Believe it or not

Summer Stripes is ready to be a quilt sandwich!  Yesterday was a extremely cold day for November (with the wind chill it was a whopping 4 at 2:00 in the afternoon), perfect for stitching most all day. There have been a few thing hanging around that need to done - namely the DWR needs to be completely finished & posted by December 1st, so of course I started working on the Summer Stripes quilt.  I was just clearing the decks, you know, loosening up before hunkering down to machine quilt... okay, I was procrastinating but more on that later. 

 

I figured out how I wanted to do the borders.  On Friday, I made and sewed down the black 1/8" flange so I was all ready to sew the border hunks and corners on.

 

 

I realized I had a lot of striped fabric left on the cutting table & I'm pretty sure I don't want to look at it again in a project in the near future, so I started cutting large squares to piece the quilt back.  Someone had to help me by supervising. 

 

Back's done!

 

Not wanting to sandwich it now because I really need to get to machine quilting the DWR, I folded up Summer Stripes top & backing and got down to business...

 

doing the necessary figuring on the quilt math word problem "Can I make 2 identical French Braid quilts with the fabric I have on hand?" 

 

This required the calculator, a cuppa and some snacks, which equaled more procrastinating. But finally, I cleared the decks, wound some bobbins, threaded the machine and faced the DWR. 

 

I NEED to Embrace the Wide Open Space. 

 

So I started in the confined middle where it's safe.

 

 

There's always tomorrow.   But then I'm really, really going to have to focus on quilting this thing - the clock is ticking!

 

PS. The answer to the quilt math is no. I'm short on two braid run colors, the accent stripe, and the ending triangles. Haven't even considered the border stripe fabric design yet so I'm pretty sure I'll be short there too.

 

 

 

It Happened on My Way to the Sewing Machine

So there I was, minding my own business, going to sit down, figure out the separator band braids for the French Braid quilt and get busy making them.  I looked over at the cutting table - ACK!! I can't see the cutting table - What Happened??

 

It was a case of the dreaded flat surface disease!! A combination of coming and going, coupled with multiple fabric projects, throw in a dash of I'll get to it later and a pinch of oh look, new fabric and supplies and there you have it - a mountain of stuff in your way! It so didn't deserve a picture on this blog!

 

Obviously, I wouldn't be cutting anything for the French Braid quilt until I got to the 'I'll get to it later' part of my mess.  Starting at one end, thread spools got put back, new fabric went into the washer, fabric bits were bagged by project and so on. Progress was made - until I came to the piles of Summer Stripes blocks. I stood there, plastic zipper bag in one hand and the blocks in another.  I just couldn't do it. I couldn't put the blocks away - they were mocking me! I had to do something - so I did. And by evening, I was back to crawling around on the living room floor, holding dogs at bay until I had this:

The final layout may change by the time I get the blocks squared up and sewn together, and there's borders to contemplate but right now I feel like I've conquered the mocking blocks. The top of the cutting table had reappeared and I have the cut list made for the separator band braids. Balance has been restored, at least for now.

 

Back to the Sewing Machine - at last!!!

I can breathe and the coughing has mostly subsided.  More importantly, my sewing machine is back all better!!  A few weeks ago, after having been cleaned & tuned up, my workhorse Singer was all wacky - right before a free motion quilting class.  I've been avoiding the issue since then and had dual perfect excuses of having a nasty head cold and the Summer Stripe quilt layout blocking me. 

 

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

 

I sat down with just the orange blocks, rethreaded the machine, took a deep breath and started.

 

After several attempts of joining blocks, adjusting the bobbin tension, un-sewing blocks, and repeating the process, I got it done!   The machine is up, running and the stitch is where is belongs - in the middle of the fabric. And this is what I have to show for it.

Summer Sunset center 22.5" x 22.5"

Since the orange was distracting me in the Summer Stripes layout by not playing nice with the other colors, I separated it from the others. It needs borders of some sort and is destined to be a free motion quilting practice quilt. 

 

As Martha pointed out in her comment to the last post that maybe these blocks need to go in the closet to percolate for a bit, that may very well where they end up.  In the meantime, I have a few other things to focus on designing while the silks hang out waiting for me.

Coco-Berry charms and background

Teal braid

The bottom group is destined for a donation quilt - I'm thinking a French Braid style quilt in a large lap size. Seeing the picture I think it needs another deep dark to make it pop, cause right now it's a little blah. Hmmm - back to the stash and this is what came out.

Teal braid with 2 darks added

Time to swatch them, assign colored pencils and hit the graph paper.  And I need to practice some more free motion quilting to get the DWR quilting finished.

 

 

Playing with stripes

Using a printout of my computer aided layout, I scrambled around on the floor until I had this.

 

 

ICK!!!  Some of the darks are mediums and some of the mediums are light and the oranges are really strong even in their light blocks so now what??

I picked everything up off the floor, sat back, took a deep breath and tried to figure all this out, by making a pro/con list.

