AHIQ:Sun Quilt Top and Autumnal Tulips #2

I seem to have fell down a rabbit hole this past little while. So shocking. This quilt top was a result of an AHIQ prompt from July 2022. I was really late getting going with my response and then even later getting it to finished quilt top stage. I was dragging my feet initially because it's just so different for me! Most of the applique pieces have been cut out and ready to go since sometime last fall though, and I've been positively antsy to see the end result.

Is it a sunflower or a daisy?

So yeah, it was time. Might as well take advantage! Working with quilt challenges is such an interesting way to grow in our quilting endeavors. To be quite blunt, a lot of the time my initial feeling is a bit of frustration. Why would I deliberately want to think about adding a 'sun' into one of my quilts? Or work from the point of trying to add in that distinct vibe? Or whatever the challenge happens to be--I'm truly not picking on that particular prompt! 

Sun of My Life a new quilt top!

The thing is, I don't generally love to be told what to do in regards to quilting. Most all of the new challenges take some talking myself into. {Yes, I'm telling on myself.} It certainly helps that the AHIQ challenges have been so open ended, but let's just say that it always seems to take a bit of an attitude adjustment. Gah! To willing embrace making a quilt from somewhere other than what I would consider to be 'organic' inspiration is just hard. Especially when I have an abundance of quilty ideas already bouncing around in my brain. Who has time to make something they have little to no interest in? But hey, wait a minute. How do we nudge ourselves out of our comfort zone if we never seek out a different perspective? 

I've learned to let these odd places of inspiration simmer in the back of my mind for awhile. Give them a lot of space and encourage my subconscious to take plenty of time to explore the many, many different ways that the idea could possibly be applied. Discarding most of them of course! And through the years I've realized the most fun is when the ideas can be manipulated to work in my favor. Like using one of the already marinating fabric stacks sitting around the quilt room or whatever. Or do a little play on interpretation. I try my best to work with {and answer} the prompt and yet, still convey something that resonates strongly as a me look, feel and vibe. That way, I will more likely follow through on the challenge to completion, maybe even enjoy the project and, bonus, sometimes end up with something amazingly better than ever expected. 

Looking across the quilt top is always fun

Sometimes it's a big fat fail, but it's so very beneficial to try! Take this quilt. I couldn't think much past using up yellow fabric, of which I have oodles of. So lots and lots of ideas about using up that. Meh. Not interesting enough on its own. Then I stumbled upon a block idea that seemed vaguely interesting. Yeah, not nearly good enough for the effort required. Everything seemed quite unsatisfactory and blah when thinking about in conjunction to this 'sun' challenge. Scratch it all!

How could the sun look any more
happy to be there?

And so it went. Me drawing up a potential foundation pieced sun block, pouring through antique quilting books, and looking for rising sun etc. blocks. Stretching my thinking even more and then finally, out of desperation, doodling a rough drawing of a large scale floral design with a big 'ol sun hanging out over the top of it. At first it felt kind all kinds of desperate. So obvious and over the top.

Loving the viny, bold flowers

A funny thing happened. Just the act of drawing the oh-so-improbable idea opened up my thinking even more. I remembered the times that I have wanted to deliberately piece backgrounds for applique and got mired in the details. Didn't gain any traction. Huh. Could this be the answer? Seeing the doodle in black and white made me contemplate how this could actually be accomplished with improv. piecing. Which of course I love doing. Would it, could it work? Maybe I could even add some orphaned parts and pieces too.... 

Subtle additions to the larger tulip

Eventually I combined all the good ideas and.... despite my very squirrely feelings of discomfort, made a plan of attack. Who cared if it was ridiculously large and naive in concept? I tried to consciously tweak each and every obvious detail into something that felt authentic, going over the details over and over till it felt right. Then, and only then, I dove into it with lots of nerves and a sort of steely resolve to see it through. No matter what kind of feedback I received, this was happening! And now, at the end of hand stitching the applique to this quilt top, I'm thinking it worked! It actually worked!! Wowsers, do I love this quirky, funky looking quilt already!

