Monofilament...Love it or ??

I suppose the jury is still out on this discussion, at least for me.

A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to take a class from David Taylor. I'm sure if you've seen his work you'd recognize the name (or the other way around...). He's an amazing quilter with such artistic sense, and the way he pulls his works of art together are through machine applique using monofilament as a top thread. Makes sense, as the monofilament pretty much can not be seen (both figuratevely and literally). His technique is really quite simple and I have started to embrace it quite a little bit. I almost didn't even take the class once I saw that it was machine applique, but I tried the class anyway, thinking, "I can always stand to learn something new". I did learn something new and am quite glad I took the class. But, that darned monofilament...

To call it a thread may be a stretch. Ha! That's humorous in its own right as that monofilament has quite the stretchy quality to it. I think I like the idea of using it...I think my machine tends to think otherwise. It likes to twist and get tangled and get stuck and then it messes with the tension, so while I'm sewing, I have to constantly watch what the top thread is doing as it's threaded through the machine while also watching where my stitching is going (I think I need more eyes to watch everything)... 

Practice, though, over and over, and listening to my machine, I'm starting to "hear" when the monofilament is tangled and know it's time to stop sewing and give the monfilament some attention (as it's clearly begging for some), and then I can go back to sewing. Thank goodness that machine applique isn't a "sew at the speed of light" kind of activity.

In the end, using the monofilament for machine applique does produce rewards, and like a game of golf, keeps you coming back for more. You make that one cool looking applique item (or golf shot), that you figure, "I've got this", even though you know there's a frustrating part coming (a bad shot, or in the case of monofilament, a tangled mess). You just have to keep on keepin' on, though... As I worked through the tangled messes, I have managed to create a cool rendition of the Earth, using David's technique and the spool of monofilament I received in the class. The creative fun with the technique just opens up another door of design, and I think I'll continue to explore the fun it can produce. My Earth has overlapping colors which help create a transparent nature, along with a large leaf to just change up the shapes and bring in another interesting component that's "Earth-like".

Close up, you can see some of where the stitching got more prominent that I'd like...but...I think it still works...

Despite the frustrations some of our materials provide, sometimes perseverance and practice will pay off. My current piece is for a musically-inspired quilt challenge, so I'm trying to see if I can get my piece put together for our show in October.

Here's my contemporary rendition of the Earth.  I think it's kind of cool with the overlapping, transparent circles. 

Have fun embracing new techniques as you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. As with most things, you just have to figure out how to work with the different technique personalities.

Cheers!

Linking up with Nina Marie @ Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

...and Free Motion Mavericks today. 

Welcome Back! It has been a while...

 

STARDATE:  -299063.82 (or December 8, 2023)

Well, greetings from a long-dormant blog.  Life got crazy starting in 2020 and while folks found themselves in a myriad of unknown situations, life for me somewhat stayed on course as my job kept me monumentally busy (along with life events) and I lost any time really to post to a blog.  I wanted to; thought I’d have all kinds of time, working from home, but this darned software implementation has been a buggar.  Going on three years now, it’s still not implemented.  But, I finally decided, it’s time to stop focusing on that and start getting back (at least a little bit) to those things that I enjoy and love.

So, after plowing through making a large quilt for the annual Guild auction, I am finally finding some time to refocus on some projects (okay, call them “UFO’s”), so I’m happy about that. The Guild also had a challenge to make 12” art quilts depicting one of the seasons.  I worked through many ideas, but ran aground due to time.  In a creative burst, though, I did manage to pull together a couple of small quilts and here’s a couple shots of what I created.

One depicting a cold winter’s walk through the trees during an early sunrise... 

"A Winter's Walk" depicts a winter sunrise in Colorado.  Due to time changes, we actually get to see the sunrise on the way to work, and they're often stunning and deep rich in color.

My first real attempt at "thread painting"

And one depicting fall in all its glory as the Ash trees turn fabulous shades of red, yellow, purple, and still hang on to some green.  The sun and sky shine through, and I attempted to capture that feeling...

It's supposed to hang diagonally so the tree is straight up and down...

