Centre of the Storm, and getting back on track

I haven’t been posting a note for while as I’ve been, well, unable to write or focus much, as even now I’ve re-written this opening sentence about five times!

My family has been going through some rocky times, each person with their concerns and problems, all affecting me as wife and mother – how can i support them? - how can I fix it?!! (i know, can’t be done) – am I listening well enough? – am I letting them know I’m there to help, without crowding?what can I do other than worry?

My quilting is usually where I dump all this self-talk, and focus on creating, while my brain subconsciously works though the problems. The past few weeks though, this has been difficult, and all I’ve got is several projects, started or finished, that just don’t seem to make me happy. I sure hope I can get out of this slump soon – I do believe that if I’m happy, then those around me might catch it!

I’ve been working away at some piecing and finishing, thinking that eventually there’ll be “click” of aaahhh. this is good :)

This morning I was looking for a picture of a finished quilt, somewhere on my computer. I know its here, because I’ve used it on a blog post. But i cannot find the actual picture, and I’d like to print it out to doodle on for quilting ideas. I also can’t remember under what EQ file name its saved under, and I have too many EQ quilts to count. This made me realize that things have gotten way out of hand – I’ve been in too much of a fog of disorganziation and . So because this blog is meant to share a quilting journal - I better get back to it before I get to lost.

Here’s a finished top, that I completed a few of weeks ago. Its Lori Smith’s pattern, 30’s sampler. I’m not very happy with how the arrangement of colours turned out – the quilt just looks crowded, with no one place to look at.

This is a good example of why I do some quilts as a block of the month. I rely heavily on EQ for my quilt planning, and with a sampler quilt such as this it really can’t be done. I don’t have a full size design board, and if I did, I’m sure I would have arranged the blocks differently, or chosen colours differently.

I finished up the sampler because I got an itch to start the sampler blocks in the new book Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler. I made myself finish this one, which was hard as I knew it was going in a direction I didn’t much like. The new sampler, which I’m simply calling Elm Creek, will be all blues on an ivory background. Much easier for me to work on, knowing at the end it pretty much has to look right with a one colour scheme.

Now, i should go and do some clean up on the blog lists on the sidebar, and remember to use tags and such so I can better organize my posts!

A Picture of indecision!

Yesterday I found myself planning yet another applique quilt - I think I found just the one that will give me the easy needleturn that I need. When I looked for a drawer in my sewing room that could hold the pattern and fabrics, look what I found:

There are ten blocks here - and these are just the ones I found in the drawer. I think there might be a couple more lurking around elsewhere - and I'm almost certain that some backgrounds I re-used after unstitching a piece or two. And don't forget - these represent not just sewing a patch or more, but planning a quilt layout colours and drawing templates or preparing a block for backbasting.Even I was suprised to see just how much trouble I've been having with making a decision on applique.




I'm not indecisive on planning piecing - I find a block or quilt I like, change it or tweak it a bit, pick the colours, and get going!

I did get some piecing done this weekend - three more flannel peaks blocks, and one more block from the 30s sampler.

Ohhhhmmmm...piecing

Sometimes, most of the time, I find quilt piecing to be meditative and peaceful. Something about putting all those little pieces under the needle, rhythmically chain piecing and gradually building bigger and bigger pieces as they are joined.

Yesterday, after months of searching I finally found my hand applique project. And then I needed to piece!

First up is a delectable mountains pattern that I found in an older issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting. Last fall I made my first and only flannel quilt and the family has fought over it ever since - our house can be very cold in the winter. I promised to make another. I bought a flannel layer cake (10" squares) on super sale in January - no wonder they were on super sale - the colours didn't have much range, nor did they have much range in light to dark. So I've been puzzling over this for a while, and this pattern seemed perfect. It is easy easy sewing - brilliant method for making rectangular delectable mountains (unfortunately, I can't give it here as that wouldn't be nice to the designer).

From very dull to very bright, next up is a Lori Smith pattern. 30's Sampler, that a quilt elf delivered to my sewing room. She must have snuck in one evening and found my leftover 30s fabric, from the Sally Post Floral Sampler, and came back and delivered the pattern into the box. Wonderful! I like to have a loooong term project with lots of variety. The picture here is of the first block, somewhat pieced, and with a little mistake in one corner!

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