It's been a long journey with lots of hesitation and second guessing. It's wonderful to see the quilt really coming alive this last week with every single piece of applique that got sewn down. I just didn't want to quit, it was so quietly satisfying and yes, exhilarating! After all the larger applique was stitched down, then I had to add a few pieces of smaller things like the skinny leaves. Just for good balance and subtle definition.

And the value changes in the sun....
Looking so sweet to me

As an aside, the second {pink} sun has always felt like a rather silly addition. Why oh why did the quilt demand it? I so wanted to ditch the entire idea and find something else to substitute. Nope. It was the ONLY thing that looked right in that corner. And this week I think the answer made itself known in the new name for the quilt 'Sun of my life'. It sort of speaks for itself when paired with the applique design. In a surprising move, the quilt also decided that it doesn't need any sort of border whatsoever. Okay! I guess that's a wrap for now! Yay for challenges that steer us to good places!

The finished commission quilt top

I also remembered that I hadn't shown the results of the commission quilt that I had agreed to make last fall. If you think this looks like my Autumnal Tulips quilt, you would be correct.

It's a tiny bit darker than the original

A quilty gal had previously contacted me for the pattern, then later on decided not to make it after all. When she sent me the first email inquiring about me making a commission quilt {for her but for her daughter]} I instantly decided that it would be waaay to much work. Right? Then I decided to think things through a little better. Maybe give it a couple minutes to try to figure out what might make it worthwhile.

Autumnal Tulips #2

A bit of back and forth and surprisingly, we came to terms. I tried to be very straightforward about what the whole endeavor would entail--what we could expect out of each other. And Linda was super accommodating. So sweet! 

This is a smaller version of the original, but it does actually have some of the exact same fabrics included. {It was requested to be in very similar colors and fabrics.} I had to comb through the scrap bins looking for some of it, but eventually found all the important pieces! 

Like most of my quilts tend to end up, it's perfectly imperfect. Huge sigh of relief. Nothing like a bit of pressure to feel insecure about our work! And even though it's the 2nd version, it still has a nice, cozy, comfy vibe, very closely resembling the one her daughter fell in love with. You can only imagine how nervous I was to make a copycat quilt when everything I do is so scrappy looking! We only contracted for the quilt top which means I've been anticipating see the true blue completion some day in the future.Will it still look like a Quilty Folk quilt without hand quilting? Hmm... We'll have to see! Thank you Linda for being a gold star customer on my very first quilt commission!  And no, that's not gonna be my new thing. This is something out of the blue and just turned into an interesting experience! 

Okay. This time around, I'll really try better to put the bulk of my quilty efforts towards Bramble Blooms. It's not forgotten, just moving at a snails pace!

 

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....

A Late Summer Quilt Finish

 It feels so very, very good to finish up with this particular quilt: 'The Mountains Are calling'. Not only because there's been so few finishes for the year, but because it's really ran me through the whole gamut of emotions from feeling rather blasé about the idea until now, when I'm actually rather proud of the cozy, warm vibe to it. Who would have ever expected it to end up this way? 

The Mt's Are Calling is a true blue finish!

This was started in March of 2022, always intended to be a quilt for our youngest son. In an odd twist, the back of the quilt was sewn first. Mostly because I didn't have a very clear picture of what the front of the quilt should look like. Masculine looking quilts? Not exactly in my comfort zone.... 

So glad that I bought the blue woven fabric
for the centerpiece

Our son loves living in the northwest and has always had an avid interest in hiking the high mountain trails. Though I always sort of knew that this quilt should be more of a blue, green and brown quilt, fabric and color options are pretty limited around here the last couple years. A lot of the green fabric languishing in the fabric totes is more olive in tones and I've been trying very hard to use up what I have. {Or at least dig through and start from there!} Olive wasn't doing it for me and this was second choice, these primarily blue and red fabrics. 

