Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival: Worry Baskets

It's that time of year again! Time to join in on the fun over at Blogger's Quilt Festival and spend countless hours checking out all the lovely entries. I thought this brand new finish would be a good quilt to enter in the Applique Quilts as that part took the very longest for me.

Worry Baskets is done!

I started this quilt back in the fall of 2009 and spent the next three years sporadically stitching the baskets. I kept a handwork bag ready to go and found myself stitching at my kids games and practices, while waiting on my husband at hardware stores, while I had overnight guests and every other moment I wanted to keep my hands busy or my mind quiet.

Completely finished...

It is my very first Forever type project and I quickly realized that it also became my 'in between' busy work. Whenever I was waiting for another quilt to simmer or didn't want to do the next phase on some quilt or other, this was often my fall back. With 292 baskets in the quilt, it almost seemed inconceivable to actually ever finish up, but of course it did eventually happen. Amazing how that happens! There was almost no pressure involved in sitting down and stitching a meager  two or three baskets although I kept a counter on my blog during those months and ahem, years! of stitching the baskets. It really motivated me to keep on going just knowing that there was ongoing progress from month to month.

With so many different fabrics in it...

And yes, there was some despair involved in the making in spite of my best intentions. I learned that forever type projects really do take forever and sometimes you feel like a crazy, obsessed loon as you pull your ongoing project out in front of your friends and family yet again. And then again. And then Again. At times it seemed almost embarrassing to still be working on it, but along with that thought came a kind of steely defiance too. Will you think I'm strange when I say there is almost a palpable feeling of dedication stitched directly into the fiber of my quilt?

I also think it's extremely important to work on lots of other quilt projects during the making of this type of quilt. If we don't occasionally get to finish up a quilt {down to the binding}, then I we slowly lose our confidence that it can actually happen some sweet day. And then our minds can snap and ugly things will happen in the quilting room.*wink

And a few repeats...

I took a break from my Worry Baskets after putting the top together and then pulled it out this June to start the quilting. Hand quilting of course. What else would I be satisfied with after all that needleturn applique? I used a gold colored hand quilting thread that (hopefully) gives it a lovely textured look without overpowering any of the baskets. I stitched very simply with a cross hatch pattern in the plain fabric and nine patch blocks, plus echo stitching on the inside of  every appliqued basket. I also stitched just inside the seam on every other basket block to round things out and make sure there was plenty of stitches throughout.

It looks good draped and folded and even rolled up...

So here I am at a finish. Finally! Woohoo! It's done, it's done, it's DONE!  I don't think my family even has a clue how manically happy I am about this particular finish. It almost feels like I gave birth. lol  And it was so much fun to wash up and ogle the gorgeous crinklyness. I love it. Can I say that? Just L.O.V.E. it.

It makes me sort of melt inside that I made it. Me. I did that!

You'll notice there is absolutely nothing perfect about this quilt. I dare you to look. I struggled initially with the little squares on the inside of the baskets so if you look close, you'll definitely see some rounded ones.*smile  The binding walks right over the top of some of the black fleur d 'lis triangles.*shrug  Some baskets are not exactly centered in the block.*yawn  This is the quilt that I poured my worries into. That I dared myself to make something beautiful out of what was already in my stash and not buy new. That I conquered my fears about never making anything 'real' and significant. It owns me and I really, really love it. It's a good finish.

Little Bits of My Weekend

I had a lot of company and busy things all weekend long. Family in from out of town helping out on mom and dad's house etc. I meant to get started on the handwork part of the binding for Worry Baskets this weekend, but kept passing it by. Binding is enjoyable, but I need to be in the right mood.

Worry Baskets still waiting for the stitching on the binding...

Apparently, it seemed easier to pick up my hand quilting late in the evenings instead of the binding. I'm right up to the borders on most of the quilt now which feels amazing. I almost can't make myself quit sometimes, but sleep is kind of important too.That's the hard part of doing my hand quilting at night. I always run out of time....

