A Couple Good Finishes To Start the Year Out Right

So I actually finished two quilts in past couple weeks. Crazy days. The first one 'Positive Thinking', just needed the binding sewn on. It's been in that state for a couple months now and finally all the planets lined up or something. 

Bright flowers for the win!

This was an AHIQ challenge from 2020. I took the prompt and ran with it, using part of a biblical verse as inspiration. It had been pinned to my inspiration board forever, just waiting for the right moment to be included in a quilt.

Positive Thinking is a true blue finish!

With this particular challenge, we were encouraged to use some of our own clothing. It's something that I've been having fun with for quite awhile now, slipping a piece of my husbands or sons shirts into most every quilt. In this case, I used a couple of my shirts too. Some old favorites that had started to get a little worn around the collar or maybe too small.

Always a pleasure to look across a freshly
finished quilt

While I don't love sewing letters and words together, I absolutely adore the look in my quilts. A necessary evil I guess you would call them. It's well worth the time and effort to do any and all of the things that make a quilt sing for you!

Still wondering why these flowers didn't
need or seem to want leaves on the stems

I wanted a strong, lively border for this quilt and pondered quite a few different variations of appliqued vines and flowers etc. Then I contemplated a pieced border or two. Eventually, I stumbled upon an idea that was well past its time--a clamshell border. Hmm... I love the look so very much but have been pretty much terrified of the idea. Why? I'm not really sure. I've been pinning clamshell quilts on Pinterest for years. Drooling over most every one. 

A very cozy look

And this quilt jumped up and down for the idea and then wouldn't really allow anything else. Okay. Fine! Thankfully I found a tutorial or two that helped me get started. Once again, it wasn't nearly as difficult as my imaginations made it out to be. I didn't get it perfect or even close to perfect, but it works. It does the job. And I love what it does for the quilt.

The words here are so good

This has become one of my very favorite quilts that I've ever completed to date. Just so much to love about it! The hand quilting ended up being straight lines and a basic shadow quilting in the border. Nothing fancy. Nothing pretentious. Just a cozy, lovely handmade vibe throughout. Lots of old, languishing fabrics included in this quilt too! Weird colored blue fabrics that I was unsure if they could ever find a proper home. Isn't it so much fun to find the perfect pairing of inspiration, fabric and heart in one of our makes?

And another finish for 2024

The 'Improv. HST Medallion' quilt is the second quilt to be completed this winter. I have been slowly, slowly plugging along on the hand quilting for the past couple months. The center area of the quilt was a bit intimidating, so I went ahead and did a free hand {repeat} circle pattern. It's a little wobbly in a couple areas, but I think you have to be fairly critical to be bothered by that. I'm definitely not.

It's got the good vibes too

This quilt was started from {an almost expired} stack of marinating fabrics and a rebellious sort of inspiration. Do you ever get the urge to make a looser, wilder version of something you've already made?

Can't imagi8ne this one without the applique

I love when inspiration hits so sure and true for a certain stack of fabric. I mean, seriously, where else could these purple and cheddar fabrics have played so wonderfully well together? Without looking stodgy and staid like the unmarried aunties? This quilt is a perfect example of why I'm often so very reluctant to send oldish, simmering fabric stacks right back to the totes. What if they just haven't reached their prime together yet? What if there is something bright and shiny just waiting to burst into being and we're simply waiting on the key?

The little bit of pink makes it all better

I'm often blown away by the influence of working on older quilts and then starting the new ones. The fact that my skills, mojo, confidence, stubbornness, secret quilt longings and timing seemingly all come together to spark some of the best quilt ideas! It's not coincidence at all.

Winter light makes it look more blue

This quilt is also a recipient of my late crush on working with tulip motifs. Does it ever get old to hand stitch sweet little tulips to a quilt? I have to practically force myself to use alternate flower shapes, but then, unerringly, I come back to the tried and true, beautiful little tulip shape.

So glad for the outside border. This quilt 
definitely needed the last little bit of darker color

Because, why not? And looky, looky what they did for this bold, graphic look quilt? Almost instantaneously turned it into a 'me' quilt. Isn't that cool? Gotta love when our quilting voice comes through load and clear no matter the colors in the quilt. I may lean hard to the more mellow colors in most of my makes, but even the craziest color palettes can end up with this cozy, comfy, cuddle-up-with-me vibe that makes this quilty heart melt....

It's a Wrap!

Last week found me taking pictures in anticipation of another blog post and then life just got way too crazy. Still running very behind with household chores, errands, bookwork etc., so I'm doing this as quickly as possible.

