CQG Spiderweb Quilt

We're almost ready to baste -- although I've since changed my mind about one or two things as you'll see as you read.

Summertime means spotty attendance from our local crew, so it's taken us a very long time to get from our piles of strips to a finished top -- but we've made it at last!

Because our initial math was wrong (my fault), we've added borders rather than making approximately 44 more triangles. Initially, the borders were going to be scrappy.

Then just the top and bottom would be scrappy with this on the side. (Isn't it nice!)

Then the top fought and fought laying straight, so I chopped it off and went with borders on 3 sides:

You can see where this is going... another group member is picking off the strip border and we're going to go with the other border all around. So much for all those extra strips, but it's the right thing to do.

I'm looking forward to quilting this -- once we get it basted. I've got a couple of ideas, although I'm not sure it'll fit well through my machine. I'm also tempted to send it out or rent some time at a local shop instead... We'll see.

The Prayer Quilt -- Update

I'm still waiting to receive blocks back -- in fact, I'm fairly certain I will get most of them when I drive to another state for a birthday party (assuming I get the car fixed enough to do just that) -- but I have a whole pile of options ready to go. I've been making blocks like there's no tomorrow.

Honestly, I love foundation paper piecing. It's easy to interrupt. It's usually small. It's quickly rewarding -- at least with the pieces I take on. And now that I've started, I don't want to stop.

 A fox, from my husband to the niece.

 A sloth, from my kid to his cousin.

  A pig, probably from me to the niece.

A snail, not paper pieced, not perfect, but I still really want to include it.

A bird, which I thought was from the kiddo, but he chose the 'bubbles' (which based off pointing, was the sloth). So this one is unclaimed too, but sitting in the pile to see if it is needed to help balance out the top.

A penguin. Also unclaimed. But how cute!!

A semi-pirate-ical looking cat, from my cat to the niece (why not?).

A moose block (needing some hand work still) from one aunt and uncle to the niece.

I'm having a blast. Do they work with the sashing fabric? Ummm... probably not. I think I might have to add a white border around each block before the pink gingham.

Can't wait to get more. Or make more. But I'm trying to make myself work on other things instead.

Update: Turns out, even though no one has contacted me, no one else has finished at all. They are thinking they'll each be finished with their single block in time for me to give this as a Christmas gift. Are they aware that Christmas this year is happening at Thanksgiving? Who knows. But I guess I might as well shelve this one for a while. End of Update

Confetti and Blogging Behind

I'm fighting to get things onto the blog these days. Not only because my progress tends to happen one block per day or slower, but it's taking me multiple days to get the pictures from my phone to my computer (and for whatever reason, I can't blog from my phone). That's making Instagram (my latest social media join, what can I say, I'm slow to take on new things) the easier place to update. I'm not giving up on here -- I like being able to type so much, more for journal reasons than anything else -- but I'm afraid it is increasingly behind.

Here's an attempt at catching up:

I've been working on this for a few months, one and off as I'd like. Mostly not working on it. But I pulled it out again recently and thought I would get it working again. I started building blocks and thought I was happy with it.

Until I tried it on a design wall.

Not quite what I wanted at all. Interesting how the change in lighting -- and surface background -- can change how things look and feel.

I sat on it for a couple days, debating solutions and taking opinions. Most opinions suggested adding a darker border between the existing blocks. My gut said I needed to chop up the existing blocks -- that each pop of color was too big.

I took a two prong approach to solving my problem: I chopped them up and added some low volume borders -- low volume that is more 'medium' compared to the white and white-on-white I'd been using thus far.

It's hard to see the majority of the low volume additions, but I promise they are there -- and that it has made a huge difference.  Not quite every block got an addition, and some got 2 or 3, which makes it easier to begin thinking about turning my newly-small blocks back into bigger blocks.

The boldest low-volume additions include gold metalics, and two of them additions are more 'cream,' but my favorite ones are white with cream -- although they are significantly harder to see in these pictures.