Big Stitch quilting on Scrap Basket #2

We had a big family dinner at our house once again. This is getting to be a regular event these days. We now have the biggest dining room [and table} of all our local family, seating 10 people--or rather 10 adults--as we always shuffle the kids off to the smaller kitchen table or wherever else they can catch a bite. It works for the way my siblings have been coming to visit mom and dad, in smaller groups for once instead of like the Holidays where they usually come en masse. Plus, we don't always have all of the local siblings to dinner at the same time or we have no choice except to eat buffet style. Which we have done and will do again. Anyone familiar with large families know that you don't always get to cozy up to the dinner table together! But... perhaps we were just spoiled because my mom and dads house had a dinner table that could seat about 14-15 people comfortably. Then during the holidays, my dad could arrange things so it would seat 20. Lots of good memories at that table....

Carrot Cake Cheesecake

Anyway, for once I wasn't trying to figure out the main part of the meal and got relegated to desserts. Of course, being me, I panicked anyway. My initial reaction was just to buy icecream and call it good, but that seems so lazy! Finally, I settled on some of the desserts that I know and love and can depend on to turn out for me almost every time without fail.

Banana Crunch Cake

They got devoured and then some of us went back for seconds later. Who can resist the fall baking?

Pumpkin Roll

And then I finally made it back over to mom's to check out her latest haul. Still having envelopes/packages arrive! I wish I could convey how happy this outpouring of love and kindness has meant to her {and to me}. Thank you so very much to everyone who has taken the time to be a part of this. It's been a beautiful thing to see.

The latest Happy Mail!

These latest parcels are from California, Oregon, Louisiana, Texas, Idaho, Florida, New York, New Brunswick Canada and Australia. Wowsers. Makes me happy to call myself a quilter too!

More Happy Mail and Sweet Progress On My Worry Baskets

You know I'm not an everyday post-on-the-blog kind of gal but this seems kind of important! Here's the Tuesday and Wednesday haul for my mom!

More Happy Mail!

She received envelopes/packages from Washington, Texas, Idaho, Connecticut, Oregon, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Montana as well as France, BC Canada, Alberta Canada and even Switzerland!!

Want to see what's inside?

It's really incredible how thoughtful people are being to a total stranger! Thank you so much to everyone involved! We love you!

Even the little envelopes are such fun for her to open as they can be hiding the very best pieces of fabric. We tried to lay out the goodies so you could see what all she's receiving, but the Simple Marks charm pack below had fallen to the floor without us even noticing. Hmmm... Is someone starting to get fabric practically coming out her ears? hehe

The fabric that was forgotten and forlorn on the floor for oh, maybe 5 minutes?

And just because I couldn't stand to wait and tell you later--here's my Worry Basket quilt with all the hand quilting completely done!

Worry Baskets quilt

I pieced together about four different blues for the binding and now I'm well on my way to getting the initial front side sewn on.

Sewing on the binding

I obviously appliqued some of the Fleur De Elise units too close to the outside edge so having a bit of trouble there. Oh well. You will never be able to accuse ME of making a perfect quilt.*wink

It's the Little Things That Tip Us Over the Edge

Gotta love the blogging world. I was cruising through quilty blogland the other day when I stumbled upon a picture of a Tree of Life Quilt. Yes! Love those! Gayle and I commented/e-mailed back and forth about how it was one of those quilts on our bucket list and it all got me to thinking.

Tree of Life fabric selection minus a fabric or two
I think it is really happening......

You see, I already have had a stack of fabrics with the Tree of Life quilt pattern in mind. But it's been sitting there for months and months. And months. No real inspiration to get going on it. At all. Every time I dragged the fabrics out and looked at them, I just kind of mentally wilted. Seriously? This is all you got for me the fabrics would say? And I would just stuff them back in the box with a sigh. Yep. That's all I got. Maybe next time.