Wing and a Prayer is done!

Wing and a Prayer is now completely finished up, including being washed and achieving that wonderfully crinkle goodness! Don't know why, but it's suddenly in the 'favorites' group!

Scraps a few plus a few orphan geese

Not exactly springlike, but still, very bright and cheery! This improv. quilt was a great project, start to finish. I look at it now and wonder, why don't I do this more often?

Lots of good color

And yes, it was challenging, in its own way. All the best ones are. The fact that this one ended up being so cozy looking {in spite of the black fabric use} makes me very happy. Scrapbin quilts need to make the scraps look irresistible. That's just their sneaky super power.

Hand quilting for the texture...

Finally got the Positive Thinking words all wrangled into a quilt top too. Once I found the time, it wasn't nearly as daunting as I supposed it would be. And despite anything you might think looking at the pic, it does actually lay fairly flat.

'Center' of Positive Thinking quilt

So, so happy with the pinstripe fabric used for the background. It's subtle, sure. But wowsers, up close? It's just makes me sigh with pleasure! I'm a little stuck from the overwhelming This-Is-The-Message look to the quilt, but there are a few ideas competing for the next step.

Had to use every scrap of the backing fabric in order
to properly float the words...

Next up will probably be an applique border of some sort. Color us all SHOCKED! Still pondering the messy details of what that might entail. And well, it might take awhile to unwind all the strings. Don't want to ruin the vibe of this particular quilt just because I'm in la la land with oodles of applique ideas right now!

A completed quilt top!

Speaking of which.... The 4-Block Tulip Basket Medallion quilt top is all finished up now! Yay!! Love it! Lots and lots of hand stitching time involved in making this happen of course. Never you fear, there's much more of this stuff on the list these days!

Making it up as I go along

So glad I kept the applique motif relatively simple. The curve of the flowers are very basic and I didn't bother to make deep, sharp cuts down into the flowers. Did you notice that every flower {other than the matching  3 tulips shapes in the center} are different? That was just too much fun trying to make the borders have a more organic and 'flowing' look than what I would more generally do. It's something that interests me more and more as time goes on and quilt projects tend to proliferate. 

A few more leaves than I intended, but 
gotta do what the quilt demands

And those smooth lines! Keeps the hand stitching part down to a much more doable time frame with very naive and simple shapes happening. Not an accident my friends....  And those corner 'wheels'? Leftover blue wedges to the rescue! Just had to fiddle around a bit to figure out how to get the specific look that I wanted. Or not! There's a bit less of the quarter circle thing that I was shooting for, but same impact and yeah, who's complaining?  I adore how easily they give a bit of interest to the corners of the quilt..

Had to applique a few of the flowers
on after the borders were sewn onto the center

The most complicated part of the applique was the addition of the year. I totally admit to dithering back and forth with that idea. Yes, no, maybe so.... I LOVE seeing a year on certain kinds of quilts, but we all know this won't be a complete and total quilt finish until at least 2022 and it will probably be closer to 2023. Which might annoy me when reading 2021 on the quilt? Or it might remind me that 2021 was right after we survived '20.... 

Too much yellow?

This quilt is basically the manifestation of a feeling that there are just some projects that don't need to be given up on. This speficic quilt idea has been haunting my quilt room for a LOT of years! Maybe it really is worthy of whatever time it takes?

Inspiration never gets too old for use...

My kids are united in thinking it's sort of a 'meh' quilt because it has a lot of yellow and looks kind of oldish. In my mind, it's soft and sweet with a bit of old fashioned charm. Like antique quilt sort of charm? Who knows, that's definitely all in the eye of the beholder. They did NOT hurt my feelers the least little bit. The pattern page pictured above is the original inspiration for the quilt, though of course I took many, many liberties with the pattern. Including changing the way the tulips themselves were pieced. Picture me shrugging. My way was easier! 

Here a Little, There a Little...

This is kind of a catch-up post. There's been a lot going on at the home front which made it seem like I didn't have time to blog. Then I had too much to post about so it really felt like there wasn't proper time and well, yeah. Vicious cycle. 

Adhoc. Hourglass project about ready for takeoff

All the applique is finished up on the latest tulip blocks. They are trimmed as are the hourglass sashing units. Things are ready to roll in terms of layout if I could find available floor space. Should I just make an appointment? 