Fall was created by piecing the tree and its background together, then cutting roughly ¾” squares of different batiks to make the leaves.  I tried to leave some of the blue and yellow sky shining through to convey the feeling that the sun and blue sky were peeking through all the colored leaves.  That’s what these massive Ash Trees look like in the fall – at least in my mind.  I put netting over the whole thing and quilted through the netting. 

Winter was created by just free-piecing scraps of fabric together.  I somewhat designed this in the spirit of Bob Ross (you know, the “Joy of Painting” painter??!)…he always does the beautiful winterscapes with the sun shining through the winter sky haze.  I think I should have started with the dark sun in the center and moved to light as I went outward, but I kind of like the interpretation that just, well, “happened”.  The distant trees are gray while the closer trees are dark, navy blue.  Then, I attempted to do some thread painting on the trees to try to “shape” them into the round-ish beings they wanted to be. 

Meanwhile, I’m working on pulling old items out of the “I’ll get to it” bin, and actually…well….get to it.  I’ve readied one quilt for actual quilting.  The quilt is one I was working on when my pup passed away…so, it’s been 5 years or so that the quilt has been waiting to get completed. So, hopefully over the next few months, I can make some progress.

 

Cheers & Happy Quilting!

The Turtle Wins the Race, Right, Rabbit?

While working out this morning I found myself listening to one of the TED Radio hour podcasts from NPR.  Odd topic it was – “Slow”.   The subject focused around appreciating that sometimes, things move slowly for a reason, and that high-tech may not be the ultimate savior of everything; that slow is sometimes the best, most effective approach to a problem or issue. 

Then, as I was looking through a few blogs, it kind of hit me – I am a “slow” quilter.  But, I like that.  I’ve never been one to only want to sew in a straight line – I like curves, I like hand piecing, and I like taking my time to enjoy the process of making the quilt – top to bottom, back to front.  I think that’s why I can easily get frustrated with new patterns and "new" ideas – because some of those are aimed purely at the notion of how fast can we churn out a quilt and move on to the next.  I'm not the rabbit, I guess, and want to enjoy the process of making and composing a quilt - and making it my own.

I see this notion of "slow" relating in one of my latest endeavors – make this quilt that uses 3 ½” blocks – little pieced star blocks.  And, oh yeah, it’ll take 256 (yes, that’s 2-5-6) of them.  But, that’s just the start.  In addition, it takes numerous additionally-cut 3 ½” squares.  What am I?  Nuts for taking on this project?  Yeah, probably so.  But having to make 3 ½” hunter’s stars was a challenge for me.  I normally like to work with big, bold patterns and this one is small (small!).  But, last weekend, I accomplished (crossed the finish line) what I thought would take a lifetime – over 256 little, 3 ½” hunters stars completed. I think this actually took me about 2 years, working off and on.  I admit, I must have gotten overzealous when cutting the last star pieces (probably because I saw the light at the end of the tunnel), and cut a few too many.  Oh well – completed as they are, I’ll use them somewhere. 

Here's the quilt I'm patterning from.  Lots of squares.  But, for me, that's dull, so I'm mixing up the colored squares and free-piecing scraps to add more interest.

So, out of a fabric I bought on-line – and it looked really neat on line, but when I got it, I kind of hated it and set it aside – I now have 256+ star blocks that I smile at every time I look at them.  Funny, when something is cut into little pieces and sewn in a different configuration, something once icky becomes enjoyable.  Lesson learned:  don’t discount those fabrics you don’t like:  cut them up and you may find they take on a new life.  

The original fabric, being cut into 1 1/4" strips to make the stars.  I didn't like this so much to begin with, but cut apart and paired with the white star, I really like the effect.

So, here’s what 256 star blocks look like. 

Staging for keeping track of all the pieces I needed for each star. A block of Styrofoam comes in handy.  

Close up of the 3 1/2" stars.  I liked some of the printing on the edge of the fabric, that I included in the stars.  Gives some clues as to what fabric was used.

And, to complicate the quilt further – instead of cutting all those additional 3 ½” squares to put the block together, I decided to modernize and retro it at the same time by creating the pieces I need out of scraps sewn in wonky ways.  I rather like this treatment as it adds more interest to the quilt.  If I have a path to choose  - one easy and one hard – I’m pretty much taking the “hard way home”.  I’ll get there; it will be slow.  But I enjoy this process and enjoy the excitement that free-sewing can provide.  It’s a bit of freedom that comes along with the process – it’s challenging and fun at the same time. 