Getting some fabric cut out

Then on Saturday, while I was digging through my fabric totes for a binding fabric, I stumbled on a really lovely orange fabric. (Don't ask me why I was in the brown/orange tote, I was looking for a green?) Anyway, I threw the orange fabric back in the tote and kept digging, but my insides were practically quivering to work with that particular orange fabric. Technically it has got to be fall. No matter what the calendars say--I can feel FALL in the air so therefore It. Is. Fall. And there should never be a problem with cutting up (or sewing) orange fabric in the fall. Especially say, orange trees? And maybe a blue tree or two? For some reason the thought of a couple blue trees just tipped me over the edge into... cutting-out-a-quilt-regardless-of-the-UFO-list insanity.

The Old fabric selection for Tree of Life quilt
Too much like my Flock of Geese quilt

The next thing I knew there was fabric flying everywhere and I was knee deep in fabric choices, practically humming from all the fun I was having. Now, you might think my choices are interesting {I know I do}. And I'm a bit worried that the background fabrics will look choppy together? But my mom has undoubtedly had an influence on me whether she intended to or not. She was over to visit just last week--for those that don't know, they are now renting a small single-wide trailer a block from their burnt property, not staying with us. All about needing to borrow a wee bit of fabric. Just a few strips mind you! Being a good daughter, I refused to pick them out for her. Absolutely not! I refuse to inadvertently change the feel of her first 'post fire' quilt by making any of the fabric decisions for her. I would somehow 'brown' it down or make it too blendy with my particular choices!

Anyway, the entire point I'm trying to make here is this: I watched in amazement as she poked through my fabric totes and came away with the weirdest, most wonderful mix of fabric I could imagine. I knew this would happen! Out of MY very own stash! I am in awe. I told my youngest daughter to watch out, her grandma was going to make a better quilt than I could ever hope to make and I'm the one that originally bought the fabric. How can that even be fair?

Oh well. Life is full of unfairness isn't it? Her visit  obviously had an impact on my Tree of Life fabric selection this weekend though. Let's just hope it was a good one! The cutting out time (stolen moments popping in and out of the quilt room) was good stuff. The fabrics felt playful and fun and everything seemed to click. Nope. Nothing to feel guilty about here.

More hand quilting the Worry Baskets

And the other thing I did this weekend was hand quilt. A LOT. I am now working on the edges of the quilt, but my mother-in-law is currently visiting too. Not such a great time to lay quilts out on the floor and stand on the furniture to take pics. It just looks bad--gives off the wrong impression or something? So your imagination and this old picture will have to do for now. I really think I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with this one!

Hand Quilting and Precision Piecing {or not}

It took me a couple evenings with the hoop to settle back into my 'zone'. At first the needle felt really small and my fingers were a bit fumbly. The correct rocking motion was eluding me and it doesn't help that my thimble is mostly worn out. Occasionally the needle actually slips right through a hole in the leather {ouch!}.

Hand quilting the Worry Baskets

I finally found my groove late one night after everyone had went to bed, leaving me alone on the couch doing my thing. Ahhh.... Just me and some little baskets, the silence, my thoughts and the soft swooshing noise of the thread moving in and out of the fabric. Complete and total peace. I do love that. Couldn't hardly put it down at the end of that 'last' frame but I'm far from the finish at this particular point. No point in ruining my next day over a silly lack of sleep.

Back in the bag until next time

In good contrast of different quilting methods, I've been working with my Flowering Snowballs a little every day. So glad I went ahead with this challenge, but getting through this particular phase isn't exactly fun. All the seams are pressed in the same direction and it makes for a tough time getting things to match up properly.

Sewing the Flowering Snowball row

I saw a tutorial for using glue, but I just can't quite bring myself to do that yet. Even I know it's a great idea. Fabulous really. And everybody is using glue these days. Except me. Which just makes me stubborn or old fashioned or maybe even... cautious? I mean, what if the glue loves my quilt so much it never wants to wash out? lol

Matching up the seams {or not}

Don't worry. I'm sure I'll get through this rather awkward period in my quilting life too. You know I always have before.

