Travel Quilt #4

So what is Travel Quilt #4?  How did it happen?  Why did it stall?
Seeing as I've chosen this to be my bring along project for the foreseeable future, I thought I'd give a little backstory.  Also, I got a new laptop and finally have wi-fi in the new house, so woohoo, time to blog.

I had about 2 stars left to piece on Travel Quilt #3 when I had a phone call with my London publishers setting the basis and rough synopsis for what would become Quilting on the Go.  They wanted 10 projects but none that had been shown publicly before.  10 projects, English paper pieced, by hand.. in under 12 months. (timeline changed during, I think it was more like 15 months in the end).  I knew I wanted a big star quilt in there and with their original guidelines, I couldn't use Travel Quilt #3.  I had tons of ideas, so I decided to make a Trip Around the World variation with 2" diamonds.  The color scheme came from my favorite scarf at the time (which sits in front of me now in a partially unpacked box of Japanese keepsakes..).  I cut, basted, stitched.. but this would be one of the last projects to photograph so it wasn't my main focus.  I worked on all the photography samples for the tiny sewing kit and hexagon pillow, which would get photographed first, and pieced diamonds in my favorite fabrics in between the rest of the book work.  A few months into the project, the creative director emailed asking for progress pics and color schemes of the 10 projects so they could do planning at their end. Unlike Get Started Quilting, with Quilting on the Go, I had full control of color scheme and fabric choice, and man, I was having fun.  But when I sent over the plans and progress pics, the team loved all but Travel Quilt #4.  Here's what they had to go off of:

See, a quilter has creative vision.  I mean, all artists do, right?  So I knew this tiny cluster of diamonds wasn't representative of the full quilt I was making, and I guess I didn't clearly articulate that in these early planning emails.  What they saw was a bunch of muddled pumpkin-y orange and beige, which really seemed out of line with the other project color palettes.  So they scrapped it.  We were getting pressed for time and decided to include TQ#3 instead.  A good choice, in hindsight.  It's an awesome quilt and really representative of my style of intuitive scrap quilting.  I feel I was able to capture my process and meaning in how that quilt was eventually described and taught in the book.  But, TQ#4 sat in a pile, and eventually in a bag. I knew it would get done some day, and that brings us to now.

There are no deadlines.  I don't even have a bed in mind for this to end up on.  It would have looked great on my old couch, but that couch didn't make it into this new home.. so I will stitch, as I do. Progress pics may not look too exciting (especially all the #quiltinginpublic ones on instagram) because this involves a lot of blocks that are exactly the same.  I almost wonder if I'll even be able to keep motivated for the outer rings, but I've got you all to encourage me, right?  ("You all" assuming more than a handful of friends even read my lil neglected blog these days, feel free to comment to let me know you're here, ok?)  I also encourage any and everyone to join me in this diamond madness and play along with the #60degreediamondQAL for as much as you can.  As before, it's super relaxed with just about no rules.. English paper piecing and 60 degree diamonds.  That's it.

So, that's my story.  And it will grow from here.  5 years ago I couldn't have told you my life would look like this (sitting on a completed TQ#2 with a CAT in my cozy divorcee apartment), and I have no idea where I'll be when this project reaches completion.  I hope I'm still blogging though.  We'll see.

Mischief

2017, while surreal and dystopian for a lot of other reasons, has been great for me and my quilting..

My most recent project is Karen Tripp's Mischief Quilt.  It seems in the time I have spent focusing on writing a second book (2014-15) getting divorced (2015-16) and rebuilding my life (2016~), EPP has gotten hella intricate and complex.  I feel.. a little antiquated with my one patch diamonds and hexies.. but anyway.  Karen approached me to see if I'd be interested in trying out her new pattern and helping get the word out about the tutorials and community she has going over at https://thediyaddict.com/.  Of course I wanted to help.  

She sent a full kit with acrylic templates, paper EPP shapes, and pattern planning pages.  I'll admit, for the first few days I was overwhelmed.  Didn't help that both kids came down with some mysterious cold/fever/crankiness thing that resulted in total disruption of the calm routine I rely so heavily on for survival.  

Anyway, yesterday it was just me and Jack (he's got pneumonia) and I decided to pull some fabric and play around a bit. 

Of course, I have more fabrics than I could ever use (unless I decided to make a king sized one, but... not making that commitment this week), but I settled on a few that were making me feel good and got to piecing.

It's fun, the pattern has lots of possibilities, and after way too long not knowing where my quilting creativity was hiding, it felt really good to feel the motivation and inspiration flow.  I'm looking forward to a quiet time piecing the next units this evening.

If you're curious, please check out Karen's pattern pages and more samples for the Mischief Quilt here.