Next up for applique was the 'quick' word addition to Ormes Inspired. It is progressing at a very plodding rate. Who's idea was it to cut the letters out of Batik fabric? Huh? Such a difficult fabric to work with when doing needle-turn applique. The fabric is a very tough weave which always destroys my fingers at the point where I'm sewing the corners of letters. Trying to ram the needle through the extra layers is killer. And really, it's very slow overall because the needle doesn't properly glide through the weave like is optimum. You constantly have to make an effort, push, push, pushing which absolutely takes away from the enjoyable aspect of applique! As you can see, it is very close to being finished, but alas, I abandoned it once again in disgust and frustration. Bah! Beautiful fabric or no, this was a bad idea from the get-go. Please don't give me wonderful advice about using a thimble. I've tried. Believe me I've tried. Yes it saves my fingers a little tiny bit. But it's awkward and even more time consuming, not to mention extremely annoying. 

Getting there, slowly but surely....

No surprise that once again I sabotaged the get-through-the-ufo-list and jumped into a brand new project. So nonsensical {and unrealistic} to think I won't be running full speed ahead into something brand new when there is crushing mental fatigue from difficult projects.*wink  Plus, Sharon mentioned that she had 125!! ufo's so now I'm feeling pretty awesome about my own list! Finishing up the tulip blocks felt like a finish, okay? That's pretty much all the justification needed. This particular fabric has been sitting on the counters for wow, almost three years now? Not really sure, but whenever I think they are well past their inspiration prime, I get to feeling this little bit of longing to make another cheddar quilt. Okey dokey. The fabric has spoken.

The start of new project

One random night while I was casting about for something to chain piece {knowing I didn't have the mental fortitude to properly measure things}, this project struck my fancy. It's been the plan to use these cheddar and purple fabrics for an hst improv. medallion for a very long time. Ridiculously easy to dive right into free-cutting strips and then cross cutting them into little-ish squares. I really, really wanted to cut little bitty squares for the hsts but occasionally, even I know my limits!

Breaking it down into workable units

It was easy peasy and not at all scary to make sets of purple/cheddar squares and do the diagonal sewing, never marking a single thing. Isn't it wonderful to recognize our growth as a quilter? Improv. is so liberating when you could care less about the points or anything matching up. Every now and then for about a week I sewed sets, cut them in between the sew lines and then ironed them open. Occasionally I scissor cut the edges to make them more square, but not too much! When that part was accomplished, I just slapped them up on the wall, sometimes kind of fussily moving things around, but mostly just making rows and trying to find positive energy.

Trying to bring it all together

After I had about enough for the intended centerpiece {Oh yeah, did I tell you this was going to eventually be a medallion quilt?}, then I started sewing the hsts into 9-patch units or maybe 6-patch units if that seemed better and sometimes even a 12-patch unit. Whatever felt right. All the cheddar fabric used in the hsts was either a dark tone on tone or the brighter gold cheddar solid, keeping the background very cohesive. For the purposes of evening up the larger hst units, I deliberately introduced one busier cheddar print. Same color family, still ALL cheddar, but more tension. At first I used it quite a bit, then slowly realized that I didn't like the vibe of that print used in excess. You'll be hard pressed to see where, but I eventually went back and replaced that print in just a few areas with the original tone on tone cheddar. Balance. It's always comes down to that doesn't it?

Touching up the outside edges

I didn't mind the look of '9-patch' hsts, but I also wanted a couple areas to kind of flow into others. Fuss, fuss, fuss. Do I like this? Or that? How could I make this work? Also, I was trying to make sure the centerpiece didn't have an obvious seam directly down the middle. Ughh. Wouldn't that just look stupid? This is the part that stressed me out a little and where I had to take a lot more breaks. Eventually I got one large piece that seemed to lay relatively flat. Yay for curved piecing techniques! Though I'm not a pro, it definitely helps ease improv. blocks into submission when you don't want to tidy up {chop} every single unit as you're going along. 

At the outside edges, I simply added long strips here and there and then trimmed the whole to an approx. 30 inches. It was never going to be perfect with me at the helm. I could have easily added in more strips of hsts and then whacked them off {and in fact I diligently considered that}, but I rather thought the breathing space of more background fabric would be good. Yes, I did have to rip a seam out occasionally to add smaller pieces of fabric back into the original unit before sewing on a long strip. There are always details ready and willing to trip us up in our mad dash to the finish!