I'm debating whether this will be a wall hanging in the kiddo's room, or whether it will hang on my design wall area when nothing else is. I think by the time it is put together, it will be too small for a baby quilt. I do have more low volume whites and white fabrics, so I could add a little bit of a border around the outside if it's close to baby quilt sized by the time I'm done.

Truthfully, I'm just playing, and enjoying the break from using my brain too much. Even if that sometimes leads to me needing to use my brain more. I've got a lot of work ahead of me to begin piecing these little blocks into larger and larger blocks, but that's the kind of work I love.

CQG Spider Web Quilt -- Day 5 and 6

Day 5:
I know we had some people feeling a little disheartened over how long we've been working on this quilt.

Except, I think this was only our 5th or 6th day of working on it, and at 2-ish hours a meeting, we're actually doing really well. Especially when one of those meetings was only 2 people, and almost everyone is making summer vacation plans to miss other dates before it's finished.

I have enough triangles cut to make one or two more rows of blocks. If I have enough for 2 additional rows, we'll have an extra long twin. (The goal was a full, but I think morale is low enough we'll call it good at a twin...) If I only have enough for one row, I think I'll finish it out with some strip pieces for a header or footer. I'm tempted to border it out all the way around to get a full, but I have enough on my plate I'm not sure that's the wisest course of action.

Truthfully, we are making good progress -- just everyone is tired of it.

I think our next project might need to be something really fast. Maybe disappearing nine-patch blocks in large sizes, or a large paper piece pattern?

It is tiring to work on the same thing twice a month for four months...


Day 6:

In theory, we are done with triangles.

In practice, I think it needs more.

What we have now will cover the top of a twin mattress -- but there's no wrapability in it. That's not what we want.

I can (and probably will) add some borders from the strips we over-cut. But I'm thinking another row and another column of triangle blocks would be nice. That's... a lot to take on by myself in the next couple weeks, but I think it's the right thing to do.

I'm sure the rest of the group would pitch in if I asked, but I'm also sure they'd rather work on piecing the rest of the top.

The Standstill...

Well, first up, the good news.

I made another paper pieced block using a little more orange. I'm not in love with it, but it is a nice one to have on hand in case I need an additional block.

Bluebird pattern by Liljabs via Craftsy

It's a little odd where the head and neck attach; I didn't catch the way it misaligned in time to easily fix it, and I'm not going back now. The 'missing' background piece is there, but mostly hidden in the seam allowance. I thought I put it on properly, but obviously there was an issue. I had removed it once and "fixed" it after an earlier error there (brown instead of background!) so I know this is user error rather than pattern error.

I'd been watching and waiting for another pattern to go up for sale on Craftsy, so I pounced and thought I'd whip it out as my 'last block' before I made myself sit down and baste that other quilt!

This is where it starts being the bad news part.

Firstly, pop over and take a look at what The Cat's Meow pattern should / could look like.

Do not rely on my pictures, because I've made mistake after mistake -- and several changes. I do not recommend doing any of what I've done.

Okay, did you look at it? Such a cool pattern, right!? I love it.

Well, of course I need a smaller block than this finishes at... so I printed it at a 75% scale. Not a great choice. It's not impossible, but not ideal.

I adore that Kate (the pattern maker) included a 'coloring' page that helps plot out what your cat will look like. It was a fun way to begin, and a good way to start planning.

Unfortunately, I really wanted to work with scrap fabrics instead of pulling things from a pile someone else curated. You know, because occasionally I like to challenge myself to take on my weaknesses. This was probably not a good project for me to take on that challenge. It was certainly not a good 'pull' of fabrics.

Here's the first half of the cat and my coloring page:

You might have already noticed my issue. I didn't.

Okay, there are a number of issues -- namely my poor choices of background fabrics and the lack of contrast between the background and the ear fabric -- but the big one is staring right at us. And I missed it. For about a week.

And here's about where I realized my issue. I made the first eye completely wrong! I inverted some of the colors, giving the cat a blue/green pupil in a black eye and black patch, rather than a black pupil, blue/green eye, and black patch! Ooooh, I was so furious with myself for not realizing it.