So basically, (by looking at the picture above) you can see what I have to deal with in about one (out of four or five) sets of the piecing match-ups. The seam on the left is just a smidge off. Which is why I baste a small area at the seam before I do the real seam thing. Still....test, test, testing doesn't always eliminate the issue at hand. Every single time I get these results, there is a decision to be made. Yippee skippee. Why does there always have to be decisions? Be fussy flossy and rip it out? Allow for margin of error in my quilt and move on without using the seam ripper? {I am a devotee of the galloping pony test afterall.} And sometimes I just pretend I don't even notice. Which, of course, is always a fun option, but don't kid yourself. It IS a decision too.  ienie mienie minie moe......

Well, this time I came down on the side of fussy. Mostly I'm trying to fix the 'smidge' if it's obvious--a seam width or so. After all, this is a challenge. I might as well try to get it right the first time and LEARN something right? Ahem, all it really means is that I'm learning to pin a little better. Just don't think I'm quite ready for that glue yet.*wink

Slow Stitching Progress

Once again I'm terribly slow about linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching. It seems odd not to join in when I do some sort of slow stitching practically every single Sunday, but it's also a day I try not to be glued to the computer as well. Maybe I need to get more savvy and write my post the night before!

Hand quilting Worry Baskets

Or would that be cheating? lol I have been stitching away on my Worry Baskets quilt. The first basket got a bit of a redo when I changed my mind about how to do the stitching. In the end I decided to stitch on top of the appliqued basket instead of around it and the fancy little stitching I planned to do at the corners of the blocks? Well, it just went out the door the minute I realized there wasn't enough room to make anything look good.

Starting to get some texture

Simple it is! And simple it will be! I also changed my mind about the color of hand quilting thread I originally planned to use. Instead of a dark brown that is my absolute standby fave, I went with a mustardy yellow. It kind of blends in, but what you do see is completely mellow and warm (I know, it's weird that mustard can look mellow--just trust me on this one).

The thread is much darker than it appears in the stitching

It's very important to me that this quilt invokes soft, warm, huggable feelings instead of the don't-touch-me-heirloom-quality-alert! feelings. Just today someone started carrying on about how many hours I've already spent working on this quilt and I had to say 'That doesn't matter and I don't count'. In my house, quilts need to be loved or I'm slowly finding out that they eventually find a new home. Hours shmours. I admire the people that can know and then still allow casual care, but if I actually counted all of my time spent making, it would probably drive me insane to have anyone even breathe on them! So I don't.

A quick look at the back of the quilt

Whoops. I've given away my big secret! The only quilts I give away are the ones I don't love.*wink  As if. But there are probably different levels of love if you know what I mean.

It's been a crazy busy week, enjoying having my son home from college, ferrying him and my daughter back to Spokane, getting a stop in at the Buggy Barn quilt store (score!) and taking a quick anniversary trip with my husband of 23 yrs.

Some Summer mending

I've also been strong armed into doing some very important mending and then somehow managed to find the one yard sale in the entire state that was selling quilt quality fabrics. Yeah and she had already sold over 300 yards of it before I stumbled upon it late Saturday afternoon. Wowsers, would that have been a fun yardsale at the very beginning of the sale! As it was, I managed to find a few pieces that other more discriminating quilters had left behind. Madness. I still don't know what got into me other than the thrill of finding fabric in a most unlikely venue....

It's Finally Time to Hand Quilt the Baskets

Well, it's time. My Worry Baskets (the Trick or Treat quilt pattern by Blackbird Designs) is finally going in the hoop. I had it on the list to start hand quilting later on this year, but suddenly I'm in the mood right now.

Getting ready to put it in the hoop!

I finished this quilt top in the fall of 2012 to my utter shock and disbelief. It's the first complicated (forever) quilt top I had ever attempted and really, I thought it was totally nuts to even be cutting out the fabrics when I did. After dithering for a couple months in total consternation about what was percolating in my brain, I jumped in and drew ALL the baskets and handles onto the back side of my fabrics with a pen. I guess the thought was, if I committed myself by marking, then cutting the fabrics, I wouldn't easily give up.