Always wonderful to see the spirit and vibe I wanted to convey come through regardless of material chosen for the foundation of the quilt. If I've learned anything in the past several years, it's to try and try again and never give up on what's available right here at home. This time I caved and bought the blue centerpiece fabric because I needed the simplicity of a single fabric background, but nothing else was purchased for this quilt! Making do can give off an authentic look almost impossible to achieve by running out and buying brand new for everything. 

The trees are weird and quirky but just
simple enough to be fun

This quilt was a long hard struggle to get to completion stage. Anyone following along knew that a long time ago. My heart was never really in it like so many of the projects that get started around here. Though I'm happy and satisfied with it now, it never took my muse on a thrilling little adventure the way the more interesting quilts do. Just not the style that I most prefer to work with these days! 

Anyway, by the time I had the details figured out for making this happen, our son was engaged to be married! After a lengthy time pondering, I decided to just finish it up as a 'marriage' quilt. Thankfully my daughter-in-law likes to go on hikes with him too so she wasn't being completely left out. And I did add more pinkish reds to the improv. strips at the front of the quilt after she was in the picture. Definitely more her than him so that's something!

And the crooked compass works too

And.... she has also managed to talk me into gifting her with a much more girly looking quilt in the meantime. Uh huh. DDIL2 already picked it out and hauled it to their new home. You know. Because the 'marriage' quilt was going to be belated! Funny how I can never say no to any of our kids....

Home is where the heart is!*wink

I am especially relieved by the texture on the front of the quilt as wide open spaces always fill me with terror. So dumb. They almost always look amazing when filled with the simplest of quilting lines such as the Baptist Fan motif. The way the lines pop instead of sink into the piecing {such as in the back of the quilt below} should be a lesson to remember forever.

Backing made up of lots of older indifferent
looking fabrics and a few mens shirts too

Believe it or not, the back of the quilt looks much, much more cozy than it does in the picture. Quite honestly, I almost like the back better than the front, which is something that happens fairly regularly around here.*sigh  Improv. seems to fill some need apparently?

I'd curl up in this quilt in a New York minute!

Loving the crumpled, wrap-this-quilt-around-you-and-be-happy vibe to this quilt soooo much. I would have been ecstatic to have this as a finish about 10 years ago and now I'm just sort of bemused and smiling. Yep, I can do this! Even when I don't know what I'm doing. So exciting when the 'me' voice comes through regardless of all the doubting and off perfect color and fabric choices happen. That's where experience and trust in our intuition helps bridge the gaps if we lean into it.

Next up in the hoop!

Next up in the hoop is a palette cleanser of serene greens and lovely pink pops of happiness. It's not a special quilt in any great sense, but the quirky spark to it makes me very happy to have in the hoop.

Should look a lot better with hand quilting

Summer is not quite over here yet so I didn't want to dive into fall colored quilts if I didn't have to. Autumn just needs to wait for its turn. Thankfully my have-to list of quilts is caught up until mid November. Yay! Have I mentioned how grumpy have-to lists make me when it comes to quilting?

Working my way through the middle blocks

Getting back into the swing of things quite slowly, but I'm beginning to accept that it's just gonna be that sorta year all the way till December. We had both of our boys and their wives come see us last weekend {for a long weekend} and had such a great time with the granddaughters especially. They are growing up too fast! Our oldest is making noises about moving back to the state and we are just so incredibly thrilled by that. Crossing our fingers that things work out where we can see them on a more regular basis. Funny how quilting drops down the priority list real quick when it comes to kids and grandchildren time....

p.s. The Legacy of Gwen Marston Exhibition is now open at the New England Quilt Museum. Makes me feel like kind of a fraud, but they didn't send my quilts back with a 'sorry, these won't work' excuse like I half expected. So exciting to have two quilts on display there!  My head is just whirling it seems so surreal. Big thanks to Barb Vedder for spearheading and helping to organize this event. If anyone attends, I would love to see pictures!

A 2023 Finish!

 It's the first finish of the year! Yoohoo! All washed up and nicely crinkled, just like I prefer them.