After properly finishing up the second half of the cat, I started pulling apart the first half to get back to the first eye. I must fix it.

I've only got a little more ripping to do, part of the seam between the orange patch and the eye, then disconnecting the eye from the remainder of the black (streaky) patch. I'll then re-do both the eye (one section) and the tiny black and white section nearest to it -- not because there's an issue with the second section, but because I don't think I can remove it in a salvageable piece. Also, I'd rather remake than continue to seam rip... Honestly, I very nearly just remade the entire first half rather than pick it all apart. But, I'm hopeful I can get this apart, fixed, and back together.

I just don't want to pick again.

But if I'm not picking, I'd better be basting.

Uuuuugh.

Thus, the standstill.

Quilting Practice

Getting this thing basted took me long enough that I didn't want to set any rules for getting it quilted. That might not be the best approach, but I learned a lot while I was working on it! And sometimes, I think it is good to have 'learning experience' projects instead of 'this needs to be good' projects...

The biggest lesson: I'm not sure I'm done quilting it...

I knew that I wasn't keeping the amount of quilting the same throughout the piece. I thought that wouldn't be an issue, even though I know that the 'rules' say that you should try to keep the quilting fairly similar throughout. Some of the 'lighter' blocks are okay, others are screaming out for more. The 'heaviest' block is almost too heavy, especially compared to everything else.

My quilting in this lovely green square is fairly heavy, for all that I was 'doodling' and had no plan for what I was doing! I kind of echoed the triangles, then got a little crazy filling in the rest of the open space. I started in this field, and quickly realized I didn't want to go that heavily throughout the rest of the quilt. I'd never finish at that rate! I wish I'd started elsewhere and saved this one for last -- it might have had a better concept for how much I wanted to do...

Meanwhile, the large block just over that is very lightly quilted, and I suspect needs a little more... My initial goal was to practice curves by going around those circles, but when my sewing machine light went out, it got even harder to copy. I added in some straight lines to help hold the fabric in place while I looped around, but when the light burned out, I tried to call that good enough.

It's not good enough. I really think I'll be working on this area again once I've got my machine working properly again (light replaced among other things). I might even break out my back up machine and work on it between now and then. The loops aren't looking too pretty, but I have lots of chances to be practicing on it and I would like to be more comfortable with this kind of quilting pattern. (This is another area where I struggle with the feed dog issue -- I tried dropping mine again, since the machine needs to go to the shop anyway, why not!? That was worse. Much worse. But using the feed dogs was a challenge too. Would a walking foot help here? I'm supposed to be ordering one, but have put it off trying to decide between a walking foot and a darning / free motion type foot.)

I aimed for a middle of the road amount of quilting in the two blue rectangles -- and I should have gone heavier. I also should have basted more carefully (apparently). I had pinned these blocks about every 2 inches, but it clearly wasn't enough -- as you can see in both, there's pulling and puckering all over those blocks! The central cheater block was traced stitch in the ditch style and looks good in person, for all that it's lightly quilted.

You can see the quilting a little better on the back, for all that it's quite busy fabrics! This is the back over the two large blue fields and the cheater block. I love the way the cheater one turned out!

Each of the little blocks was quilted differently, some better than others...

The pictured two are my favorites. Some of the others are... less lovely. But I'm not picking the quilting out. This is just a picnic / sleeping bag / camping kind of quilt; it's okay if it is less than lovely. It will help me feel good about it getting used -- and the practice and freedom to totally screw up parts of it have been good for my quilting skills.

I squared it up already, which meant losing some of the grey border from around the green field (sad moment, I really wanted to keep that), and it's really ready to bind -- except that the more I look at it the more I think I've got to go back to the largest field (top left) and work on some more of those circles. The blue fields would benefit from some pebble quilting if I could do that (unlikely to happen without free motion working properly!), but I might be able to convince myself to leave them alone. I haven't done anything in the light grey border around the cheater block, but if I'm putting this one back through the machine, I might come back to it too. All the borders are fairly simply quilted (a line or two) and could benefit from more work too.