Making it square-ish

Overall I was pleased and happy and then abruptly, I wasn't. What was that curved thing on the bottom sticking out like a sore thumb? Part of me wanted to leave it be and just let it disappear into the larger quilt plan. The other part of me knew it would knaw away at me until I'd probably find myself ripping it out at a very inopportune moment. Been there done that doing that right now with Ormes Inspired! So... I fiddled around thinking I would have to re-work the entire bottom of the centerpiece, grumbling all the while. Then I remembered that there was just a couple leftover hsts that had been thrown out. Aha! Slapped them up on the wall, played a little with adjustment and wallah! Simple fix and it was done! More colors will be introduced moving forward, but for now, it's feeling pretty good! One thing I've unquestionably learned through the years about {me and} improv., is to take advantage of the mood. Finish it out to a good stopping place and then more easily pack it away for a short time.

Looking better!

As most of you know, I am still dedicated to hand quilting on this more traditional HST Medallion quilt. I'm sure it's quite obvious where I got the impetuous for making a much more free looking hst medallion quilt at this particular moment in time! hehe  All these tidy little rows are starting to drive me crazy!

Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel

I have been pushing myself very hard with the quilting on this one, stitching for up to three hours many, many evenings. No need to wonder at all why improv. has been especially alluring to me at the moment! The need to rest my hands, my brain and probably my resolution too? I finally took a couple days off over this past weekend and didn't feel guilty at all. 

It's a big quilt....

I have two more corners of stitching and then all that remains will be the flying geese border on the far outside of the quilt. I have been boot, scoot and boogying right along! For that border, I will probably switch to my q-snap frame that is just as long as the current one, though only about 7 inches wide. No need to have this huge frame for such a narrow width of stitching. It's time to think about the next quilt top to go in the hoop, but all I can think is that it better be an easy one. It I have learned one thing with hand quilting this quilt, it's to always end the thread somewhere besides at the top corner of an hst! You don't even want to know how many pieces of thread that I've had snap off right at the knot....

Inspiration

Just for fun the other night, I had to pull another stack and bury myself in fabric love! I tell myself that you can never really have too many of these and then I realized, there are three stacks in these approximate colors! Ahem! I'm sensing a theme? Must pull them all out and compare, then ditch the less-worthy stacks. Gotta save room on the counters and in the little totes for plenty of variety!

Sometimes You Just Have to Give In

First of all, thank you to QuiltGranma and Tricia for leaving the occasional wonderful comment, even though I have no way of responding back to you personally! It's always good to know when something here resonates. If anyone ever comments and doesn't receive a personal email back, then it's a good bet that I can't properly link to your email address. Yahoo addresses are treated the worst by Blogger. Can always leave the address in this form 'audkateaster at gmail dot com' if you're worried about spam.

Orphan blocks

I've been thinking lately that it would be good idea to have a couple comfort type quilt tops all pieced and ready to go. Thinking. Not doing. So what do you know? Right in the middle of some chain piecing the other day, I started wondering about some old courthouse step blocks. These and the house blocks had been culled from some mid 2000's project that had been totally abandoned. All the other components had been thrown away. Yes. They were actually that bad!

Trying to puzzle it out

After putting the courthouse blocks up on the wall, then of course I had to dig out the house blocks and see if they might help the quilt along. Uh huh. Looking good. And then, Eureka! I found the 'Est. 1991' block that was always intended to go with the house blocks. 1991 is the year my husband and I got married and the house blocks represent 7 out of the first 8 houses that we lived in. {It seemed like a good idea at the time!}

At the point that this particular project was finally abandoned, we had lived in 10 different homes total and I had gotten very bored with the entire concept. You know how it goes sometimes. Good idea but maybe bad color palette, too complex of a idea or just altogether too cheesy for words? {Yeah, there was a play on words with this quilt that got thrown out along with the terrible applique vines....}

A little trimming and a couple small fabric additions later

Anyway, back to the comfort quilt idea. This quilt went together lickety-split and in no time at all, I had found the perfect border fabric to wrap it all up. It's a red and white pinstripe fabric with very old school style flowers on it, something I've tried to use so very many times. Definitely charming and and kind of sweet, but actually very hard to use as it always seems to look pink and/or dull no matter what it rests next to. 

Old fabric to the rescue on the borders...

Standing back and celebrating my triumph in sewing a comfort quilt together so quickly, I realized something that had totally escaped my mind. How in the world can I give a quilt to someone {anyone} that says 'Est. 1991' on it? How personal is that? No-one would ever know what the house blocks represented to me unless I told them so that's fine, but the year is another thing altogether. The only other couple I know personally who were married in the same year as us, have been divorced longer than they were married. Wow. Good one Audrey.