 

What I didn't like was easy: Not enough true darks and lights. Too many mediums in this.  I was going for scrappy and this is more crappy. The list goes on and on.

 

For the harder part - what I liked.  I liked the interplay within a given color. HMMMM.... Maybe I was going about this all wrong. Maybe the small blocks needed to be bigger blocks of the same color and then I could figure out a layout of the bigger blocks of color - more like the original inspiration quilt., which I decided I could do 'better'.  Apparently not.  So, I started playing within the colors, laying out 9 patches.

 

 

 

 

I'm liking these better.  Let's see where this leads.  It better lead somewhere quick cause I'm ready to see this come together.  Maybe a narrow black sashing between the blocks to pop the color.  Time to sit down and sew and stop thinking so much and let the fabric lead me.

 

On another front, I have the silk color matched to color pencils so I can start sketching. Not sure if I want traditional or contemporary on this one.  We'll have to ponder that a bit.  

 

 

 

Computer Layout Help

My knees are thanking PowerPoint! Rather than crawling all over the floor yesterday, endlessly rearranging 200+ blocks, I was able to sit back on my comfy couch lounger and let my fingers do all the work.

 

And its a good thing too, because the layout I thought would work really well is crap - disjointed on the ends and muddled in the middle, especially since some of the 'darks' are actually light-ish and the mediums are somewhat arbitrary.  

 And then I thought I'd try the reverse of the partial layout on the floor last week - Not doing it for me.

 Looks like this one is the winner!  Especially since I can adjust some of the lighter 'darks', focus on value and not be totally distracted by color - hopefully. We'll see.

But then there's the matter of those pesky setting triangles. Whatever am I going to do about them??  It's a SURPRISE...mostly to me. HA!  Do I do dark setting triangles on the dark side and light triangles on the light side?  Am I adding a narrow black border after that? And then a piano key border outside that? And how are the piano keys arranged - darks on the dark side, lights on the light side?  More questions than answers!

 

The plan is to start sewing the blocks into rows for now.  Right after I get back down on the floor and arrange the blocks into the actual real life setting and organize the rows of blocks into piles. I'm sure since I'm not quite up to snuff, I'll have lots of four footed help.

Happy Thursday!

 

 

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Quilt Blog...

To Bring You:                                               FALL

 

 

Yesterday was the second annual Pumpkin Hunting Adventure with our dear friends Pam & Tony.  This year the weather was better - chilly and damp not cold & sleety like last year.  We headed to a local family farm - not the local Mega Mart. We were too busy reveling in the selection of the many varieties of pumpkins, gourds & squashes to remember to take pictures - DUH!  The farm also has produce & fresh eggs.  We wandered into the barn this year to see the new kittens and discovered the young turkeys being raised for Thanksgiving dinners.  Tony, a chef, just about exploded with glee and quickly added his name to the list.  DH & I will now shamelessly try to wrangle an invitation to turkey.

 

By the time we packed the car with pumpkins, stopped at the greenhouse for a mum & stalks, decided on dinner so we could shop for ingredients, wandered into World Market on the continued search for a narrow table for the hall, realized that it was the Fall book sale at our library and stopped to fill a bag a books, it was WAY too late to begin the artistic arrangement of Fall.  That and I was fighting off some Evil Germ that is trying my patience (I'm currently losing the fight) and dinner was a multi pot/pan/all burners & the oven too adventure.

 

DH is in full Fall mode and is requesting hearty meals. Sausage and Peppers. That should be easy right? No. It evolved into Sausage (two kinds) and Peppers (green, red, orange, and Italian Frying), with a fresh squished tomato (4 kinds) sauce over Farfalle pasta, with garlic cheese bread.  You would think with all the garlic I used the Evil Germ would have been struck down. NOT.

 

I, however, being a Summer born baby, am rebelling against the Season by insisting on finishing the Summer Stripes quilt.  Which I will work on the layout today, all day, on my laptop, on my end of the couch, under a quilt, warmed by two dogs, visited by a purring cat or two, drinking many cups of tea laced with lemon & honey.  That will hopefully make a dent in the Evil Germ and the ward off the reality of Winter's inevitable approach for just a little longer. We'll see.

 

 

 

It's BAAAACCCKKK - well kinda, sorta, maybe, we'll see...

I'm a bit stuck and it's all because of the Summer Strip quilt. 

 

I had to pull he blocks off the design wall and move the wall cause I was feeling creatively blocked and claustrophobic in the sewing area.  The design wall is portable and helpful and black - which cuts into the natural light in the room. Which has been next to nothing lately as the weather is grey, grey,  and more grey. YUCK!!  But they're still just blocks and they need to be a quilt top and soon.  I refuse to put them away. I have a good amount of time invested in them and before the blocks get wonky, the project needs to move forward. And hopefully, unblock the creative flow.

 

Since the design wall was too small to lay out all 224 blocks, I moved to the living room floor. Here are the IN blocks laid out.

Amazingly, the animals could tell this was NOT the time to bother the Mom and her fabric bits.