I know there comes a point where you can over work a project, but I think this one needs just a little bit more. Then again, I also feel like I'm on a short time line with that other project, so this one might have to get a 'good enough' pass for now and come back after some use...

CQG Spider Web Quilt -- Day 1 & 2

Our Dresden Plate quilt is being quilted right now -- which honestly puts it months above where I expected! -- and we've started in on our next challenge. 

I've been wanting to make another spider web quilt for years, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Our strips are already cut into various widths and lengths, and we're using up some of the leftover white background fabric from the Dresden Plate quilt, so it is an effortless beginning. 

I'm going to try chain piecing 3 or 4 strips at a time on Day 2 and see if that speeds up the process. Since both our meetings for April are at the beginning of the month, I'd like to make some serious progress on Day 2 or this one will threaten to drag on for months.

***           ***

Day 2

As always, the second day on a pattern went much more smoothly, even with several people who were on their first day. We went from 5 or 6 triangles to 24 completed triangles, and several more went home with people to be worked on over time.

In fact, it went so well that we're forced to face a new issue -- we might not have enough strips cut! We'll have to check through the official stash for the rest of this pull, but at least two of us are checking on our personal stashes to see if we can come up with more coordinating fabric!

I've pieced some of the triangles together into squares (11.5 inch square, trimmed), but not all of them. I've been trying to keep up so far, but now that we're considering adding other coordinating fabrics, I want to hold off so they can be well mixed in when the top is pieced.

This feels like a good start -- but we've certainly got a long ways to go!

Here's hoping we can make at least 20 more at next meeting!

CQG Dresden Days -- Day 3

We had a marvelous meet last night. Although not everyone was able to make it, we were able to make a huge amount of progress on our Dresden Plate quilt.

We split up the remaining tasks last night, so while some people worked on cutting sashing, others were making the binding, working on the few remaining blocks, and beginning to piece together the top.

I finished up my last plate block -- which means we're just waiting on two more to make it back to group. I struggled more this time around than ever before -- but it eventually worked out!

By the end of the night, the back was partially made, binding ready for use, and the top is nearly completed!

How great does it look!? For fabrics that were no one's favorites, the result is looking amazing so far!

There's one more row of 3 plate blocks to attach, and there will be borders added to the two long sides of the top.

The goal for next meet up is to finish the top and get started on basting. If we're really with it, it would be idea to start quilting.

Since I was waiting to get a photo of the top at the end of the night, I even had a few minutes to work on a project of my own. Welcome first photo of my Ombre quilt project!

It's not much to see yet, but I'll be working on cutting these blocks into something prettier over the next few days and hope to be back with an update soon!

We also had a little unofficial vote and chose the next group project -- something I'm super excited to get started on too! I'd call that a great night!

CQG Dresden Days -- Day 2

Since I was doing parenting duty as well as quilting duty at the last meeting, I don't have an updated picture from the end of the meeting. But I took a photo of the beginning of the meeting -- 6 Dresden Plate blocks resting on one of the fabrics we'll be using for the sash and possibly for the borders.

I think this denim-like fabric is going to be a great contrast for the plates. It also helps tone down the orange/rust colors a little.

Although I had to leave at the halfway point, if the rest of the group was able to complete their blocks, at our next meeting we'll only have 2 additional blocks to finish!

So, hopefully we'll be able to split our attention into finishing the blocks, starting on the sash, and maybe making the backing.

March is a challenging month for meeting -- working around spring break and baby showers -- but hopefully we can be quilting on this by April!

Throw Back

Google Assistant just popped up to remind me of what I was doing three years ago today. 

That seems like a life - time ago --- and I suppose as a mother of a 1.5 year old, it kind of is!

Although just about everything else in the picture has left my house, the chair and my very favorite star burst block are still here and still together.

I'm not sure how long that will be the case though.

This chair has gone from being my sewing and computer chair to sitting at the kitchen table.