This is the finished block.  Each block will look slightly different as I free-piece the colored side of the block.  I'm doing this instead of cutting all those 3 1/2" squares.  I like the effect more as it provides much more interest (at least it does for me).

This the back of the block.  Just for fun.

Have fun in what you enjoy doing.  I think it frees your mind to be even more creative. Linking up with friends this week, after being gone for a while... 

Happy Quilting!

Observations and Musings While Creating

What an interesting several days it has been.  Like other states in the West, Colorado is suffering from wildfires and one of the worst droughts we’ve had since 2012.  I know that sounds like nothing to folks from California who have things much worse than us in Colorado.  Still, the days feel weird because we’re getting all the smoke (and ash) from the wildfires, even though we’re many miles away from them.  The days are unusually hazy, ozone alerts are in effect, you can feel the burning in your lungs and eyes, the sunrises and sunsets are highly colored red, there’s an odd reddish/orange glow to the natural light, and a distinct smoke smell fills the air.  Hot and dry.  I’ve hoped for rain for some time now, but it generally seems to pass us by.  When we do get any, it gets gobbled up by the earth so quickly you can’t even tell it rained.  I’m hoping weather patterns will shift…and soon. In the meantime, I try to appreciate the flame red glow of the circular sun as it sets in the evening.  You can look straight at it and not bother your eyes because the smoke is so heavy; it feels almost like the light of an eclipse.

There is beauty, even in this smokey haze.  And, I guess maybe it teaches us to appreciate different things – or to just learn to develop an appreciation for what comes your way, knowing that, eventually, this too will pass and things will get back into some level of balance.  That’s how I view the pandemic, too, I guess.  There’s a reason for it – the reason, though, hasn’t made itself known. Maybe the reason is within ourselves to learn to develop appreciation for simple things – or get us to start invoking our creativity.  I get a post from one of our local eateries that we frequent – the owner writes the posts himself and ponders a lot of the things going on today.  I find his posts interesting as he and his crew work tirelessly to stay in business – and stay sane, themselves, through all of this, and how they invoke their creativity to stay afloat.

The quilt guild I’m a member of started a “jelly roll” challenge as a fundraiser for the year, since most of the general fundraising activities were curtailed, because, well, you know…  The challenge was to make a quilt using a jelly roll (or 2 ½” strips you cut from your stash).  I decided to invoke my creativity and create something that is made with a jelly roll, not exclusively, but in part, because I wanted to try to create something different. I invoked my creative inspiration (as I often do – being inspired by the likes of Ruth B. McDowell, and others) and drew up a leaf, standing tall.  I knew, when I drew up the pattern, I wanted to use red as the background (I’m not sure why, I just did), and I wanted the leaf to be a prominent strong point – BOLD – in color and stature. So, here’s where my creativity landed me for the last couple of weeks. 

The start of figuring out what fabrics to use...and cutting apart the pattern...

I’m now piecing the “piece” and hoping I can get it completed in time for the fundraiser.  I’m slow in starting, but sometimes seem to work better under pressure of a deadline.  The leaf is made from jelly roll strips – those 2 ½” wide strips that normally I don’t use.  I buy yardage (grunt, grunt), not precut items (we all have our preferences!).  So it was a bit of a challenge for me to figure out how to use 2 ½” strips instead of whole pieces (I may have cheated but they never said the WHOLE quilt had to be made with the strips… Yikes…maybe a technicality…).  I wound up sewing strips together, then cutting out the shapes I needed, which helped create the leaf structure itself, even if in an abstract way.  The piece is about 20” square, so hopefully I can get it done in the next two weeks.  I love using fabric with varying scale, and was able to select all the reds from my stash (they aren’t jelly roll strips).  We’ll see where it goes. I admit, when I look at it, it makes me smile.  Maybe because it is bold – or maybe because it’s a design I created and executed…

More fabric choices made... I just love the red and white contrast to the greens...

Arrgghh...a little yellow on the photo coloring, but you get the idea of where it's headed...