Habits

I can't.
I tried, I tried, but I can't.
The original inspiration quilt used one fabric (a patterned neutral) in all of the geese, either as the goose or the sky.  But, I can't do it.  The more fabrics I see, the more I want to include..

(btw, original inspiration came from @mamafound on instagram.  I'll tag her in my IG post of this photo)

Yellow Bears Paw

We are back from Chicago now, and I can say it was a nice visit.  My kids were good during 4 days of driving and everyone was happy to see us when we arrived and sad to see us leave.  We were lucky to have beautiful weather while we were there and we got to spend a lot of time outdoors, smelling the suburban spring air that immediately brings me back to my childhood.  I'm glad my boys could experience that too.

The main purpose of the trip was to see my family, especially my mother, whose long-term illness took a bad turn earlier this month after a lengthy plateau.  Many of you contributed both quilts and funds to the benefit held for her in 2012 (past posts are here and here), and I wanted to give a sort of update, as well as show off the quilt I made for her.

Earlier this month my mother went into the hospital for several days.  I was told that low sodium was causing her to become confused and disoriented.  Several times she would wake up in the morning and not know why she was in a wheelchair.  She began having problems with memory and though she has good days and bad, it was a shock to have her ask me what my children's names were, or where we lived.  I was happy I could see her, but now that I'm home again, I'm silently aching for the loss of the mother I knew.  I'm not writing this for anyone's sympathy, just to tell the story of the quilt I made, that I clung to, pouring my love, regret, and grief into each stitch.  That binding took forever!  And I was sad to leave the quilt, knowing that it gave me comfort these past few weeks.  I hope it also brightens her days, helps her remember me, and at the very least keeps her warm in the too-cold air-conditioned house.

 The top of the quilt is made from a yellow woven fabric that I got at my LQS.  The centers of each bear paw came from the 11 women in the 15 Minutes Play Scrap bee from 2011.  I pieced them into bears paw blocks, starting in 2011 and finishing the last 3 earlier this month.  I used wide sashing of the yellow and put the extra Scrap bee blocks as corner stones.  I thought I'd leave it there and back the quilt in the black/off-white dot, but it made a really nice border instead.  The backing is an organic cotton from Jo-Anns.  It's bound in light turquoise, one of the same fabrics I used in samples for Quilting on the Go.  Final size-- I didn't measure, but it's a bit less than twin.  Fits on mom's hospital bed just fine though.

Mom, I don't know if you get on your laptop much anymore, but if you do, I hope you can read this, and if not, I hope someone reads it to you.  I love you so much.  Thank you for believing in me and for letting me follow my dreams.  I hope we can come see you again soon.

First finish of the new year: Satoru

This quilt is ancient.. well, it wasn't my oldest UFO, but it had been sitting, pin basted, in my closet for over a year, and the top was completed sometime in 2007, (the center came from a guild workshop).  The fabrics came from my hubby's trip to Japan in January 2002.  Yeah, for a newly finished quilt, it's got some history already.

You can see the quilting better on the back.

Around new years I tried to finish up a bunch of smallish quilts so I'd have hand sewing (binding) ready for after the baby came.. some mindless stitching to keep me connected to being a quilter.. but, the kid's still not here and I've had loads of time to sew.  So, whoops, finished it.  At least I can link up this week (TGIFF & Crazy Mom Quilts)
(old posts about this quilt can be found here, and here)

White

Of all the modern quilting trends, the concept of needing to use more white in quilts was one I hadn't grasped whole heartedly yet.  Sure, I've used white in quilts, but I think I'm still at that "learning about color and balance" stage in my quilting.  I go back and forth between wanting to do color studies and wanting to just dive in and create with whatever fabric is in my hand.  Let's just say I'm not always so confident in the "planning" stage-- I'm much more of a "Let's wing it and see what happens next" type quilter.  (Incidentially, I'd like to know, which one are you?)

So as my SV quilt progressed, I naturally started thinking I needed a bold or dark border to "tone it down" a bit.  But I don't have a big stash of solids and every dark print I held up just added more to the chaos.  And I began to wonder if I could make the whites in the centers of the A block pop a bit more if I used a "white" border.. This off white mushroom print that I brought back from Japan in '07 (yes, I still have most of that fabric horded..) went perfectly with the blues in the A block, so I decided to go for it.

Once the borders were on, I had a breakthrough-- the white border actually made the entire quilt look brighter.  And I couldn't believe I almost darkened the whole thing with a colored border.  Who would have guessed?  I always opt for a dark border.  I think this may be a breakthrough..
I'm still going to put a pieced outer border on to make it twin size, but I am very happy with it so far.

Happiness

warm cuddly quilts on the couch = happiness.
a quilt done in the first week of the new year = happiness.

