Scraps

I finally have these blue scraps put together.

I kept thinking about one of my food professors who hated left-overs.  She said that the problem with leftovers is that 1 cup is too much to throw away, so you save it and add 2 cups worth of new ingredients.  Then you end up with a cup.  So you do it again.  By the time it's all eaten, the original ingredient is 2 weeks old.

Yep.  That's what happened with this quilt too.

There are some blue calicos from my second ever quilt project in the late 80's.

But I did throw a big hand-full of small bits of blue into the trash as soon as the last rectangle was finished.

I just finished pin-basting this to bamboo batting and a white Ikea sheet.  Hubby and I are going to hop on the bikes and take a several hour break for lunch and winding roads.  Machine quilting when I return.

Guilt & Scraps WTFFQ

In the process of creating the new sewing room, I discovered that the blue scraps appear to be mating.   I have made several blue scrap quilts...and yet look at all this fabric!

My first inclination is to chuck everything in the trash.   But that's just not in my nature.  It's like changing the locks on the house so certain family members can't get in....no matter how tempting it is...I just can't do it.  Far too inappropriate.  *Sigh*

I'm a couple hours into piecing scraps together and I'm starting to quit hating those fabrics.  I'm kind-of understanding the scrap appeal.  It's a trip down memory lane!  The blue batiks from Emily's wedding quilt.  The berry fabric from the Quilt From Hell (Lone Star).  Several blue fabrics that I bought to match the new color scheme at a workplace and bought fabric at JoAnn's for lab coats that matched the trim.  And why would I EVER think I needed a home-spun?

That blue floral never actually matched anything I ever owned as it was an off-shade of blue.  I tried for decades to work it into a quilt.  2 of the blues were left from a reverse applique Mum that I made for my mom.  There's also some fabric I bought for Quilts of Valor.  There are also some random blues that I bought for Baltimore Album quilts...which at a distance resemble cut glass.  There are also a couple pieces that I SWEAR I have never seen before.


Seriously...I think that my quilting friends are sneaking fabric into my stash just to mess with me.  Come to think of it...that's actually a really fun idea.  I may start carrying random fat quarters in my purse and just tuck them in with something similar at my quilting friends' houses.  Tee-Hee-Hee....I'm calling them WTFFQ.   I am a girl with a mission.

Oh... BTW...You are welcome to blame me for any WTFFQ that you find in your stash...no matter where you live.  It's all my fault.

A little hexing

I have pulled out Rita's Hexi project.  This is a traditional English Paper Piecing hand project that I started a couple summers ago.  Over the past couple weeks I've managed to stitch together the upper left section (above the blue strip) which doesn't seem like much until you realize that it is 14 rows of 7 hexies each.

No quilting for me this weekend.  We took our daughters rock climbing.  It was the first time they'd shown interest in a decade.  Seems that my harness shrunk since I wore it last.  I'm told that's a common affliction of equipment ignored for years and years.  Looks like we may be spending more time away from home, pursuing the original helmet sport that was the reason my hubby and I met and started dating.

Finished Top

I decided to just suck it up and finish with my original plan for this scrappy tile border.  Thanks for all your suggestions.  I no longer totally hate it.  Maybe 6 of 10.  My issues is that I just don't like scrappy.  Even when it's monochromatic.  I was trying to push outside my comfort zone in the hopes it would add some texture and weight to the border to anchor the applique.

Next step = hand quilting.  I am going to use a silk batting that I've been saving for some special reason.  I'm still a little iffy on what design I'm going to use in the very center.  I've been reading up on silk batting, and am not sure if I'll get the same shrinkage texture as with cotton. (They both claim 5% shrink).  Anyone with experience w/ silk batting?  I'm open to advice.

Mis-estimation

I did spend entirely too much time making this full sawtooth border.  I was going to make it with HST but opted for the pointer triangles that were part of Esther's original pattern.  Although it took me twice as long , I am happy with the end result.  On  10 point scale of how happy I am with the results, I give the applique 9.3 and the pink sawtooth border about 8.7 (it was only an 8 until I saw this photo and the things that bug me are not evident from a distance. )  I like the contrast between the curvy applique and the triangles.

I've spent all of today making this green border.  Because I was using up the leftovers from the leaf fabric, I did some simple estimate calculations to be sure that I had enough fabric to pull off this look.  Earlier today there were many things that I didn't like about this look, which rated it only a 3.  I forgot that the top and bottom strip needed to be 17" longer than that side, so had to go back and add more fabric to the original strips.  And just when I thought I was about ready to stitch this all together, I discovered that the sawtooths (sawteeth?) finished at 2.25" not the 2" I had assumed.  This left me about 7 rows short on each side.  Bah. I would probably had as many issues if I'd spent the time to do detailed calculations.