#AHIQStringTulipQAL

This was an Adhoc Improv. challenge involving string piecing and tulips. I didn't actually do much string piecing {only in the tulips}, but challenged myself to use a difficult stack of fabric instead. There's something about these particular tones of blue that I've always balked at using and they were starting to pile up!

First completed quilt for 2023!

That's the problem with me and challenges. Sometimes the challenge itself doesn't end up being what kickstarts my brain and I end up having to do a little end run around it to even get started.

Loving the outside border

Oh well. This stack of fabric had been simmering on my counters for a long time and needed some tender loving care. I ended up having to go back into the totes and add more of the blue just to make the quilt large enough. Nice way to pare down the problem fabric though. Don't you like all the odd fabrics that I've thrown into this quilt?

Looking across

If you were to ask me, I'd say the quilt has purple in it, but no... it really doesn't. The periwinkle blues mixed with the pink just trick my mind into thinking there's purple included. I set out thinking this was a guaranteed 'give-away' quilt, but somehow while working on it, I sort of fell in love. There's just something so sweet and spicy about the orange, pink and blue together.

A close up of the border stitching and binding

That last applique addition of the mixed salmon pink basket handles wrapped the quilt up so nicely! And the pink and white Hawaiian print fabric used in the border makes me smile so big. How could I have found anything else that would have worked better?

The 25-Patch top is done!

On a different note, the 25-Patch HST quilt top is finally sewn into a top now. It looks better to me after adding on the sashing strips to the outside.

Got a slightly childish vibe

Though I intended to use a lot of cheddar on the outside, the quilt had other ideas. Boohoo.

Must be the crayon colors!

I'm satisfied overall with the random placement of hst's, but I can't say this was an easy quilt to put together. Mostly I tried to balance overall instead of block by block.

Does it look vintage-y at all? Hmm.. Maybe not.

Whether this ends up being the front of a quilt or the back is the real question! We'll see. I'm super happy to have used up some of these languishing fabrics in such a carefree looking top, so there's that. Over and over I find myself amazed by how much potential the stash totes truly have. Still. After a couple years now of digging and digging and digging through them....

Very Belated Look at Finished Quilts From 2022

It's way late to do a end of the year wrap up post so if this isn't your thing, please feel free to move along. It's mostly for my own records anyway, since quilts tend to get lost in the shuffle if I don't keep track. Last year ended with a respectable 15 quilts totally finished up. Not my best number, but definitely nothing to sneeze at. If I wouldn't have gotten so sick, there would possibly have been another to add to the list. Apparently it wasn't meant to be!

2022 Finishes (1)

As per usual, I find myself reaching for a mix of applique quilts to put in the hoop and then, maybe a totally machine pieced quilt just to change things up. As the years go by, there seems to be less and less quilts without some form of applique involved in the making. Hmm... I wonder what that says about me?

2022 Finishes (2)

I always keep a master list of completed quilt tops which is supposed to have the projects listed in order of completion. This helps ensure that I don't end up neglecting a quilt top well beyond the point of being impossible to drum up interest in quilting on it. This list is, of course, cheerfully ignored at whim. Mostly tops are pulled out of the drawers depending on whatever color and mood {or vibe} that I'm currently searching for. Or if a quilt is destined to be gifted. Sometimes that moves a quilt top up to the top of the list in a hurry!

2022 Finishes (3)

Quite to my surprise, the quilt top list shrunk last year--down to 20 unfinished quilt tops! And two of those tops were given to me by my sister a couple years ago, so really. They don't even hardly count.

So..., the 2022 Finished Quilt details:

• 7 Lap Quilts
• 7 Bed Quilts
• 1 Comfort Quilt
• 9 Quilts completely hand quilted
• 5 Quilts mixed hand quilting and machine quilting
• 1 Quilt completely machine quilted
• 8 Quilts gifted, gently used or newly finished

Towards the end of the year I had quite a few ideas and goals for the winter quilting efforts and going into this year. All of that has been turned upside down and now I really don't know if I'm coming or going. I had to cancel the winter quilting meetings at our church after losing the entire month of January. Thankfully, everyone seemed very understanding. Am finally starting to feel somewhat normal again, but am still not at 100%. Have only left the house five times in fact since this all started, but I'm getting there! Which, frankly, is a huge relief. I'm asking everyone to please give comment amnesty for past posts. Have so appreciated the kind comments, but did not have the energy most days to try and 'catch up'. 