I love having this quilt on the couch.  The seed of inspiration came a looong time ago on a photo on Luckybeans' blog (which I can't find now) of a basket weave quilt with red center strips.  Thanks Katurah.  Never knew I'd actually make it, but now that I did, I'm glad I remembered where the idea came from.

Inspiration for the flowers came from a bunch of places, this one from the Material Obsession book, and this one by Nifty mainly.  Renewed love of applique thanks to Shelly, as I mentioned before.

the quilting, oh the quilting.. at first I thought I'd try clam shells..but a test piece didn't work out so well, so I opted to play around with flowers and swirls.  It was fun.  Some worked out the way I wanted, but I need more practice with meanders because I didn't always know how to get out of the area I had just quilted.. move up?  move right?  the pattern lended itself to going in a L--> R direction, but then I had issues rolling the whole quilt back up and shoving it under the machine again.  Thank goodness it was a small quilt.

I backed it in a soft vintage (1980s?) purple that I got out of the Atlanta guild's ugly box in 2003.  I had 4 yards of it, taking up space in the stash for years.. It just worked so perfectly with this quilt, I'm happy it found a home.   What is it with me and purple these days?  I think I just have so much of it and I was tired of feeling like I couldn't use it because I live with two guys.  Yeah, whatever.  A quilt is a quilt.  If I buy floral fabric or girly colors, I need to use it!  Enough of my self-imposed rules-- I commit to make what I feel like making~

On my label I used both nengajo stamps-- the bunny from 2011 and the sea horse from 2012.  God it feels good to have a finish in 2012 already...

Hit the ground running

Stash busting is the goal of the year, right?  Well, I started a new board on pinterest and it's filling up pretty quick.  If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them (send links and I'll pin them, k?)
I actually started this one last week, right after my awesome stitch n bitch on the 29th.  Bernadette wanted to start something new and I pointed her in the direction of one of my favs-- Material Obsession's "Fractured" quilt.  She dove right in and started piecing, and the rest of us joked that it would be our little group's first challenge quilt.  Silly me, I took up the challenge...

I have always wanted to make this quilt, and even started with a test block a few years ago (which I can't find, btw).  The pattern was printed in Down Under Quilts, issue #136 from 2009.  If you don't subscribe, it is also available for purchase here. 
Nifty made one a while back and I love how hers came out, especially the back.  I hope mine ends up that cool.  I absolutely love that it will take 112 fabrics if I do each block with two separate prints.  Yes, I definitely have that much stash, and yes, it will be a pleasure to bust it.  :)

I spend most of the week pulling fabrics, pairing them, and cutting blocks.  I'll slash some and make piles at the sewing machine to get to when I've got a few minutes to spare.  I think this will be a good machine project for once school starts again and I won't have a lot of planning time in the sewing room.  Right now I've been pulling  a lot of purples..

I think my initial turn off when I did the test block a few years back was having to trim up each patch before completing the 9-patch, but now I'm not so scared of that.  The motivation to use up fabric is really compelling, I guess I'm willing to do anything..

Anyone else start in on your 2012 quilt goals yet?

Welcome 2012!

I have more than a few New Year's resolutions this year, most stemming from the important realization that I do have the power to live the life I want.  So this is my first-- when possible, choose to be happy.  If it means appreciating the things I have or learning to let go and try something new, I am going to make a conscious effort to be happy more often than not.  And in case I forget, I put it on a quilt to remind myself.

My other goals for 2012:

• BUST STASH
• find homes for those orphan blocks
• revisit awesome projects that got shelved for one reason or another
• BUST MORE STASH
• crumb quilt?

Here's hoping that 2012 brings happiness to everybody, at least most of the time..

Friday?! Already?

Just as I caught myself thinking that December was moving along nice and slow.. here we are in the middle, and another TGIFF! party is upon us.  I finished the binding on this baby last night as I momentarily set aside a pile of grading to catch up on some netflix TV (re-watching season 2 of Glee, loving every minute!), and figured I might as well finish this one off and get it in the mail before Christmas.

I started this quilt sometime in the spring? summer?  as a simple piecing-- mindless sewing project to zip through the machine when I only had a short bit of time to sew.  The blocks grew, and grew.  It was fun to play with chunky scraps and I really let the size of the scrap determine the shape of the log cabin.. I didn't trim the logs down to any certain size before assembling the blocks. 

Actually, in the beginning I chain pieced a bunch of centers onto random sized strips and then cut them apart, pressing, trimming, and repeating for the next log.  I had no plan for the blocks and no idea how large I wanted to make them.  I though I'd just keep going til they looked big enough, then measure to find  the size most of them ended up being, and go from there.  In the end I trimmed them down to 11" square.  Some blocks have 3 rings of logs on all sides, some have only 2 rings on the white sides.  Whatever.  I was really not worried about anything with this quilt, and let it grow into its own.

