Where Have I Been?

Actually I have been home.  It started with house guests - my daughter and grandaughter.  What fun!  We got one hike in when DH developed some scary symptoms and within a week had donated a kidney to the pathology lab.  It all happened so fast, but he is now recovering well.  It sent the family into a spin and I have been too busy doing double duty here at home to spend time writing or sewing. Sewing was curtailed additionally by the fact that my granddaughter was sleeping with my sewing machine until time to report to camp where she is a counselor this summer.

I am now back to quilting and making good progress on a lot of tedious, small designs.  I am slowly making my way to the outer verges of the quilt, and looking forward to working on large feathers in a wide border.

I am also pondering what to quilt on four squares, each 4 inches.  I drew a design, but now that I am there I don't like it.  What do you do when you get stumped on what to do?

1.  Head for Pinterest for ideas.  I do not mean copy verbatim, but be inspired and let your brain digest what you see until your own creative ideas emerge.

2.  Grab pencil and paper.  Draw your ideas.  Some work.  Some don't.  Some lead to interesting effects.  Pretty soon you will have a design worth trying with your needle.

Playtime with pencil, trying a couple of ideas.

3.  Work it out on a scrap sandwich made from the same batting and fabric in your quilt.

Playtime with needle; three ideas on one block.

I still don't like any of the ideas with needle.  The corners are a serious issue.  Yes, it is wonky in the tester, but will be straight and precise on the quilt with better stitching.  This is only a scrap venue for trying it out in a hurry.

4. (optional)  Go back to #1 and hunt for more ideas.  Go further afield than just Pinterest.  Play with it.  In the meantime there are many other parts of the quilt to stitch.  It will come together eventually.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you a plethora of ideas.