Meanwhile, I finally sandwiched another quilt – a retirement quilt.  I might get it completed for a friend who retired 2 years ago.  (I think I said I could be slow…)  So, it’s on the quilting table and I’ve started on it.  This hot weather will drive me to the basement where it’s cooler, so I’ll be doing some more quilting on it soon.

Pinning always takes a while, but it's ready to go.  I offset the quilt with an applique border on one side.

I noticed on Pam’s blog (Applique Paintbox), that she said the selection of Kamala Harris as the VP candidate with Joe Biden gave her hope.  I am glad to see a woman potentially making it to the White House.  I think our country is long overdue.  I think we’ve been so polarized in this country for far too long.  We need to get back to a place where we can respect each other – maybe not agree all the time – but come to a place in the middle where we can function again – creatively solving issues instead of stagnating.  We just might make it this time.  Time will tell. 

Keep on finding your creative voice.  It’s there – channel it and watch it grow.

Cheers!

Linking up with Nina Marie at Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever

"Do What's Hard"

Stardate 2017.130.01

This was the mantra of Karen McTavish – a renowned quilter from Duluth, Minnesota.  Through the local quilt guild, which I’m a member of, I had the pleasure of hearing Karen speak and display a trunk show during one of our monthly meetings.  Karen is a humorous, colorful, wonderful person and is a great speaker, capturing your interest from start to finish.  She doesn’t look like what we’d think a “quilter” looks like, with her long dreadlocks, tattoos, and heavy-rimmed black glasses.  Her amazing microquilting showcases her interesting spirit and her amazing talent.  She showed many quilts and I was struck by how small she would quilt some of her patterns, and the way she would vary the quilting within the quilt.  She might do one part of a block in straight lines, then mix in some of her more custom quilting (“McTavishing”) in the next part of the same block.  This lent interest and texture to each of the quilts she touched.  Her style is amazing and highly inspiring! Here's a couple shots of her quilting...

Hopefully you can see the quilting detail...very small and quite dense, but really added to the texture of the quilt.

More texture - up close.  She noted to keep the microquilting to the solid fabric areas as it gets lost in the patterned areas...

The next day, I was able to attend a Modern Quilting class which she was teaching.  I took time off of work to attend, and it was well worth the expended vacation day!  Two things she said really stuck with me:

1.      Find one or two quilting designs you really like  and then practice them like crazy – master those designs – do them well, and then use that design in the quilts you quilt.  In essence, you develop your own “signature quilting”. I found that piece of advice interesting.
2.        Secondly, she kept reiterating, “Do what’s hard”.  Meaning to not always take the easy route when it comes to your quilting.  Just as the quilt pattern and colors have an impact on the quilt, so does the quilting.  And the actual quilting can really make a pattern pop!

In that same token she really emphasized looking at the quilt, grasping its character, and quilting accordingly.    For instance, she noted, don’t try to quilt intricate designs in a Kaffe Fasset quilt, in part, because the intricate quilting will never show.  Save the intricate quilting for those negative spaces and spaces where it makes sense.  Once you get to those negative spaces, though, “Do what’s hard” – meaning, make those spaces stand above the crowd.
She’d noted there are no real rules in modern quilting – and so you really can do what you want, but in a controlled way. 

Now, while it doesn’t look like I accomplished much from the class, here’s what I did accomplish, with really only about one start/stop in each square block.  

I experimented with some patterns and they just seemed to flow.  I’d used my domestic machine, so I’ll be extrapolating these techniques to my mid-arm machine as soon as I get time (hopefully soon!). 

I was highly inspired by Karen and her attitude toward quilting.  If you ever get the chance to see her speak, GO!  It’s worth it!

I learned a few things that helped me out in my quilting, so I’ll share them with you.

