I've had a shaky relationship with my quilting over the past two years.  I've quit twice, and often I have wondered where I was going with this and if I am growing at all.  It's my drug.  I quilt in the middle of the night.  I blow through my stash like the Tasmanian devil.  I come up with crazy projects - strip pieced log cabins, New York Beauties, I make bags and tablet covers, bibs and aprons.  I just sew, and now I can sew anything, but creatively I feel like I'm standing still.  I have figured out some things.  One, I am very happy when I am sewing.  Two, it is a very useful skill, which I must say, being self-taught, that I have finally mastered.  Three, its the only place in my life where I am a good teacher.  Patient, able cater to the student, a great cheerleader, etc.  So since I am sticking too it, because it won't let me quit, I went back to the beginning and decided to make a sampler.  All the block patterns are 12" blocks, most from www.quilterscache.com.   There have been other projects that I will share and this one is a work in progress.

I wanted to use the Peanuts fabric but this block didn't really work.  So I took it apart and made these two below.  

 My first quilt was a purple log cabin, and I always wanted to make a card trick but I thought it was too hard.  Not so!  Very easy.  It's been very cathartic to return to the shapes and names that I was so fascinated by 12 years ago.

 I like the whole process of using what I have available, and not running out to get fabric, and making it work.  It's a challenge, and when I get the sashing, etc. I will have to make decisions, but I think Scrappy Fall Colors is enough direction for now.

 I started in early September making the leave blocks (on left).  I couldn't get them to work together to make a table runner so I started making sampler blocks and I kept trying new ideas.

I've decided to separate the blocks that REALLY worked and the blocks that are just ok into two different quilts.  It is a learning process, and I'm making progress so far.

The Plan

The Plan is to weed out all the fabric, ideas, projects, etc. that I had worked on or considered for the past ten years and lay them to rest.  So I got rid of all my scraps, except for the red ones (red were the fewest, and someone requested a red and white project so I kept them).  That project is in progress, so all I have now are blocks ready to be quilt tops and quilt tops ready to be quilted.  It's a very comforting place.  I have a SMALL box where I am putting new scraps.  I no longer feel overwhelmed.   I went from being an addict to a functioning addict.  This is a better place.  I am not going to stop.  I may as well take Aristotle's advice - "Know Thyself!"
I also dug into a scrap project made from three scrap bags I bought at the Glorious Color stand at the New Jersey Tri State Quilt Show.  I had kept these separate because they are solids and a very different texture than my usual quilt fabric.  It's my first attempt at working with solids, because prior to now they couldn't hold my interest.  These homespun cottons are a joy to work with and the contrasts are great.  I didn't use the pink in the blocks, but I used all the others. 

    Stay tuned.  I probably have enough for a large lap sized quilt. 

Falling Off the Log Cabin Wagon

Okay I got a little out of control about two years ago, when I saw this quilt.  I have old quilting magazines, and binders where I keep ideas, patterns, etc.  And this always made me look twice.  Sparrow and magpie is an antique store in New Mexico.  They were featured in a magazine (don't know which one, I cut out the page) and I loved the quilt in the lower left.

 So I got all my reds, yellows, creams, mint greens and all my very dark fabrics (black, deep burgundy, midnight blue, forest green, brown, etc) and I made over 270 10.5" squares.  Totally manic.  Took me over a month (December 2011).  I love the movement of log cabins, but I always settle on a zig zag pattern and (I thought) this was artistically debilitating since there are so many other avenues to explore with the log cabin.  Always, when I get like this, I tell myself, "This is my last log cabin".  Always, I fall off the Log Cabin Wagon and begin a new one. 
 Also, I must admit, this project was to purge the stash-laggers.  I had been quilting almost a decade, I had collected all kinds of fabrics that I didn't love, but were useful, or came with a medley, or seemed like a good idea at the time.  Another inspiration for the quilt I eventually created is this painting, on a cover of a book about Charles Sheeler.  I will talk more about Sheeler in another blog; I am influenced by him.  He's a Philly boy and has quilts hidden in his still lifes - so fun. 