A closer look at my Worry Baskets quilt

Somehow I persevered though all the endless cutting and needle turn applique stitching until my eyes crossed, my brain turned to mush and eventually I ended up with a huge pile of appliqued baskets to put together into a quilt top. Not that I stitched them in three months like they said happened in the book. Ooh la la! No. I took lots of breaks. Sometimes I only appliqued ten blocks a month. Other times I sewed up thirty in one weekend.

Checking it all out....

I worked on other projects at the same time--things that got finished and kept me from losing my mind. From start to finish, this quilt top took almost exactly three years. Not that I'm ashamed of that number or anything. Important things do take time to unfold! And yes, I knew it needed hand quilted when I finished up, but I wasn't the least bit ready for that step.

Can you tell that I love baskets?

Not right then. I was just so..... tired of the baskets. In a totally positive way of course.*wink

This is definitely something that says
'hand quilt me'....

But seriously, you know how time can give back perspective? Now I am back to loving these baskets to pieces. Yes, they aren't all perfect. Some of those little middle-of-the-basket squares look more like circles.*wince  I did better as I went along and also, I think I got more forgiving as I went along! There was a point where I was just so incredibly amazed that I was still working on this quilt. Could I have went to raw edge applique and still thought it looked great? Hmm... maybe not, I do have a few principles!

Worry Baskets looking dreamy

Anyway, it's all my very own stitching, from my own needles and thread. Every. Single. Basket. (I wonder how many needles got bent, broken and other-wise mangled in the making?)  Initially, after the quilt top was finished, I had this little ache of disappointment about all the black in my quilt. Too much dark and moody. It was supposed to be soft and dreamy in my imagination and the finished product didn't come out right. No way was I making even one extra basket though. I was Done.

All the fabrics from my stash!

Now I can see the dreamy. Thank goodness! Folding it up and putting it away for awhile was good for me us. We're a team again and I like that so... much. There is new appreciation, which feels wonderful. I am still concerned about my sanity, but then, hand quilting seems to work wonders for that too.

Gonna take a while to quilt this one....

The only thing I changed about the pattern was the colors. Fall colors are gorgeous, but I couldn't see making a replica and not getting bored. {More bored?} Crazy huh? Since the original picture is what I fell in love with....Towards the end of getting the baskets finished up, I almost copped out on the fleur de-lis' though. After a good long study of the original quilt, I decided I needed to make them. For me. They are an essential design element to loving this quilt, making all the good connections to antique quilts in my head.

I want to say good luck to Monica on your fabulous start! You will never regret making it. And a huge thank you to Supergoof (even though you don't know me from Adam) for always being a great inspiration to keep going on my own quilt. Without those incredible pictures floating around the Net, I would have probably folded it all up forever.

My First 'Forever Project' Quilt Top

It's official!  My Worry Baskets (otherwise known as the Trick or Treat Quilt by Blackbird Designs) are all safely sewn into a completed quilt top!  I finished up last night, but the lighting was so terrible in the house that I tried again today with mixed results--totally what you'd expect on such a rainy, dreary day.  Oh well, I'm way too excited to wait for better pictures 'cuz this feels like such a major accomplishment!

Worry Basket quilt top is finished!

Honestly, I am still in a state of shock and awe.  After three years of intermittent hand work, my first ever 'forever project' is a completed quilt top!  Slow and steady does indeed win the race on occasion.  So unbelievably crazy.

Too busy?

My husband thinks this quilt is a little too busy.  I am more concerned with some dubious fabric choices.  Three years down the road from the starting point means I can get a good feel for what I would do different if I ever made this quilt again (NOT happening in this life time!).  But you know how the thought process works in all things quilty.  Could've, should've, would've....  I love it anyway.  All of it.  After I get through hand quilting it some day (later on down the road), I'm gonna put it on my bed and keep it there forever.*wink

Lots of different fabrics used.

This past weekend was jam packed with friends and family, laughing, catching up, and some re-connecting.  All of the family that lives here in town had houses full of company for the entire weekend.  Good times!  And I couldn't find one single person that I thought would be the least bit interested to take a minute and come check out my latest quilty accomplishments.  Wahhhh......  My passion is soooo boring.