As of today,  I have not sewn two blocks together nor decided on a layout, I have identified the roadblocks as I see them.
1. The general layout I have on paper is for 221 blocks. I have 224 blocks made so that shouldn't be an issue right? WRONG.  There are 2 types of blocks - ins and outs.  I need 121 of one kind and 100 of the other.  I have 112 of each type. So...
2. I either need to make 9 more of one kind or
3. I need to figure out a layout using 112 ins and 112 outs. And...
4. I need to get over the 'total control' issue I seem to have manufactured over the color progression and think scrappy, using value as my guide.

It's back to the drawing board, or more accurately, the graph paper for me. I gathered up all the blocks and sorted my type (in or out), by color and by value and noted the quantity of each.  This will enable me to plan the new layout.  I'm thinking of doing it on the computer so I can move the blocks around without crawling on my hands and knees.

I'm hoping the time spent on Summer Stripes will allow the quilting for the DWR to magically plan itself in my subconscious.  I have high hopes...we'll see.

 

 

 

Back to the Design Wall

 

 

Summer Stripes block are back on the design wall. 

 

 It's coming along but I have reached the following conclusions:
1. I need more Rainbow blocks cause I messed up on the original cutting
2. I want more Caribbean blocks so I can blend to Waves (blue), since I removed the Sunset blocks & may be removing the Twilight blocks from the quilt.

Tomorrow is a day away- to the barn I go...

SQUEEEE!!!! It's in...

My entry for the AQS Modern Quilt Challenge has been juried in!!! 

 

 I got the official notification letter via email yesterday.  My quilt will be joining 112 others hanging at AQS QuiltWeek Des Moines, October 2-5, 2013.  Not only will they be judged, a number of them will be selected to travel as an exhibit for a year.  I'm excited that I even made the cut!!

 

Why, you might ask  - not because I'm that good but because this was my first concentrated effort to do a 'Modern' on purpose. 

 

I'm a quilter, I do a wide range of styles.  I don't usually define myself with a particular group or trend.  I do traditional, traditional with a twist, art, contemporary, modern, pieced, applique, mixed, etc.  I use batiks, novelty prints, hand dyes, classical prints, civil war reproductions (this one is very new to me as part of a challenge), solids, florals, etc.  I design on graph paper with colored pencils.  I don't follow patterns as they can make me twitchy.  I have to do it 'my way' or 'make it better/me'. 

 

Oh now wait, I'm not saying that my way is better, as on occasion as a result of my decisions, I have ended up:

1. trying to re-invent the wheel which we all know is stupid, or

2. short of an impossible to find, out of print, desperately needed to finish this design fabric, or

3. tearing my hair out, muttering unprintable words causing DH, dogs and cats to nervously tiptoe around the house.

 

It's just the way my mind works. And believe me, it's pretty scary in there! Like right now, the design wall is blank,

 

 the 'Summer Stripes' blocks are hanging out in piles (and messy ones at that) on the cutting table. 

 

 Because I am struggling to get a layout that I like, because I couldn't just follow the inspiration quilt & I *had* to make over 200 blocks to do it my way.

 

I need to get back to the design wall later today.  I got myself into this mess and I'll have to arrange myself out of the mess and on to a quilt I like.

And I'm rambling, because it's Juried In and I can't help myself, so I think I'll go touch some fabric and try to calm down.
Besides, I need to make a hanging sleeve...

Progress at the Design Wall - slow and bumpy

"Summer Stripes" blocks are on the design wall and off the design wall and back on the design wall. Rinse and Repeat!

 

I started with a random light / dark layout

NOPE!
Can't handle randomness - big surprise there - NOT!

I tried a light / dark color rows layout

 

NOPE!!

So not working for me.

 



I tried a color wash layout

 

Better - getting there - but needs work. And my design wall needs to be 4 times bigger to do the whole color wash properly.  I didn't want to stop and address that issue today so I removed half of the blocks, moved everything else over and continued.  I am having a hard time getting the Sunset blocks to blend in.  It took awhile for me to figure it out but this is the color I miss cut the blocks for & then tried to salvage them by cutting them down, which resulted in not enough dark blocks.  Since the Sunset color is just so far from the other colors in intensity, I may end up removing them entirely.

 

 

Looks like I need to resolve the design wall issue before I get this laid out to suit me.  There should be a large hunk of flannel somewhere around here...

 

 

 

"Summer Stripes" blocks ready to go

 

 

The "Summer Stripes" blocks are ready for layout on the design wall! 



 

 

The inspiration quilt used 36 - 8 1/2 inch (cut size) blocks on a straight setting, an 1 1/2 inch inner solid color border and a 6 inch straight stripe border. 

 

"Summer Stripes" will have 221 - 4 1/4 inch (cut size) blocks, with 40 side setting triangles and 4 corner setting triangle because I am setting the blocks on point. Haven't made any decisions on the triangles or borders yet. There are blocks of different values within each color, as well as an

 'In' block

 and an 'Out' block.

 

Time to start playing!