Tonight's the Night

Here's the next quilt up for quilting in the April Quilt-A-Thon, Indian Summer. I was planning on quilting it last week, but it's been through quite a journey since then.

First, the vintage sheet I was going to use for a backing was more "used" than "vintage." I couldn't find something else I liked for a backing for it...

Then, it was throw size and let me know that I really didn't need another throw, I needed a full size quilt for my guest bed. It got wide red borders, using up all the solid and semi-solid red in my stash (eek!)

Next, I did find some backing fabric for it, pieced a back, and decided I had just made the back for another quilt, that I have made one block of. So I put that aside for later.

Finally, I pieced it's own back, and basted it. It's ready to go... tonight.

And I wonder why I have such a hard time whittling down my stack of unquilted tops?

Decisions

How does your creative process work? Do you ever start something and not like it? What makes you decide to scrap it or keep going? I started this piece as a possible entry for Victoria's 15 minute block challenge... and I thought it was brilliant, until I realized that it was WAY bigger than the required size.

Scrap it? No, I thought I could make it into a mini quilt... I'm planning on using minis to practice my free-motion quilting. So I addded the corner blocks with the diagonal rays, and thought it was awful.

Scrap it? No, my sewing time has been seriously reduced because I recently started a great new job, so I am going to make something of every creative moment I have. I added the scrappy blue border next, using all the scraps from piecing the star.

I needed a little extra fabric to make it all the way around, so I reached into my 2.5" strips bag and pulled out some blues. EW! They looked all wrong, but I sewed them on anyways. How is it that they can look the wrong color separately, but all together they work? That's the magic of scrappy quilting!

Now this is going somewhere that I like, and I have some ideas for where it's going next that I think are brilliant!

Now That's More Like It

I got my sewing mojo back... or I should say, I committed to spend time doing what feeds my soul-- now that all the muck of returning home is cleaned up. No more laundry, cleaning, driving all day doing errands, etc...

I am feeling happily productive as I put the binding on this table runner for a wedding gift...


Started assembling some new borders for this donation quilt...


And spent a little playtime starting with the extra triangles from my binding trimmings. The colors remind me of my FAVORITE wintertime lunch, tomato soup and grilled cheese. I ate it yesterday, when the wind held the threat of snow-- it was absolutely heavenly!

Juggling

I'm working on 4 projects at once and it is great. It feels almost electric and I'm itchy to add a few more. This is definitely the stage of quilting I love the most- design, fabric selection, cutting and piecing. There is such a creative journey in bringing something into being, from a concept to a full fledged piece, it's always amazing in at least some way or another. My scrap basket is filling up fast too... that means more juicy inspiration for another day!