First Finish of the Spring!

My Patriotic Shirts Quilt….bound, at last…..

A close up of the quilting (done by Helen Fleetwood)….

Blowing in the slight spring breeze…...

Talking to Myself Today...

Actually talking to myself.  Out loud.

Having to tell myself "No New Starts!"

"Finish Something!!!"

So I pulled out this quilt.  

The top and these two borders have been this way since late September of 2010.

I loved working on these blocks…

So why has it been folded up in a bin for all this time?

I have no excuse.

I decided to press it and get back to work on it.  First up…dealing with that potentially wavy border on the left side.  I can see the ripples in it…and I'm pretty sure that it is 1/2" too long, but I think the larger problem is that the 1/2 square triangles border is where the problem begins.

However…I'm not sure I care to try to remedy that…it might be too much work.

(will it quilt out? )

And that mistake in the upper right corner?  Not sure I care to fix that either.

Perfection is not my issue……

But laziness is.

Now in addition to the wonky border, I have another problem

This quilt is 90" square 

It has a vine and leaves that need to be appliquéd all the way around.

I'm not so sure that I care to hold that whole quilt in my lap.

I'm thinking it will be a big pain in my ass.

Should I even admit that I don't want to have to fold the thing up every time I'm done working on it?

So this is what I'm pondering.

I'm thinking I should do the appliqué on each border and then join them to the quilt.  I can leave extra stem hanging off the end and join the ends after I sew the border on.

Do me a favor and leave me a comment…let me know how you would proceed.  I need to get this thing done.

S

A Change of Pace

The sun is out today!  It's a whopping 36* outside and if I had a brain in my head I would be outside squinting and avoiding the huge potholes that are surely opening up today and swallowing cars whole.
But instead I walked on my treadmill (in the basement) and started a new quilt (also in the basement.
Ridiculous, I know, for so many reasons.  There are 2 abandoned BOM's in bins waiting to be revisited.  Three quilts on 3 design walls waiting to be completed.  Countless others in piles and drawers….Yet I ignored them all in favor of some instant gratification.

I got the fabric a couple weeks ago at Guildcrafters Quilt Shop in Berkley, Mi. 

The Background fabric is a Michael Miller flannel and the "solids" are Quilters Linen by Robert Kaufman.  

This was a super simple quilt that I made from the Moondance pattern by Villa Rose Designs …its just a little 4x6 pattern card that cost a couple bucks that I also found it at Guildcrafters.

The quilt finished at 40"x50", so it will be super easy to quilt it myself.

That's it for now.  I just wanted to check in.  Ttyl!

Permission to Play...

Although I have literally dozens of WIP's that need to actually be finished,  I find that lately I would much rather play around and experiment with my scraps and solids….
This weekend I chose to play with orange.  This time of year I see so much orange in the fruit market, and it is such a fun, bright spot of color in what has become a very long and white winter.
I played with the idea of intersections, slash and Insert, and quilting with bias applied on top.
These are just a couple little rough sketches….and I'm sharing a peek with you.

Im not a fan of the fluorescent lighting I have in my workspace.  It makes for some terrible color distortion.

So that's that.  Just a little peek.  Not sure where I'm going to go with it…or where it will lead to next, but I'm having a good time and frankly, that's all that matters to me right now.

Today's 5-7-5

Frigid, Windy day.
Sub-zero, shockingly cold.
Takes my breath away.

A Little Experimentation

A trip to the library allowed me to check out the book Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson.

I enjoy the work that both of these talented women produce, and I'm a fan of the whole modern movement.  

While I have many projects on the wall (and the floor, and in bins and drawers) I wanted to play around with something different without making a huge commitment to a full size project.

So I got out my trusty black and white fabrics and decided to try out the slice and insert technique.  It's not a technique that is totally new to me, but the book inspired me to Just Do It and so I did.

 I used 5" squares of white and 1" strips of the black…..

 And my quilting lines are very close…about 1/8" apart.

 From the backside you can see that I quilted some of the black strips ……and didn't quilt others.

I like the way the un-quilted areas stand out.  I think it has a lot of possibilities.

I'm going to get this bound when I find the right fabric…I'm sure a hunt through the stash will turn something up.

I have another new project to share…it's not that new to me but it will be new to you.

However…I have a little work to do on other things before I will be able to share.

Stay Crafty!

I Don't Know About You...

But it's too damn cold outside!

I'm doing my best to stay busy indoors (because I cannot step foot outside).

I'm on Day 2 of a 5 day Yahoo dishcloth KAL…..

I love working on these…Just a few rows of knitting each day for 5 days, wondering all the while what the final outcome will be.

I made myself a new rice bag.  I zap it in the microwave for 2 minutes to help sooth my sore muscles from snow shoveling and marathon sewing……

And I have 27 Scrappy Trips blocks sewn…and a few waiting to be sewn together…..

So that's all I have to share right now……Stay warm.  Stay Crafty!