I threw them up on the design wall last month and this layout just sort of happened.  No thought, just play.  I finished the last 6 blocks and pieced it right after Thanksgiving.  I was hoping to present it as a housewarming present when we travel to Chicago in January, but oops, I finished it early so it can be a Christmas present instead. 

I hope it keeps its new family warm..

the December crunch

I spent 7 hours working on this quilt on Thursday, from basting to attaching the binding.  I tried to take some pics along the way and thought I'd share my process. (I had really wanted to write this post Thursday, but once I started working, I didn't want to stop to post, and then once the quilt was at a good stopping point, my arms were too tired to post, haha).

I timed myself during the basting and binding, and found that it took just about an hour to baste, and then only another 60 minutes to cut, join, press, pin and attach the binding. 

At the end of the night I took the quilt down to the living room to show C, shook it out and said, "Ta da!" hoping he would be as impressed with my progress as I was. 
Me: "Look, I did all this today"
Him: (not really phased) "how long does it usually take you?"
Me:  "For the amount of work I did just today?  About 8 naps."

I would have liked to take more pics of the quilting and squaring up, but it was already dark and I knew they wouldn't come out that great.  I did snap this one of my improv binding holder-- usually I wind binding around a piece of cardboard as I press it so it's more manageable to attach to the quilt.  Well, I cleaned the sewing room last month and couldn't find a piece of cardboard anywhere.  But, george had been playing with his train set in the sewing room earlier, so I grabbed one of the track pieces and.. it worked perfectly.

Part of me thought I should just push on through and hand stitch the binding like a mad woman so it could be done for a Friday Finish.. but that didn't happen.  Guess there's always next week..

Procrastination Complete

I'm not really procrastinating from anything now, and it's almost hard to remember how stressful and crazy life was last semester when I was trying to finish my Masters, but I'll always have this quilt to remind me..

Dubbed "Procrastination in Blue and Orange", it was pieced in a 36 hour period in February '11 when I took a much needed break from searching for a research topic.  I piece it, loved it, and promptly forgot about it as the chaos of grad school engulfed me again.  (click here for earlier posts about my process)
I took my time piecing the back, trying several creative layouts to make the most of stash fabrics before settling on one that incorporated our entire last name pieced in 4" high letters.  (sorry, no full pics.  The internet doesn't allow us that much privacy, but I can try). 

I quilted it according to my original plan, with only slight adjustments for the spirals in the center of each circlish-thing.

  I haven't washed it yet, but I love how it turned out.  I plan to bring this with us on our next trip to Greece and leave it in our house there (George's room, family room? we'll see).  Until then it looks pretty good in George's room here.. and he will need a second quilt on the bed soon.  God, it's nice to be able to make something so practical~

Other details:

Size-- roughly 60" x 80"
fabrics-- all from the stash, with some gifted from Shannon and Carolyn.  Stash fabrics here date back to '02 and there are triangles representing at least 9 other projects I've made over the years, including the blue & brown HST quilt we're doing for my month in the Two's Company Bee.
quilting-- quilted in yellow-orange verigated YLI thread, 40 weight.  It's my first time using it, and I'm not so sure I like the thickness of the thread, but the colors are awesome.
timeline-- started February 2011, completed November 18, 2011.

thank god it's FRIDAY!

Not having been a 9-5er in a few years, I've kind of forgotten the sense of relief that comes from hopping in your car after work on a Friday afternoon.  But now we've got a new reason to celebrate Fridays-- Laura and M-R had the great idea to have a moving show and tell of sorts, TGIFF, where we all link up at somebody's blog each friday and show off our recent finishes.  Different than other linky finish parties, this one travels, and you have the opportunity to host one week, should you want to.


This week I'm happy to show off the Simple Squares quilt I made for my friend's son.  Started in July, all this needed was binding for months, and I finally got it sewed down just in time for the cooler weather. 

I quilted in my default wavy line pattern.  So simple, so easy.  I wonder if I'll ever try to freemotion any other patterns...

On the back I put a large scale Alexander Henry print of Chinese toys.  It'll give Logan something to look at from underneath as well.

And here's the whole thing.  It has been packaged up and sent on its way.  Hopefully the recipient can snap a photo of the baby and quilt for me when it gets there. 

***Argh!! I was supposed to be hosting TGIFF today, but didn't plan ahead and auto-post in time for the early-rising Aussies!  Sorry guys!  The linky party for today started on the main TGIFF page because I was late!  Pop over there to link up, ok!