New Quilts! New Articles! New Car?

If I choose to look at the glass half full, then overall it's been a good week.

 I completed these two new scrap quilts...

The one above, (which I have named "Railroad Crossing #2) is from one of the layouts I was considering in this previous post. It uses the same block that I designed for this quilt, (which I finally decided to call "Railroad Crossing") but laid out differently.

And the one below is made mostly from the scraps left over from the quilt above...

This one I am calling "Back Roads Detour".

I've been working on a PDF pattern for both of these quilt blocks, but I keep coming up with so many design variations, and ideas for other quilts, that my head is swimming with the possibilities.

So for now, I am just continuing to explore and play, and taking lots of notes!

All I can say is that it feels good to be making quilts again... I think I burned out for awhile, and also felt a bit confused as to what to do when my hands seemed unable to do all the hand quilting that I had been focusing on for the last few years. But now I am rediscovering the joys of free-motion machine quilting and feeling very inspired!

 And speaking of machine quilting...

Check out these fun little "Stained and Scorched" mini quilts that I did for the new June/July issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. 

Vivika Hansen DeNegre, the editor of Quilting Arts, saw my blog post on using lemon juice to "dye" fabric, and asked if I could write an article about the process for Quilting Arts. In the article I show step by step photos outlining how to get these results. 

And while you are at it, look for the new Summer issue of Sew Somerset, where I was asked to contribute a how-to article for making my Embroidered Houses, which I first made a few years back.

Issues are hitting the news stands and craft stores now, so if you don't already subscribe, be sure to check them out next time you are out and about!

So that's why overall it's been a good week. 

But with all that sunshine, a little rain may fall...

Or in my case... Hail... of biblical proportions!

Did you happen to see the Nightly News last Thursday night?

One of the top stories nationwide was of the freak hail storm that hit Berks County, Pennsylvania

which just happens to be where I work. 

Hail which was the size of golf balls and tennis balls, (yes, I said tennis balls!) stormed through the area leaving thousands of cars, homes and businesses damaged.

Pictured above, is part of my windshield, and below...

My poor car! Pocked marked and cracked from head to toe, even my emblem got ripped off of the hood. Now we wait, with so many others, to see what insurance decides. The car is most likely totaled, due to cosmetics, but mechanically runs just fine. We are considering keeping it, and just driving it until it falls apart. What the heck... with a car like this, no more worries about car dings and getting scratched. It simply is what it is! Kind of liberating!

The truly miraculous thing is that in despite of so much damage to cars and businesses and houses...

 despite hail so deep that they had to bring out the snow plows...

 no person seems to have been actually hurt, only things,

and that is something to be truly thankful for!

xo

Scrap Busting Possibilities

Still playing with my new quilt block design. I decided it was time to bust through some of my 30's repro fabric stash that's been sitting in my closet for way too long, so I whipped up some blocks and have been playing with layout possibilities...

I'm thinking I like the bottom two the best, but overall, I'm delighted with all the possibilities as well as a chance to weed out old stash, (and make room for some beloved solids!)

Have a great week everyone!

PS. Many thanks for all the creative name ideas on my last quilt, using this same block. I loved hearing what you all saw! After a lot of thought, (yeah, I know... too much thought... but being a bit OCD, sometimes the mind does that) I decided to go with my original thoughts when first designing the quilt and have named it "Railroad Crossing". We have a lot of railroad tracks crossing the rural roads around here, and something about the old tracks holds a lot of intrigue for me. So there you go. But again, many, many thanks for all the wonderful and creative input!

In Search of a Good Name!

                          

 Have you ever made a quilt that was simply a joy from start to finish?

That's what this quilt has been!

From the initial idea of making an easy to duplicate improvised block, to the beginning sketches, to playing around with how the block would be constructed and then putting it all together, and watching it develop...

Fun! Pure and simple fun!

I had a lot of left over fabric bits and scraps from this quilt and have already stitched up several small quilt tops from them. I'll share them in a future post once I have them quilted!

Now, I just have to come up with a name for this quilt. Usually I have no problem naming my works, but this time I am not sure...

When I look at the quilt,  I see railroad tracks, railroad crossing signs, sidewalks, arrows and kites. My original inspiration does lay somewhere in those things, but before I decided

I'd love to know what you see!

In the Works!

The air is still a bit on the brisk side here, but the grass is bright green and flowers and trees are blooming bright... all of that has me revved up for working with color! 

I'm also excited as I am playing around with a new block that I am developing. It combines fun improvised piecing techniques in a really easy to do sequence... resulting in similar, yet individually unique blocks. So far I am really pleased with the results! More to come in the following weeks...

Till then, have a great weekend everyone!

All's Well That Ends Well!

Thanks to each of you for your thoughtful comments. After reading them all it is apparent to me that; A) as quilters, we will all be faced with this sort of thing from time to time, 

and B) there are many paths to take when it does happen... 

the important thing is to find the one that feels right to you and follow it.

It was midnight when I wrote about my botched quilting in my last post. After I posted it I went to bed and when I woke up in the morning I had decided to re-quilt what I had ripped out, and then finish quilting the whole bugger, mistakes and all,

 (and believe me the quality of the quilting did not improve any). 

The end result would be to give it to my dear dog, who I knew would love it no matter what. 

(I was warmed to see that a couple of you suggested this as well.)

It took me a few tries to adjust my attitude accordingly, which meant letting go of what I had thought it was going to be, and accepting it for what it was. It helped to keep my happy little dog's face in mind, and know how delighted she would be by this quilt.

Once I got it all quilted, I did a really quick machine binding, then washed and dried it in the hopes that the desired crinkling from the washing and drying process would help blend in the non-wanted, machine-quilted puckering boo-boo's. Once the quilt was out of the dyer, I headed over to my pup Eleanor, to show her her new quilt, but was intercepted by my husband who wanted to see it. 

Now, my husband is a dear and supportive man, but truthfully has never shown a great interest in my quilts, outside of a quiet nod, followed by, "It's nice, I like it. And that is that. 

(He is a man of few words, unlike his wife, who is rarely at a loss for them.)  

But on this quilt, he started to hold it, stroke it and sing it's praises.

I tried to show him all that had gone wrong with it, the way the quilting had distorted and pulled the blocks, how the fabric had fed unevenly thus turning under hear and there creating a puckered mess, how the whole thing wasn't even squared up... he would hear none of it.
To him it was the best thing I had ever made, and he preceded to lay it over him,
while he watched TV and eventually fell asleep under the warmth of it.
Luckily, he and Eleanor like to snuggle together, so I guess they can share the quilt. :)

I know now that this very humble, little lap-sized quilt has come into being to reinforce in me some lessons that I  need to continue to learn over and over again, (and I am not just talking about the quilting lessons!) The real lessons are about love, forgiveness, gentleness, acceptance, patience, humor, happiness, giving, non-judgement and staying present in the moment... 

all things that I am trying to practice and strengthen myself in.
(And that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder... )

Also, the irony is not lost on me, for I am always drawn to the beauty of imperfection, in love with all that is wabi-sabi, and I often try to incorporate those esthetics into my work... but I am also a bit of a control freak, and slave to perfection in craftsmanship... 

I want to be in charge of intentionally creating that look of imperfection. 

The reality is I am not so comfortable with actual imperfections that come unintentionally from me. 

I believe that is what we call ego and she is a bit of a joy killer...

I need to keep her in check!

So again, thanks to each of you for sharing your experiences, 

for laughing at my folly, and for offers of help and kind suggestions! 

xo