieced units were sewn together side by side. The bottom dark red fabric had to be ripped out and replaced with a longer piece of the same fabric later, when I ran into trouble finishing up the left side of the quilt. Just piece by piece, puzzling things out until it all made sense and flowed well together. If I stood back, looked, and something bothered me, I would go back and fiddle and fiddle until something looked better or yeah, it all looked a lot worse. lol  From a place of a lot worse, it had to start looking better eventually, right?

The extra flower

At some point after getting the yellow and red flower on the right figured out, I decided to play with some of the floral yellow diamonds abandoned for being too small. When I threw them over on the big gray chunk of fabric {a place that sucked up all the light in the quilt and annoyed me}, things started coming together very quickly. I mean seriously, it was like billboard shouting at me, 'Find the best eclectic mix of yellows and make it SCRAPPY!' And then it was hilarious, because I cut out the blue center fabric three times until I finally got it large enough to make the impression it was demanding. It was exhilarating, exacting. So very much fun. Yes! This quilt finally started making sense as regards to a 'Flower Challenge' too!

I think this flower is better than the other one...

I'll say it again. So much fun. I just love when incubation stops being stubborn and turns directly into illumination. It's the best part. The crazy thing is, sometimes you have to be DOING in order for it to happen properly. Which all just feels so silly, because how do we know what to do? Well, sometimes we won't actually know until it's happening and it's really just that simple and really just that complicated. Like getting to use more of that yellow texty fabric. I threw it out of the quilt, decided not to use it 'cuz it didn't look right. Yes, I had the sads about it. Then, in a blink of an eye, it was the only fabric that would work because it needed to be in the FLOWER. All of a sudden, it had a purpose.

Very scrappy

I don't regret following along with the book and starting out from a place of confidence. Knowing that up to that point, my interpretation looked strong. The original quilter made a striking quilt, what an honor to learn and gain from her creativity!

Starting out, I never did graph out the quilt for measurements or try to do anything other than guesswork at a finished size. Maybe that's insane, I don't really know, but it's how I have to work when it comes to improv. The entire quilt grew from the first older, cream, floral piece that I cut out and starting joining other pieces too. It felt marvelous to add in all the rest of that little bit of floral fabric until it was all gone too. It felt intentional and very personal. Just because I'm doing an interpretation doesn't mean this quilt can't reflect me!

That lavender stripe saved the day

The left side of the quilt was not completely angst free. The red and white column of rectangles was where I first realized that my measurements were not going to accurately reflect the original quilt. My oh my, what a shock! The rectangles ended up being much chunkier and shorter than they should have been. Did you even notice? There was a choice to be made right at that junction of the quilt. Make a shorter, fatter column of red/white or chop off some of the work that was already pieced to go well above. Hmm... Choices, choices. I chose to basically 'fake it'. The tall, skinny red/white piecing unit was thrown out and I played around with the adjoining fabrics, cheating here and there with proportion. When I got the correct amount of {wider} rectangles to fit into that area without an awkward 'flow', it felt like a victory. The design was well represented, but I didn't have to sacrifice any prior piecing or bits of color. I'm not even sure this quilt could be made without that very important focal point so it was absolutely worth the effort. Not all areas deserved that much time, so I worked out different sorts of compromises. Super easy in some ways. Mind boggling frustration in others!

The original floral square that started the entire quilt 'size'

There was also some fabric seam-ripped out at the bottom left to make way for some colors/fabrics to be introduced again. I can't help it, colors and values need to be well balanced in my quilts, that's just the way it is. Plus, the left corner of this quilt isn't cut off on an angle, so there was more piecing to be added into that area. Because the right side of the quilt was all but finished when I focused on the bottom left, there was a little, tiny, horizontal strip of fabric having to be added to even the length out on the left. You can probably barely see it in the 'full' pic of the quilt, but it was terribly irritating. I couldn't believe that I need literally 3/4" of an inch of fabric squeezed in, or face cutting off some very important {to me} small chunks of quilt balancing color.*grrr  I ended up cutting and piecing that skinny little length into four different pieces of fabric, three various creams and of course, one lonely piece of a red. Good redirect from the 'oops'! Such a forgiving quilt though. How could anyone ever tell where I cut too short or had to piece more in? It actually happened more than once. Shh...., don't tell!

Gonna be fun to hand quilt this one...

This entire quilt was sewn together with fabric pulled straight out the stash totes. Nothing was bought new for it and in some cases, I couldn't find a fabric light enough or dark enough etc. Maybe the fabric didn't quite have the proper 'vintage' vibe that I was looking for. Regardless, I just pulled from whatever was available, and it felt like this quilt almost thanked me for it. Like it honored the original intent of the quilt.

On that last vertical unit on the right side of the quilt, I almost dumped the stash totes upside down looking for something that would cooperate instead of the green that simply WAS NOT WORKING OUT. The blue/green plaid was serendipitous. Truly. Definitely not perfect, but close-enough to call good and just keep moving things along. That is probably the only area of the quilt that I worried and fretted about until everything was totally sewn together.*whew! It actually did do the job it was meant to do!

This ended up being a very intense quilt and I have to say, it felt absolutely wonderful to sit down and hand stitch the various parts of the flowers onto the quilt. I've noticed that before in other quilts where I add just a tiny bit of applique. After all that focus and seeing almost beyond what our eyes are reflecting back at us, it feels incredible to have quiet time using our hands, not the machine to do some of the work. It feels like paying respect to the quilt or maybe even signing our name in fabric. Saying, 'This is important. It really does matter.' What a fabulous challenge this turned out to be. Thanks again to Ann and Kaja for their thoughtful, interesting AHIQ prompts. I definitely feel more prepared to play with the the Scrap bin bits and pieces again! Okay, that's it. Last project for 2019!