•      Stitch in the ditch around your block areas you want to quilt, then use that outline to help you determine how you want to quilt the inside of that stitched area.
•      Square off.  Whenever you’re working on doing the detailed stitching, squaring off your design helps make the overall design more cohesive.
•      Use thin thread.  In class, she had us using a 100 weight polyester thread.  That’s thin stuff!   But, when you’re doing a lot of backtracking on the quilting lines, the thinner thread won’t make such a “thick line” out of your backtracked stitches.
•      Match thread color to the area you’re stitching.  Those matching colors hide a multitude of sins.  The eye blends the colors and sees through the thread to the texture you created.
•      Look at the quilt overall to decide on your design, then attack it in small sections.  You know, kind of like “eating an elephant”…

Here’s a couple of examples of patterns I’m trying out for a large star quilt I’m getting ready to quilt.  I’m going to give that micro-quilting a go and see how the quilt turns out.  I have a feeling it may take a lot of thread, but I’m ready to experiment.  If you don’t push yourself outside of your comfort zone, you’ll never know what you’re capable of.

I love how the quilting just flows.  And, with the contrasting stars in the quilt (which are angular), this will really add movement to the overall quilt.

This pattern will be for the center of the star blocks.  You can see my "I don't like this" part of the discovery of how to quilt the center part...then I landed on larger leaf-like structures with a bit of echo quilting around them.

A shout out to my sister for taking photos of some of the quilts with her phone (my phone camera stinks!).  She got some great shots of the quilting!!

Linking up this week with folks at Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, Finished or Not Fridays @ Busy Hands Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Happy Quilting!!

Happiness in Bubbles

Stardate 2017.67.1

Finally…a breather.  Work being a bear, is finally taking some level of hibernation, and so, I get to come to the surface for air and chat about some of the quilting I’ve managed to do in what little spare time there has been.  Funny how time flies…when you start a project then actually get it nearer to completion (notice, I said, “nearer to completion”…there’s still more to do), how excited you can get over seeing the small moments you have to work on the project actually start to add up and you have a quilt ready for the next phase.

Here's the finished quilt top...all getting ready to be sandwiched and quilted...

I think about 2 years has passed, and over 1500 pieces cut apart and sewn back together has now materialized in the bubble quilt I adored when I saw it in the magazine.  I spent a fair amount of time just gathering fabrics that I could use in the quilt.  The hardest color to gather was pink.  I think I’m just not a pink person.  But, I thought the pink would lend a nice spark to the quilt overall.

On the design board...ready to sew together. 

For a while I was thinking this was a new pattern, and then one day while thumbing through books at a local thrift store, I found a quilting book with the exact same pattern (I didn’t buy the book.  Yep…I don’t know what I was thinking, either…).  I now know the pattern name is “Offset Log Cabin”, and of course, depending on how you set the individual “logs” together, you can end up with the bubble quilt I’ve assembled.

Mine is a bit brighter than the version in the magazine and I included additional colors, but I love the energy the quilt has and just the pure smile it puts on the face when looking at it. 

I learned a few things on this one while piecing it.  I’d use a styrofoam  block -  which came as packing in some large item – as a staging area.  I’d cut all the pieces for a 9” block and place them in sewing order, then they’d be ready for stitching together when I had time.  And the styrofoam kept the wind from blowing the pieces around when I left the window open…now, that was helpful!

Here's my staging area...cut pieces, all ready to be sewn together.

The next step now will be deciding how to quilt it.  I have thought of taking it to a longarm quilter and just get it quilted, but with all my quilts, I have a deep desire to quilt them myself so I can enjoy that part of the process as well.  Right now, I’m thinking modern feathers in the white/negative spaces…and for the bubbles…not really sure yet what I’ll do there.

It’ll be a bit before I get this bright spot quilted as I have just sandwiched a quilt to start doing all that fun stitching on, plus I need to find some backing fabric.  I just had to share, though, as the quilt feels nice and bright like Spring.  Until then, I hope you have fun discoveries in your quilting adventures.  

Linking up with folks this week...Have a great quilting week!

When the Seasons Change…

Stardate 2016.293.1

Autumn has certainly arrived here in Colorado.  The colorful splendor know in the state has eeked its way, quietly, into the metro area and is now showing off its stunning plume of golds, reds, and oranges  backed against the brilliant Colorado blue sky.  Truly, if you don't stop and soak it in, you will miss it. In our hustle and bustle world, it's easy to overlook the colors and take what Autumn is offering for granted.  But, as I found myself coming home after a trip to a local quilt guild show, I found  myself soaking in the colors of the sunny drive, listening to Rush, while following a 1966 Ford Mustang GT-350 Shelby down the road.  Aahhh....what could be finer?  I'm not sure....