Just can't bear to put it away with the other completed
quilt tops yet!

Now I know how my mom feels when she goes on and on (and on) about her genealogy stuff and we display nothing but polite interest!  Thank goodness for this quilt blog, where I'm free to admit complete and utter absorption with little bits of fabric coming together into (what I think is) a much better whole.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a picture of the quilt top that was used in the wedding decorations soon.  It was absolutely beautiful, if I do say so myself.:)

Creative Distractions

Sometimes I just plain forget how much 'work' some quilts require.  I am totally cracking myself up with my complete and total inability to focus of this quilt at this particular phase.  After I get one (yes, that would be ONE) row sewn together, I'm immediately looking around for something else to do for awhile.

A couple rows sewn & the mending

So far I'm catching up on my mending pile with unprecedented speed.  So silly.  Apparently I'd rather put new buttons on an old favorite of a sweater than push through and finish a great quilt top.

My new Levi skirt that would have fit 2 yrs. ago

I even attacked a couple pairs of old Levi's and made myself a long denim skirt, something I've wanted to attempt for years now.  Up-cycling is so cool now.  The only problem is, I've uh, gained a bit of weight since these jeans have been put to good use.  So much for that distraction! lol

Plod, Plod, Plodding Along

Peck, peck, peck.  That's me working on quilting this week.  So far I have 10 rows sewn together out of 24.  I work for an hour or two and it feels like it takes fooooorrrreeeevvvverrrrr to sew anything together.

The first ten rows

My little tote of organized-by-the-row-baskets sits on the counter and taunt me.  'Hello? We're just sitting here gathering dust!'  I haven't even taken the plastic off of the new American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine because I just feel so guilty about not NOT PROPERLY PRODUCING.

The rows carefully organized and ready to sew

On a good note, I did get my basket handles all figured out!  I ended up with six different basket handles in all, although the pics only show three versions?  (Sorry, poor planning.)  As I played around with the blocks, it became apparent that there would be no real matchiness involved in the basket and handle fabrics.

Prep work for my Vertical Baskets quilt

Some quilts have a mind of their own and that's okay by me.  I'm really enjoying the scrappiness factor in these blocks so far.  Of course, it makes me question the somewhat formal lay-out I have planned, but I'll address that on another day.

Different basket handles

I do have a lot of applique going on right now, so I'm not really sure when I'll get started on the hand work for these particular blocks.  The thing is, getting the prep work all done and out of the way virtually guarantees that when the window of opportunity strikes, I'll definitely be more likely to take advantage.  

And more basket handles

The day will come when I'll be hand quilting along and decide, okay.  Enough of this already!  Where's a quick and easy applique project I can work on and feel like I'm actually accomplishing something!  You know it's the truth.  There are days to plod and days to produce.  I'm sure I'll get a handle on it all someday.  No pun intended.*wink

Starting in on Sewing the Rows Together

I don't know about this at all.  There is so much more black than I expected that it's taking awhile for me to process and I know.  I know.  There's no one to blame but me.

Just getting started....

Black and dark brown are my go-to neutrals whenever I'm getting saturated by other colors.  Sometimes it works and others maybe not so much.  On a different note, I'm kinda wondering if I'll ever remember to vacuum just before I take pictures.*wink

Hmmmm, does it work?

The blocks were rearranged so many times, my eyes were crossing, blurring and basically shutting down on me.  It's times like this that I dearly wish I had a very large design wall so I could leave my blocks and come back later with a fresh viewpoint.

The first 5 rows.

Whatever!  We do what we can with what we have, right?  Here's the first little bit all sewn together.  I'm still in that place of insane frustration.  Do I like it?  Have I wasted 3 years of hand stitching?  All my quilts are a roller coaster of emotion for me, but this one feels like it's more important somehow.  One thing for sure.  Even if it's not a perfect 'match-made-in heaven' mix of fabrics, I feel good about the fact that all of the fabrics are from my stash.  All of them.  Yeah, I'm loving that.