Well, I just need rid of the mania created by these log cabins.  There were so many of them, and they had their own personality.  So I sold them, gave them to the Quilting universe, somewhere out in the Pacific Northwest (excellent quilting karma out there!). See how many there were!  It's ludicrous!  Who does that?!  I think I just wanted to distance my self from the manic quilting behavior pattern.  In my defense they were over a year old.  I have made a little bit of progress or at least I'm moving in that direction.  Or at least I am aware I have a problem.  It's my drug. 

When I was done I laid a few out to see if the contrast really was there.  I mean there are SO many colors.... would they really have any PUNCH?  I made a wall hanging sized quilt top, and put it away.  It was going to be bigger but I prefer the snapshot of movement the zig zags create.  The brain knows what the colors are going to do; why not just give it directions instead of laying it all out; "don't deny or rush the visual journey".  So I created this wall hanging, and quilted it last week, to give myself closure.

I must conclude that the color scheme is effective.  The contrast is lovely and striking.  The blocks looked a little wonky but now that they are quilted-in whatever visible wonk they have adds character and drama, and I don't think it detracts from the quilt - I love it. 
That is where I'm going with my quilting, I think.  I want to love it.  I learned everything I need to know, and now I want to love it.  If it turns out I love scrappy manic piecework, I will follow that road.  If it turns out I want to create something more polished and predictable as far as visual impact is concerned, I will go there.  The sure thing, is that we (in quilting, life, etc) are rooted in tradition.  Tradition is the place to start. 
Incidentally, I have fallen off the wagon again.  This time it's red and white.  Stay tuned.

Perspective

Lately I've been trying to put my quilting life into perspective.  Perspective implies there is an ideal, or you're working from a balanced model.  Maybe perspective is the wrong word.

It's occurred to me that if I live multiple lifetimes I may never run out of ideas and projects I want to tackle.  So now, after ten -twelve years of quilting, I've learned everything I want to know, and I've met every challenge.  My technique is as good as it's going to get.  I'm not sure I'm as developed as I want to be as far as style is concerned, but that leads me to the question, "What kind of quilts do I want to make?"  My kids are older, and my social options have improved, I'm also wondering where should quilting fit into my life. 

If I hit the lottery, and get a giant loft with a large machine quilter, wall space, floor space, etc. what would I choose to do?  As it turns out, that is not the situation at present.  I don't have enough floor or wall space to lay out all the pieces of a large quilt.  I just don't have it.  So I'm taking the rest of the year to downsize, and finish all my open projects.  Also I have three quilts I want to make from start to finish as gifts. 

I took all my scraps and sold them on craigslist.  Cheap, in one big sell.  They were in my way.  I always thought to make the diverse scrap quilt was proof of an evolved stash.  I have an evolved stash, and now that I am a fabric snob I really didn't want anything but the good stuff.  It just wasn't important to me anymore.  I've earned the expertise to be particular.

I had separated all the scraps by color.  I made projects out of the off-white/beige scraps.  That was enough.  I saved the red because I had the least red and I have a plan for them.  Enough.

I always wanted to make a star quilt and there was a great pattern in a magazine this spring.  So I did it.  I didn't choose the colors according to what I loved.  I chose "contrast that I had enough of".  This is bad.  Life is short.  I shouldn't work on anything I don't love.  I don't need the lesson.  There is not a fine line between "I can do alot with this fabric, it's an excellent mixer" and  "I love it".   The line is clear.  I have something I really enjoy looking at, but do I want it on my wall?  Who do I want to see it?  It defines me.  I had framed it.  The magazine didn't have it framed, and I was equally not in love with the color choices in the magazine, although it was attractive. 