The aspen showing off near Kenosha Pass in central Colorado.

So wonderful the colors that it's inspired me to make a quilt to capture the bountiful diversity that Autumn has to offer.  I have ideas in my head...as usual, it might be a while until I get those ideas down into a quilt, but rest assured, the ideas will nag at me until I do something with them.

What a blue sky with the fabulous yellow contrast.  This is why I love living in this state!

Meanwhile, I have to share a few items from the Longmont Quilt Guild show.  Lots of beautiful quilts, but a few stuck out as I perused the assembly.  Let me first say that I like quilts with motion; quilts that make your eye keep looking around.  So, that probably influences the patterns that strike a chord. 

Here's a modern-style quilt that has a lot of curves…and I like curves; I find them challenging.  I think this is one I may try to make for myself sometime. 

This one I found interesting as it had a lot of origami-style blocks with folded fabric.  A very simply-colored quilt with just yellow and white, but quite unique in the way each of the blocks was constructed.  Cool concepts…

And, I found a great example of “graffiti quilting”.  This quilt, the maker noted, was just waiting to be quilted, and she found it a great canvas to just have fun with the quilting.  She did a great job on it – the quilting was really cool!

And one of my favorites of the whole show – the dragonflies.  I loved this quilt.  The movement in it was amazing, and what the photo kind of doesn’t show is that these are Kaffee Fasset fabrics which have been “silvered” with a fabric paint and it gave the quilt an iridescent glow.  Plus, I loved the flow of the quilting…just amazing and inspiring for me.

Hopefully work will slow down and allow me a few days off so I can spend some more time quilting.  I’m making slow progress on various quilts, but nothing monumental to show.  Hope you enjoyed seeing what others are doing…and hope you’re finding inspiration and finding time to quilt.

I'll be linking up with friends and Myra over at Busy Hands Quilts later this week...

Cheers!

Scrap-tastic!

Stardate 2016.259.01

Sometimes we all need a bit of a break, even from the things we love to do.  After being so focused for the first 8-months of the year, trying to get quilts done for various deadlines, I think I just needed to have some down time.  Seems a common theme, as I’ve read others’ blogs.  My “break” came in the form of taking a trip for a relative’s wedding.  Now, while I spent much of my vacation helping out with the wedding, it was time spent away from feeling that I had another quilting deadline to meet.  That break helped my brain calm down and re-focus on some of the various projects that I’d put on hold.  When I came back to my quilting, I found myself finding a happy place again. 

Finally I’ve been able to get time in to play, an oh what a smile it put on my face.

Being inspired by the likes of Victoria Findlay Wolfe and her suggestion that we spend 15-minutes “playing” by just piecing scraps together got me to start working on this fun-filled 6-pointed star.

One scrappy star which I'm currently auditioning background fabrics to use.  (This just makes me smile!)

Now, while the technique really is not really new, it does let the mind just relax and produces some fun combinations.  I have antique quilts  - one of my aunt’s and one from my husband’s grandparents – which both used the sewing together of scraps to make larger pieces of which to cut shapes to make into a quilt block.  So, here’s how I created the scrappy pieces…

Start with a bag of scraps, and pick out any scrap you like.  I grabbed this red triangle…that’s my start.

Then, I grabbed this fun black-and-white fabric that would easily combine with the red scrap.  Sew one side, then press. (I used a standard 1/4" seam) 

Go back into your scraps and pick another…and stitch away.  Each time, it helps to set the seam with the iron, then press the fabric to one side.

I gave this a quick audition and I liked it, so I attached the hot pink scrap to the red & black scrap pieces.

Trim off the seam to be a ¼” seam.  Now, just keep on going until you have enough scraps sewn together to cut a piece for the block. My tip is this - don't spend too much time "auditioning" scraps to use; the more spontaneous, the better.

Just tidying up the seam allowance to the 1/4" standard.  

If you happen to get a wonky edge, then just create yourself a straight line by trimming the piece were necessary.   That’s what I did here.  I had an L-shape and I just cut off a chunk to eliminate the L-shape.