It's by far the prettiest one there. One of the others badly needs recovered, while the other is all wood (and holds a constantly sticky high chair). I don't mind that the three don't match.

But knowing that one needs recovered, it is tempting to make the two covers match a little more. Then again, the above chair isn't the sturdiest, so it might end up being replaced -- in which case I'm keeping the cover (though what I'll do with it is a mystery).

Seeing how much cleaning the kiddo's chair needs daily, I'm tempted to at least replace both other seat covers with something easier to clean than cloth.

I don't know if it's a new year thing, a spring cleaning thing, a parent to a toddler thing, or something else entirely, but it's time to simplify again.

The kitchen is getting a major redo, the organization is shifting into high gear, and I'm about to start another heavy duty purge of the house to get rid of things I'm just hanging on to for no real reason.

With the kitchen in disarray right now, it's easy to begin a list of things I expect will be leaving soon. The master closet / storage area is going to be tackled in the next month or two. And I suspect we're going to completely rearrange the living room / office -- which will be another great change to go through everything.

I'm also picking away on a new little project. Because it's more fun to sew than baste. And more fun to sew than organize (sometimes). It's not quite going as I'd hoped, so not pictures of the real deal yet, but it is nice to have a little project I can interrupt a dozen or more times a block without getting completely off track.

CQG Dresden Days: Day 1

This month, and honestly, for the next couple months since we're lucky to meet 5 hours a month, my local quilting group is working on a Dresden Plate quilt. 

After picking fabric and cutting over 300 blades, last night was our first chance to sit down and work on piecing. Following a very simplified tutorial based on the amazing and picture heavy tutorial by Amy Gibson at StitcheryDickeryDock, the four of us who braved the ice were able to make five Dresden Plates in about two hours. Four of the five are completely appliqued to our background fabrics, and the fifth is partly done. 

Considering we previously had little to no experience with Dresden Plates or applique, I think that's great progress. 

Only about ten more blocks to go. The goal is to sash our 15 blocks into a twin size quilt. That part should be fairly easy. Quilting it all -- including some kind of pattern on the petals of each plate -- on domestic machines will be the challenging part... but we'll face that bridge when we get there! 

Chaos... in a good way?

I bought the solid white fabric I needed. But I couldn't bring myself to purchase solid browns to go with my scrappy top. The fabrics were wrong, and frankly, the thought of buying fabric I didn't absolutely have to went so against my 'buy less' plan that I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

That said, what I did instead might have been a big mistake.

I have bolts of yardage purchased when a fabric store was relocating. And several of those bolts are mostly brown -- so it seemed like a win-win. Use fabric I already have, spend less, still accomplish the goals all around.

I didn't figure on how loud dots can be.

I fought wind and snow to get this much of a photo, so it's going to have to do.

And truthfully, I think it looks better in the photo than it did in my mind's eye... so maybe it isn't quite as bad as I thought... But in person, I'm afraid it's a bit overwhelming.

The brown dot on white is printed at a bit of a slant, so if the fabric is straight, the print isn't. That makes working with it in large pieces an extra challenge.

In person, I'd have said the brown/white was okay and the brown/orange was not. In these photos, I kind of feel the other way...

And there's a lot of the dotty fabrics -- though of course I could cut it down a little. I probably will. I was aiming for a generous baby size, and wound up with about a twin! Since I'd like the scraps to go back to being the focus, cutting it down might be the 'right' choice. But, I'm going to let it percolate a while before I decide.



Obviously my mind was not on my work. But I'm going to let it rest for a few days and perhaps I will like it better next time I look at it.

Where was my mind? Somewhere between a toddler who desperately wants to be outside and does not understand the concept of 'too cold' and the kitchen re-do project. I did the math last night and I'm removing about 11 cabinets and putting in 3 (1 base, 1 upper, 1 pantry). I'll eventually also put in some other 'pantry' style storage, a small island on wheels, and a china hutch type piece.

