What is a Well-planned Quilt?

A well-planned quilt is not mine.  It started off with definite direction and even the quilting designs made it to paper.  They didn't all make it onto the quilt.  Instead, improvisation and a bit of ripping rearranged the designs and even more were created.  Every quilt throws up a few challenges and they say that is good for your brain to keep it from dissolving into old age.  Today is my birthday and I am thankful that I can still write, sew, and research with gladness and joy.  Cleaning house is another story!

Have you ever had the creative side of  your brain get stuck in a rut?  Mine did this week.  My brain was stuck on creating a single quilting motif that would encompass a split triangle.  None of my ideas felt right.  They were too heavy.  They competed with the main motif in a larger, center triangle.  It made me restless.  Bad sign.  I have mostly learned to listen, ponder and wait for the light bulb to blink on.  I did and it did...finally.

The part of the quilt I am working on.

The problem child here is outlined with a white stroke.   I was trying to create one motif for the split triangle.  It finally dawned on me that I designed them to be separate (see the color difference?).  So now I will be doing one motif in the dark half and some background, texture quilting on the red half.  Don't worry about the big red triangle in the center (outside of the white stroke).  It has its own design that mirrors one on the other side of the red border.  I just needed to change my perspective.

What does this do for my quilt?  There is now a line of quilted triangles that are in the same orientation along the border and will have similar (not exact) quilting designs with the same color threads.  Visualize the main quilt below this border.  They line up and look nice.  The red half triangle will slip into the background with nothing but texture to define it. It will not compete with the colored piecing.  It will also make that colored piecing stand out.  Happy days.  Now to see how it works.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you good planning with space for creativity.

Overload

Have you ever felt completely overloaded with the things that you MUST get done?  Sometime outside commitments impinge on life and other times you place the pressure on yourself.  I got home from our holiday travels and had so much to accomplish that I felt like I had bricks on my head.  We also had an unusual number of household breakdowns to deal with and really frigid weather.  And, of course, I broke my big toe.  That limited my exercise to the detriment of my general well being.  I had one photography related project that I figured I wouldn't finish for months, but found a better, faster way to accomplish the tedious task in a couple of hours.  I was so excited and wired over this success that I ran to my sewing room, sat down and worked on my quilt.  What joy!  I had been unable to go in there with my self-inflicted pressure weighing me down.  Stagnation has been banished!

Not only did I sew, I think I solved a problem on one quilt that has been nagging at me for weeks.  I am doing a quilt of my sweet Lady dog (deceased).  The bow on top of her head has been a thorn in my side.  I have tried several ways of doing it and finally got fabric pieces to look like ribbon, but it has no life.  I have tried painting and Inktense pencils to put in highlights, but neither look right.  I toyed with the idea of using real ribbon, but it wouldn't look right if/when it got crushed.  Back at the sewing machine my first task was to try thread painting and I see potential in this method.  More experimentation is needed, and some shiny or metallic thread may be the way, but it is gratifying to finally be on a positive track.

The photo below shows all the pieces pinned to a board.  The upper part shows the values of the ribbon (black and white).  There is also an isolated piece on which I tried the thread painting.  It is not quite right, but I didn't have quite the right thread and was kind of sloppy in my technique.  I didn't have any stabilizer under it either.

Pieces of fabric simulating the bow on Lady's head.

So much for that quilt for the moment.  I am back to quilting the quilt that has been my companion for over a year.  I WILL finish it!!  The big center part is done!  Now I am doing a 1 inch border with diamonds and filler.  To mark...or not to mark?  I decided to mark the diamonds because it is important that they look straight.  Wonky diamonds would spoil the effect.  I am doing closely stitched lines with slightly darker thread as filler in between the diamonds.  This should make them pop without overpowering the main quilt design.  I'm not too good with the filler.  Need a bit of practice, which I will get as I move around the quilt.

Diamond border

Sew some happy seams this week.  Depressurize and have fun stitching.

On My Way to the Sewing Room..........

On the way to the sewing room.....I tangled with a space heater, landed hard and now I think my big toe may be broken.  I'll see the doc tomorrow, but right now it is colorful, swollen and exquisitely painful.  I was planning to get the mess cleaned up.  Oh, you say, "What mess?"  When we went off for 6 weeks of holiday visiting I packed my machine into a big Tutto bag and stuffed fleece all around it.  Then I added a tool kit so I could spend my spare time making the teddy bear quilt featured in last week's post.  The rest of the room was left in hurricane status as I stepped out to pack suitcases.

But why was a space heater in the way?  When we got home we had very cold weather down to minus 10 degrees.  Our radiant floor heating was out due to an electrical short so we had five space heaters and the electric oven going to keep us warm.  The space heater that attacked me was in shadow at the doorway and I forgot it was there as I went scurrying into the room to get to work.

All I can offer today is a photo of the disaster called "My Sewing Room."  Does yours ever get this way?  I am generally an orderly person, but there are times when things simply get out of hand. The sewing machine is on the floor until I clear off the table.  However, with this mess in the way it was a good time to send my Gingher scissors off to the company for sharpening.  That takes two or three weeks, but I will have my shears and embroidery scissors in pristine condition.  They have cut a lot of fleece lately and that is deadly to the sharp edges.

Yipes!!

 Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you peace and order.

PS.  Monday pm.
I have a fractured big toe, but it is just taped to the next toe.  It only hurts if I bump it or bend it.  I should be able to sew.  Today I am off to get a haircut instead of sewing.