Cheddar fabric

I also wanted to give a shout-out to Lizzy at Gone to the Beach blog. She has a very charming blog that I have followed for years and years. At some point this winter, she had offered to send me some pieces of cheddar colored fabric to help out with a specific project where the stash totes were seemingly lacking. By the time we had made proper connection, I tried to tell her that I was actually currently too sick to be working on any quilt project. She insisted, I couldn't resist and these fabrics have been such a joy to me just to look at, even if only wistfully in passing. Really, really sweet of her to share fabric so generously! 

Still haven't done anything meaningful with that project yet, but you know me. It's only a matter of proper time and focus. If I have any big plans for 2023, it's to take time, try and be mindful and not be in a big rush to check things off a list. Thanks to all who keep checking in with the blog. I'm not ditching it, I promise! {Though the posting might be slow for a bit.} I am reading and trying to catch up on quilting blogs now and finding myself missing some older blogs that have totally drifted away. There are a lot of things still needing my attention before I can dive into quilting at full throttle and well, guilt free? At least I am slowly starting to get in a bit of hand work most evenings. Have missed it so very much.... 

Working It Out

I can almost feel myself start settling in to the regular routine of normal quilting habits. Almost. Why does it take me so long these days to adjust back to the usual ebb and flow of things? Probably has to do with the state of the world around us. All the uncertainty wears on us in so many different ways. So nice to burrow down into our cozy little world at home and soak up the good things.

Orphan Annie working itself into a quilt top

It took me several tries to finally settle on the sashing details for 'Orphan Annie'. I knew the colors needed to be somewhere in the darker blue/green ranges, but the design and piecing of it {or not} simply eluded me. 

Loving the mixed up, pieced backgrounds

Once I made the determination to use this Ikat fabric, then it all just sort of fell into place. At first it didn't look like there was nearly enough fabric left for sashing purposes, but I resolutely kept whittling away at the proposed width of the strips thinking 'this has to work!' Eventually the numbers gave me the right answer and yay! I could start cutting.

When first auditioning the strips, I laid them willy nilly as to where the black stripe bits ended up. Soon it became one of those questions of 'what if?' and then I was busily rearranging them to make a secondary pattern in the quilt. It's nothing super obvious or in your face. Just something to make me smile when zooming in. Look! There really are more interesting details buried here and there!

All the tulips just a little bit different...

When stitching the cut-out tulip shapes, it was difficult at times not to try and trim some of them to a more pleasing shape. Now I'm glad to see the subtle differences and yes, imperfections in the quilt. Makes for a more homespun, utility-like look. Which of course I love and adore and think is the very best thing for all quilts worldwide. Ahem. Not that you'd ever hear me say horrid things about your perfectly perfect quilts...

Some of the green background fabrics are from the late 90's and early 2000's. I caught one fabric with little bugs on it that I'm sure made it into a baby quilt for a friends son. Uh, hello? Isn't he graduating from high school this year? 

Alas, Orphan Annie isn't quite done yet, though the quilt is trying to tell me that YES, it is!*stomp, stomp  Right now the measurements are around 46 x 57 inches or something and that just doesn't do it for me. So impractical. Borders will have to be added on, period. End of story.

A Tisket-A Tasket a completed top!

Now, A Tisket-A Tasket is a quilt top that is finished up, totally completed until the sandwiching pinning phase. After adding this last larger hst border {red plaid fabric from one of my dads old shirts}, I'm calling it good. Doesn't feel like there's anything of benefit to add on at this particular stage and I definitely can't add on more of the lighter yellows that I so, very much wanted to use. Back in the stash totes they went. Oh well. Another quilt, another day, right?