Needing a Creative Lift

This past weekend was a rare, quiet pocket of time for us. I took full advantage and was able to get this #AHIQFlowers challenge quilt up on the wall. If you look closely, it's obvious that the left side is mostly sewn together while the right side is still in a state of flux. And yes, some of it is pinned well above the design wall. We do what we have to do, don't we?

U&U quilt interpretation for #UHIQFlower challenge

I've been craving a good boost from creativity time, so it felt absolutely wonderful to piddle around on such an oddball, no-pressure sort of project. In the lower right corner there is an empty space where 'the flower' should end up. Normally I've tended to work on one long strip at a time, but at this point in the quilt, I thought it best to look ahead and plan out/balance the colors in advance. For comparison to the inspiration, I posted a pic back in August at the end of this post.

Parts of the design {can we seriously call this quilt 'intentionally designed?'}, are driving me crazy and so I'm ditching those particular areas. Skimming over them or just cleaning them up a bit. It's mostly the areas that look super chaotic and don't even make sense to re-create. It's my quilt so I can do that! It's at a point now where I want to leave it on the wall for a day or two before sewing. There's something that feels out of whack but I'm not sure exactly what needs to change in the mock-up.

Only two more new starts....

Lately I've been thinking longingly about the potential of having, literally, stacks of Christmas quilts, but that would be absolutely absurd, even for a prolific quilter. Right? So instead I decided to just make two--to go along with my other two sorta, kinda Winter/Christmas quilts that get pulled out during the season. It's pretty insane timing and who knows how far I'll actually get. The fabrics for the first one, based on the spotty quilt in the 'Unconventional & Unexpected' book pictured above, having been stacked up and hanging around for well over a year.

Definitely gonna add some green after the blocks are sewn

The problem is, I'm never in the mood to make Christmas quilts until December {if then}, and then there's even more crazy going on than normal. At the same time that these thoughts have been swirling around in my brain, I've also been thinking deep thoughts about those pesky oldish quilting fabrics which seem to want to swallow my stash whole. In an impulsive moment I dug through the green totes and pulled out three different, very tired stacks of green fabrics. They definitely need to be used up or just go away. I am so very weary of seeing some of these float around unused and unloved. For the first pile, I gleefully challenged myself to incorporate them into a Christmas quilt, which, yep! Is very good timing. See? Just have to work the angles and then we can easily convince ourselves any brand new start is a fabulous idea!

Already prewashed and soaked the reds!

But first! I made myself cross something off the list. I do have a tiny bit of discipline in this freewheeling quilty world of mine, believe it or not. The Roman Stripes quilt was started back in September as a result of a problematic stack of fabrics that was giving me troubles getting off the ground. It seemed to demand a complicated quilt pattern, but then could never quite gain any traction. Finally, I used a free Sharon Holland pattern {unfortunately not available any longer}, put out while she was promoting her latest book.

Uh oh, getting a lot of quilt tops on the to-be-quilted list!

I had thought to use it in a baby quilt and then couldn't get her instructions to cooperate with the way that I tend to buy fabric. Oh yeah. Same problem with making the throw quilt. But I didn't let it stop me, just kept cutting fabrics and making sure there were plenty of 'pairings'.

The smaller Roman Stripe quilt

Which led to enough blocks for two quilts! They are both the same length {76 1/2"}, but the first one, above, is only 59" wide while the second one, pictured below with an extra vertical row, is 66 1/2". It's really hard sometimes to make these quick scrappy-look quilts with fatquarters {the most frequent size of fabric I buy}. Instead of agonizing about it or trying to determine which fabrics would work better, I just made more sets and determined to work it out later.

This one is wider

There's something about this 'coins' pattern that really intrigues me. It's all very formal, yet the way that Sharon encouraged a light/dark fabric pairings, it has a wonderful flow to the stripes. I especially like the repetitive stacks of like fabrics with the occasional scrappy 'make-do' element mixed from using smaller pieces of fabrics. See? Nothing wrong with adapting a pattern to fit what you have available!

Loved adding the easy borders to wrap it all up

One thing that I've been wondering about lately is whether strips are pre-cut or free-cut, is there always going to be a certain amount of seams coming lose at the edges or long lengths of the quilt top? I thought it was mostly a free-cut strip issue, but no. Anytime there are lengths sewn and then cut or trimmed later, I'll have to go back here when joining the long rows and re-sew random seams starting to come loose. This is something I had forgotten. It's just part of quilting because even when you back stitch, if the fabric ends up being cut in the middle of the lengths, there goes the reinforcement. Ughh! Oh how it annoys me! But now maybe I won't isolate it to free-cut, improv. sewing and let it hinder me from new starts. There's just something about wonky strip sets that make my heart go pitter patter but I was starting to get a little resentful of the extra time that it takes to clean up those coming-loose seams.

So happy with these fabrics!

I'm not at all sorry to have two of these quilt tops {instead of one} as they should make wonderful comfort type quilts for friends in need of a quick pick-me-up. The colors are just that warm looking, with a cozy and comforting  vibe that should only improv. with quilting texture. So glad I didn't throw these fabrics back in the stash totes! It's good to have a couple comfort quilts out in front of me for once, and not have to be all in a rush one day throwing something together!

Kinda boring to sew together, but great fun seeing the top finished!

Now I'm thinking about making some quick little Barbie quilts for my granddaughter and possibly a doll quilt or two for the nieces. I really, really hate last minute DIY Christmas gifts, but sometimes with quilting, it's just pure fun to sew these little bitties. Especially when there's no expectation whatsoever. I think the first place I'll look is in the orphan block totes. Doesn't that sound fun? lol