It feels like a whole lot is going out -- and it is -- but I really think we're going to gain a lot more usability. We're losing 6 drawers -- but 2 of them used to fall out and crush toes, and 1 hasn't worked right since we got the new stove. Three of the cabinets were corner pieces accessible only through other cabinets or from the living room instead of the kitchen. Hopefully we're correcting a lot of issues... but it's a lot of work and a lot of guesswork right now!

Prepping for Dresden Plates

Starting on Sunday, my local quilting group is going to be taking on Dresden Plate blocks. 

At our last meeting, I don't think any of us had made a Dresden Plate before.

About one hour of sewing time later, I've made one.

I made it to the same scale as our plans for the group, so hopefully this practice will pay off when it comes time to make the blocks in February.

I've always held off on Dresden Plate blocks for several reasons.

They seem so traditional / granny-style.  -- Except, it's all in the fabric choices, isn't it? I can't say much for the choices I made today, this was about pieces I didn't mind losing if the practice didn't go well...

Applique? Yikes! -- Except, it was actually really easy.

Time consuming. -- Except, no more than any other new block. And while it won't get too much faster with practice, an hour for a 16 inch square block is not that bad... I couldn't do a precise log cabin of this size that quickly -- though a wonky log cabin of this size might not be out of reach...

But I'm not afraid any more. Dresden Plates, bring it on!

Here's to choosing fabrics and cutting petals on Sunday, and starting the blocks in February!

Playing with Layouts

Truthfully, I've never thought of myself as someone who likes scrappy, chaotic quilts. I'm usually attracted to the more perfect, the more specific. If I'm picking a pattern or purchasing a quilt, that's what I want.

But nothing makes me happier than the absolute puzzle of fitting together totally unmatched, strange sized blocks -- either with each other or adding in lots of excess background.

I had a blast doing that in 2015 when my group made a wonky star quilt. Starting with something more or less like this group of blocks:

 And turning it into a quilt that looked like this:

It's the most strange, freeing yet precise puzzle I have ever done. And I utterly love it.

So, you know I'm having a blast doing it again with my current scrappy quilt.

After looking at the pictures from the other day, I did decide to move the dark brown zig zag quilt into the approximate center of the quilt, and I am more or less working out from there. Right now, it looks kind of like this:

There are a couple of 'blanks' that still need filled (bottom center is most noticeable) but I think it's coming together nicely.

For me, putting this all together is mostly about putting together blocks into bigger and bigger blocks, all while keeping the seams as square and easy as possible. So, I'm going from a couple dozen small blocks in random sizes towards the eventually goal of three super blocks (a left, center, and right) that should go together into a full top in 2 quick seams.

That's the plan anyway.

Right now, the right column super block is in 3 large blocks, and the center column super block is done except the blank spot, which will be built from any trimmings I have left when the left super block is completed (there's some overlap you can't see in the photo, so I know there's some excess). I haven't started putting the left column together yet -- though I know the order and have a plan.

All that said, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to need a bottom row super block (although it could go on top too). I'll have to see how the 'top' measures when I'm finished with the 3 column super blocks, but the quilt is shrinking faster than I anticipated (seam allowances).

I could also just add a solid colored border to size it up. I have been drooling over this all-grey scrappy quilt with a solid border addition (Lauren Hawley, via Pinterest). I'm not sure it would be nearly as appealing with so many colors.

Obviously just a quick mock-up. I kind of like it in the browns (because brown? because tones of a single color? because it goes with the center block?), but it's not quite as appealing as the inspiration.

Well, no reason to get too stressed yet -- we'll just have to see what happens when what I have is finished and how the size turns out. But the more I look at the brown one there, the more I like it.

I'm headed into a short week -- and really need to focus on a different quilt right now -- so I'm thinking this one should take a back seat for a while. But I'm not sure it will. It's still a good size to pull out and work on over breakfast and the few little breaks I get. Basting, not so much. But once I get that basted, I can quilt it in the same times and spaces, so... decisions, decisions!

But it feels really, really good to be back at the machine. Hopefully this suggests 2017 will be a more creative year than 2016.