Yellow Brick Road Mania

Years ago, when I was a beginner quilter, I went to my first quilt show, and bought the Yellow Brick Road pattern, by Atkinson Designs.  It was very hot, and easy, and I bought a kit, and the fabrics that came with the kit seemed boring, so I just filed it away.  Last year, I thought I had the perfect color combo for the pattern and I wanted something easy and new, so I cut all my fabrics, put it all together, and I hated it.  Too easy.  It was just too simple.  My colors weren't helping.  I dug it out again this year, and I've figured it out.  It comes together so fast.  Started with what to do with all the fish fabric I've been collecting for ten years.  (I'm trying to close deals in my sewing room.)  I am pleased. 

So my neighbor is a geologist, she knows alot about water ecosystems.  I tell her, look at my fish quilt.  She loved it.  But more than that, she is attracted to batiks, and I have some very fun batiks.  So my mind starts moving around the stash, and I put this together, with some very good pond scum fabric (see border).  I didn't think the white belonged as I put it together but now I think it fits fine. 

I'm not a Christmas person, but after the fish I started cutting up my Christmas fabric, which I divided into four different coordinating groups, and I put them together (stay tuned - no pictures yet).  I did three of them over 4th of July weekend (crazy).  One I am not pleased with, but that put me over the edge and now completely out of control.  I also pushed the other remaining small batik pieces into another lap or wall size quilt:

I'm fond of this one.  Good reds, nice contrast.

So it was my little cousins's birthday, and he's a Craftsman.  I had power tool fabric, just enough for a little kid sized quilt.  I whipped this one up, in less than 8 hours, start to finish.  With three leftover blocks (one hides a long pucker) I made pockets on the reverse side. 

My Critic, ten years old, says the power tool quilt has too much yellow.  I did think that as well before it was all bound together.  Really fun, good border and frame. 

I adapted the pattern to the sizes and fabric pieces I had.  The ratios of different blocks vary among the quilts, but I think I am doing a good job of pushing this one to the limits.  Such good shapes and ratios.  So much potential to let the color do all the work and to really let a special fabric stand out.   

Flight of Geese - Part 1

My quilting friend Rita and I agree that the best source of project ideas is your stash of old quilting magazines. Really perfect source. So I am considering teaching a course and I was very inspired by Better Homes and Gardens Fall 2010 issue of Quilts and more. On the cover is this great scrappy quilt.

I had begun to cut for a scrappy version last year, and got distracted. So I finished cutting and began to lay out my "bricks. They are 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 bricks, alternating with a flying geese block (same size). Very easy. Very dramatic. I am particularly jazzed by the horizontal zig zag that you don't notice in the magazine. I am not finished piecing the magazine inspired quilt. But here are two great pictures. Bingo was "helping" and could not refrain from walking and disrupting the entire right side. He quickly figured out this got him alot of attention, and so I had to switch gears.

I went to the New Jersey tri-state Quilt Show in Somerset, NJ last week (where I totally OD'd, without remorse). I thought it would be a great idea to try this quilt with coordinating fabrics. So I chose a 10" layer cake of Kate Spade's Good Fortune collection (by Moda). Great colors, fun motifs, very light and sophisticated without being complicated. This is the wall quilt I made from the layer cake. The ric rak border nails it, I think. I love ric rak. Life is about finding ways to incorporate ric rak into all your projects. When my daughter was little she said "wik wak". I love that!

Presently working on a black, white and green one. To be continued......

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lots of changes in my life recently. Not good or bad, just opportunities to become more efficient. I gave away lots of fabric to my daughter's art teacher, and my stash shelves were a mess. Fabric stuffed and thrown into a shelf by color. I am beginning to list my projects in order of quick completion and make a calendar with dates of show deadlines. Also I've begun to cut scraps. This is time comsuming but very good. I just don't want the mess.

My older daughter and I went to an antique market a few weeks ago. I got a tin of sewing items for $3, and Atlantic County Beach Patrol patches for $1 each (totally Boardwalk Empire). Great stuff. In the tin of sewing items was this hand crocheted pin cushion. I washed it in oxyclean (best cleaner ever) and made a new pincushion from muslin and fluff and now its the perfect vintage Valentine.