I had a wonky edge where the red scrap and the retro scrap came together in almost an "L" shape.
So, I lopped off the pieces to give me a straight edge to add a new scrap to.  

I had enough scraps sewn together to cut the block piece.  In this, I’m cutting a 5 ½” diamond using Jaybird’s quilt ruler (that makes it really easy).   While you are working on positioning the ruler on the scrappy fabric before cutting, be aware of where the points land; you want the points not to land directly on a seam.  So, take your time and just be aware of where you are placing the ruler, before you cut.  Kind of like the old adage, “Measure twice, cut once”. 

You can see where I sewed the pink scrap to the wonky edge which I cut (above).
Now, I have a large enough piece of fabric, so I can cut the piece I want for my star.

Once you have the diamond cut, you’re one-sixth of the way there.  Now, keep on going…

So, here's one-sixth of the next star that I'll assemble.
This is so fun and spontaneous that you just don't know how it's going to turn out. 

I’ll work on getting the star sewn together, but, I’m still trying to decide if I want a patterned background or not.  I’m leaning towards “not”, because I don’t want the block to become too busy, and if I use a solid background, the emphasis really focuses on the scrappy stars.  We’ll see where I land.

I’m having so much fun with this technique.  One piece of advice – and why I understand Victoria says to just take 15 minutes to play – seriously, after 15 minutes, your spontaneity fades and you find yourself naturally trying to “match” fabrics.  By just playing for 15 minutes or so, you focus less on that need to match fabrics and you actually wind up with something very spontaneous and energetic.  

Hope you try this sometime...and have as much fun as I'm having.

Linking up with friends at the various link parties on the right.

Keep Calm and Quilt On 

A Finish - Quilts for Pulse

Stardate 2016.236.1

I finally finished my contribution for the Pulse victims.  It’s an unexpected journey for me.  It started with Spoonflower– the “print your own designs on fabric” website and a challenge by our local quilt museum about political quilts which I was going to try to make a quilt to enter.  The creative mind is an odd thing, though.  I stewed on an idea for the politically-themed quilt.  I even had some fabric printed to go into that politically-themed quilt.  Here it is – words of peace and harmony.  

 

The fabric I designed, originally for a politically-themed quilt...

While my brain came up with an idea, my creative mind just didn’t feel energized enough to actually start the quilt.  So, my idea lay dormant, and the fabric I’d printed up specifically for the politically-themed quilt went into the “stash”, to hang out with the other misfit toys. 

Maybe it’s my disdain for the political system these days that drove me to not want to make a quilt that reflected my political ideas, or maybe, I feel like showing support for those folks who lost loved ones in the Pulse shootings might have a bigger impact in someone’s life than a politically-themed quilt would. 

So, when the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild put out a call for quilts, I felt compelled to respond.  In part, I guess you could say making this quilt is a bit of a political quilt as it expresses my thoughts for the tragic and senseless violence which some folks in our country think is acceptable.  It’s not.  And, I think that kindness, love, and peace can prevail.  And it seems the outpouring of quilts from quilters (I heard there’s about 400+ quilts already) shows that others might think the same.  

 

Some of the words I quilted into the quilt...peace, love, & hope...

And, a lot of this quilt just came so easily – as if I was meant to make it – and someone was meant to receive it.  The pattern for the heart just came to me so quickly that I drafted the pattern in an evening. I quilted them all with modified feathers.

Seven hearts – one for each day of the week to let the recipient know he/she is surrounded by love and caring every day.  And the idea to surround the hearts with a string quilt pattern just seemed to make sense.  And the quilt squared so easily and quickly.  It’s the fastest I’ve ever made a quilt, too. The fact that this quilt came together so quickly leads me to believe there’s something else driving the process.  But, I digress…

 

So, the fabric I created to make a political quilt, still kind of did, but I think the quilt that came out of this will hopefully let one of the victims – or victims' family – know that love can prevail, and that there are good, caring people out there, and that we won’t forget what happened.

Some of the quilting I did in the border.  One side had these flourishes; the other side has words of encouragement.

So, off it goes to Orlando.  I wish it well, and hope the recipient will enjoy it and know that people do care.

 

Linking up with Lorna @ SewFreshQuilts...