Whoops

You know what that means...

Yep, even though it is the last thing I really need, I started a new project.

I can justify it all I want -- it's all scraps, I'm using up stuff that was taking room in my storage, it's going so fast, I couldn't have worked on any of the others anyway -- but while those are all true, it really boils down to this: I needed something a little more brainless.

I've got great projects going on. I really do want to be working on them. Even if basting is the worst.

But everything else I'm working on -- or working towards -- requires a lot of attention to detail. Measure twice, press once, measure again, then cut or sew. That's great for a more perfect outcome.

But right now, I need something messy and fast and just plain fun.

So, I'm scrap busting. I'm sewing fast. I'm not even looking at colors or patterns -- only sizes.

I pulled 4 orphaned blocks I've had for 5+ years out of storage, then pulled all the greens, blues, yellows, and a few creams and oranges from my 'too big to be a scrap but too small to be really useful' pile (does anyone else have one of those?). Then, I just matched scraps together in increasingly bigger blocks.

When I took a break because I needed to iron -- and the ironing board was in with the sleeping baby (technically not a toddler for a couple more weeks) -- I whipped out a quick draft layout to see how my progress looked:

There are still a few blank spots to fill in, and the layout will almost certainly change as I keep working, but, it's fun and a little wild, and I kind of love it. You can easily pick out 3 of the 4 blocks, but I think the 4th blends right in (left most, approximate middle). The dark brown zigs stand out, but not as much as I thought they would. I might move them more towards the center -- if they can't be disguised, might as well feature them! -- but I might not. I might keep on with my 'don't look, don't think' plan. 

Of course, I've had help. Any moment the baby is away, the help comes out of hiding: 

His nap on the creams and yellows might have led to the color choices so far, but I'm not too worried about it. I've honestly not paid any attention to that yet, and I don't intend to. I need a total vacation from thinking -- or over-thinking -- and this is it. It might not look great (although, I actually kind dig it) but I feel great, and that's what really matters right now.

Back at the Machine (for now)

It's been a long time since I've really had a chance to sit down and do a long haul at my machine. My lovely husband got an afternoon off recently and took the baby toddler out for a couple hours so I could actually work on something. We've tried letting them play in the other room while I work on quilting or sewing, but the toddler comes running the moment he hears the machine whirring. He likes to sit on my lap while I try to sew -- which is challenging at best and impossible at other times. 

During my time off, I made a quick patchwork flannel back for my scrappy x-plus quilt. 

And I even managed to get it basted! That's usually where I bog down these days, so even though I wanted to do something more fun, I pushed myself through. Pin basting is just not my favorite -- and I have yet to find a replacement that is any better!

I'm going to try to get through this one as quickly as I can. Yes, "quickly as I can" is not the recipe for a beloved quilt. But, as much as I do like this one, I think we missed 'beloved' quite a while ago. I seem to have that moment with almost all my quilts though, so maybe after quilting and/or washing, I'll feel differently.

I hope so. I like to love all my projects.

Can't wait to see how it looks when I'm done!


Later:

Well, it doesn't look much changed yet -- though I love the way the perfect binding really sets off a quilt top!

I was able to do almost all of three sides in the same brown (leftover) binding, and finished up with two more scraps of brown binding. I had envisioned using black and white -- but there's no black in the whole quilt top! With brown already playing a prominent roll in the top, and just enough brown bias tape left over, it seemed like the perfect solution!

The back is comprised of three different yellow flannels and a tiny patch of dark green flannel. I'm a little worried about the shrinkage when it gets washed... At the moment it is only quilted in one direction (lines between the blocks and a line on either side of the center of the plus). I had intended to quilt the same in both directions, but obviously I didn't. It seemed well quilted when I finished the first direction. We'll see if I'm right or sadly, sadly wrong!

I'm about to pop it in the wash and find out. I'm so excited to have a finish -- and so looking forward to seeing it all done. I really think a quilt isn't finished until it is washed at least once.