But what now....
Should I
A)  continue fixing the tile border that I am only luke-warm about.
B) buy a solid dark green batik for an 8" outer border.
C) do something entirely different.

Leaf it alone

Good news: I found the converter for the old camera so can stop relying on blurry photos from my cell phone.  Bad news: the battery on the camera goes dead after one shot.  This is the one shot I got, and I managed to cut off the top.  Come to think of it, it's a skill I must have inherited from my mother who always manages to cut off the tops of people's heads in photos.

I am declaring the applique on this panel done.  I added several more leaves over the weekend.  There are some kind of bare looking stems in the upper part of the photo that got cut off.  I'm just going to live with it.

I know a parent shouldn't pick favorites, but I really do like this leaf best.

 Or maybe this one.

I kept buying green batiks while I was working on this project, so the fabrics and colors vary widely.  Hopefully that will add lots of interest to the final quilt.

Next step: Pink & White  Sawtooth border.  Deciding if I want it all the way around or only on lower left and bottom.

Progress is Relative

I have limited my posts for some very good reasons.  I spent an additional 14 hours of my life working on transitioning older daughter's room into usable real estate (added to a previous epic marathon).  6 hours were spent on dismantling a loft that once held a twin size bed (but more recently just collected junk).  The rest was spent helping younger daughter to paint.  Unfortunately, the room had been painted a very dark shade of grey with an assortment of red/black enamel artwork painted over it.  I know that I should be impressed that the deluxe primer/paint that I bought actually covered that saturated of colors...but at $40 a gallon, I was really expected it to cover in one coat and bring me a latte in the morning.  It looks great at night in dim light, but I'm afraid there's another coat in the future of this room.  On the bright side, the roll top desk (that is too big for the kitchen space it's been living in for 10 years) will be moving into this corner and housing the sewing machine and serger, thus moving the sewing stuff out of the living room for the first time in 7 years.  Cool.

I have actually been working on some applique.  I last posted on this July 1st when I posted some close ups of the applique and June 30th with a wide shot.  Once again, I'm forced to apologize for the quality of the photos.  I had planned to replace the broken camera, but instead had to buy a new refrigerator AND a new computer AND a new expresso machine.  All are equally critical at my house.  No, that's a lie.  The expresso machine got replaced immediately.  I got by with marginal options for 2.5 months on the computer and had decided over 3 months ago that since I have a wine fridge and a small freezer I could wait for the squealing, shreeeeking, moaning fridge to really die before I bought a new one.  Several consecutive sleepless nights changed my mind.
Oh, but anyway, about the applique.... Looking at my checklist, I've actually done well.  Funny how it doesn't seem that way when picking away at little bits at a time.   Here's my goal list and the outcome.  Picture above is current, below was nearly 2 mo ago.

My "to do" list:
* leaves for the lower left. - added several stems and 12 2-part leaves on the lower left, between the 2 flowers and the heart motif.  
* blue stamens for the 3 left flowers. - done, both the embroidery and the annoying little dots.
* connecting vining of some sort from the bird to the lower right. Added a stem and large 2-color leaf
* ditto the center loop section toward the left - seem to have ignored that but added a good sized leaf in the center and one directly above it pointed toward the hearts. 
* one more bracket of 4 hearts on the right side - Done
* design tropunto for the center 1/6th of the quilt to include all the bits and pieces from the outer border. Uh, not done.  Still tweaking the leaf issues on the applique.

So what's left?  I'm quite happy with the lower left section.  I periodically think that I'd be happier with a couple more leaves.  I may be able to talk myself out of all but 1 of them.  On the upper right, there are about 5 more small leaves begging to be included.  On the other hand, I'm trying to convince myself that I only need a short stem and small leaf headed out of the upper circle pointed toward the gap in in hearts. 

I plan to hand quilt b/c I love the extra texture, but have sections for which I am considering FMQ by machine.  I think trapunto will really help...can I use that for some of the leaves that I was considering applique? If I machine quilt some leaves, would that make them stand out more than if I hand quilted? Green vs white thread? Machine vs hand for the trapunto sections (I've never hand-trapunto so I don't know if it's worth the extra effort over machine for texture).  If I add more leaves, will it take away from the white space that exists to the point it just looks weird?  My original plan for this quilt involved a sawtooth border (pink/white) of HST, maybe just along the left and lower side.  Yes/No?

I welcome your input, though I reserve the right to ignore it and do something I hadn't even listed here.