Trying to get serious about sewing Shimmer

So back to the chain piecing I went. 'Shimmer' has been a difficult quilt to want to work on. Though Diane mentions the fact that these blocks could be sewn together without pins, it's not working out like that for me. The seams nest together very well, but I'm still using three pins per total strip length. Just to cut down on the seams that slip around and want to misbehave. You'll be shocked to know that I'm ignoring the seam ripper and letting more than a few points sort of wink and nod at joining up properly. We're all happier that way.

So many rows to sew together!

Originally I had a grand love thing going on for this selection of fabrics and then of course I ran low when cutting. Had to throw in a few less wonderful matches and thought 'It'll be fine, it always is'. Sewing the blocks together gave me more than a few moments of anxiety as the reality of limited choice started hitting home. I'm so used to making individual blocks and mixing and blending scrappy fabrics at will. These strip cut units severely lock down the fabric combinations and as you can see, there are all kinds of things going on that would not be my 'best choice'. I would never willingly make up a 'scrappy' block with two or more of the same exact fabric pieces residing so closely together. There are chunks of similar value fabrics nesting cozily together in areas {lines} where the values should be much more fluid. Aghh!!

Hhmm... There is actually a pattern emerging after all...

It feels easier to jump in and out of the project, than try to get it done in one big gulp. I have a feeling that it's not quite as bad as I fear, but it is definitely not what I'd call working in my comfort zone. And to clarify, I did relax just a tad after I got enough of the blocks done to put a handful on the wall, stand back and really take a good hard look. Hhmm... Maybe the mushy lavender purples will hold the line after all. We shall see. Fingers crossed!

A very quick comfort quilt

Okay, yeah. So now you know why I'm falling down rabbit holes and chasing squirrels. Might be a teeny, tiny bit of avoidance? Another strange quilt that uh, developed? lately is the purple/green comfort quilt. It just happened. All in a big rush of easy, no deep thoughts allowed. It was glorious. 

No really, what happened is this. I opened up one of the green totes to search for something and this odd colored paisley fabric got in the way. Again! I'm so very tired of this fabric! When it's in the brown tote, it looks green. When it's in the green tote, it looks brown. It was bought years and years ago because I greatly admired it {why?} and somehow it's been a bit of regret ever since. It's always in the way. So why not get rid of it? Well, that doesn't really happen much around here. It becomes a challenge. Maybe it can be used here, or there? Or maybe nowhere? 

The fabric that started it all

I know some of you have fabrics exactly like this. This cannot be an uncommon insanity! Anyway, I challenged myself to make a quick, comfort style sort of quilt with it or toss it and be done with it forever. So I did. Here's the quilt. It's not fabulous, stunning or even incredible. That weird green/brown paisley fabric is totally used up though! Yay! Be gone annoying fabric! Yay again! Now I'm contemplating putting these silly words on it just because I can't seem to help myself. The thinking is that it might make someone like the quilt a little better? Ha! That would be amusing. Use the fabric up and then be afraid to give the quilt away? Someone will like it. Just have to find the right person!

Applique words or no?

And well...., the squirrel thing has kind of been contagious. Next up is an attempt at a baby quilt. Which I was NOT going to make for the latest family babies. But you know.... Babies are really cute! These blocks were acquired at a quilt guild yard sale for 50 cents. Such a steal. I rarely buy childish fabrics and thought these might come in handy some day. How prescient, right?

Little baby blocks

The fabric pull is always the best part. We know that. I happily hemmed and hawed my way through all the obvious color choices and finally ended up with this little stack. The quilt top is already well on its way to completion because baby quilts are just fun like that. Even when working with this really different color palette! I love how small baby quilts are and how nobody ever expects a them to light the creative world on fire. Sweet, fun, cute are the very low bar to shoot for.

The fabric pull

When the top is officially sewn together and the light is better, I'll try to get some decent pictures of it. Right now it's in panels and simmering overnight in case something desperately needs changing out. There are numerous really good projects that I am right in the middle of. Some that need serious contemplation and all sorts of tricky decisions made. Others just need a stack of fabric cut out or some chain piecing time. As always, there is even hand work patiently waiting in the shadows. I am longing to properly attack some of these projects. But what do I do? Go shopping in the orphan totes and tired fabric bins for 'challenges'. Sometimes you just have to give in and get it out of your system. Yes, really.

Granddaughter love

Here's a recent pic of my adorable grand-daughters. They have packed up and moved away with their mommy and daddy to another state. We are very sad about that {though we admire their reasons} and will probably have to up our traveling game.*sigh  This is just way too much cuteness to do without on a regular basis!