Corners of the blue border looks better now

Some of you might not love the addition of more gold in the outer surround, but actually, I am fairly pleased with how it 'pops' the blue in the previous border. With the later addition of a binding, it should all come together fairly gracefully. You know how little borders at the outside of a quilt sometimes get drowned out? I do want this one to sing!

Looking cozy, just like I like 'em!

I had to take out the hsts at the corners of the blue and red hst border after adding on the outside border. Too much confusion. The solid blue squares better help to transition from one border to the next. Which, speaking of that blue fabric. Ughh. It is such a lame fabric, I almost can't believe that I'm using it! But you know me. Always trying to use up the old fabrics and this one was the very best color from all that I had to choose from. I am constantly amazed at how hard the most unexpected fabrics can work for a quilt if we just give them a chance!

By issue of working with so many older, uninspiring fabrics, I am definitely learning new things all of the time. The biggest takeaway is not to take any fabric for granted. Ever. Be willing to take the strangest chances with fabric prints and blends of colors. Sooo much more focus on color, tone and shades. Here's a goodie....Paying more attention to the amounts of each color as to the current quilt. Some colors just look amazingly better in mismatched pairings. Go figure. 

And that's such an easy thing to do, changing the quantities and percentages. A tweak here or there and wallah!, things start smiling and having fun. The conversation has begun! It's like I'm constantly on this roller coaster of  'Anyone can clearly see that this is the most uninspiring stack of fabric in the whole world!' Why bother? Then there's the other extreme. That's where my instincts are practically shouting at me to stop taking the lazy view and endeavor to look for the hidden potential. That's the leap of faith that often feels stupid, hard {time consuming?} or pointless, but that actually causes THE change.

There's another issue that crops up occasionally. I've discovered how much better an entire stack of marinating fabrics can look if you can just find that one, super yummy looking fabric that pulls it all together. So silly, but occasionally it's like the difference between turning a light switch on or off. I'm not even kidding. No matter how cohesive the fabrics and colors look together and you know it should work, it just doesn't. Not really. There ends up being this boring quality that permeates everything and it's incredibly hard to overcome. Seriously, it's almost painful. I work and work and work and all I'm doing is spreading the boredom around to fit into a larger surface. If perhaps this magical piece of fabric can be found??? {whether it be a print, special color etc.}, it's utterly fascinating how the whole quilt will suddenly start to feel charming, interesting and maybe even a little bit intriguing. You sly little bugger! Now how precisely did that happen? And I really, really don't understand the why exactly, but hmm... so much more willing to try and duplicate the experience in the next quilt, because I can SEE and FEEL the results!

Looking at the gingham for a potential binding

I'm truly enjoying this stage of my quilt journey. Can you tell? Yeah, it's different, but I'm wholly throwing myself into trying to make really good stuff from fabric that I used to would have gladly passed over. Maybe even backed up the car and run over again. I was {still am} a proponent of buying fabric that we LOVE. It's important to have a good foundation of fabric that speaks to us. But what if we don't have the money in our budget to do that anymore? Or what if we're trying to be more thoughtful about our fabric consumption? Or maybe we're always ready and willing to take unwanted fabric off of a former quilters hands? All of those things are me today and I'm okay with that. 

This journey of intentionally digging deep into the totes and making do is not always easy. It doesn't always, evermore without fail, feel fun and exciting. On the other hand, I want {need} to keep quilting and learning. This way is deliberate, it can often feel slow. Sometimes I start with pieces that don't make sense or feel astonishingly uninteresting. Like, can fabric/blocks/piecing truly be soooo unappealing as to be hopeless? We wonder. I puzzle over that and try to imagine what it would take to light them on fire. Is it even possible? The design becomes less of the end goal and more of a side effect. This adventure has definitely taken a detour in the last couple years and instead of burning out with it, I feel like I'm just barely getting started. And that's where my excitement lies these days. Maybe I'm crazy, but it feels like my quilting voice is getting distilled and refined into something that feels even more authentic than before. Not in every single effort of course. But overall. Hey, I don't know about you, but I'm just gonna roll with it....