Lost and Found

I just wrote that title and now I think I need to add that duo to my quilt. 🤣

My plan for this quilt was for it to be an art quilt that hangs on the wall. For like a decade now I've been expecting to transition from utility quilts to art quilts. But this week I was looking at online classes and I had a major insight. Wall quilts don't light me up. Bed quilts do. 

There's a couple reasons. First, I like working large, it's just more exciting and dramatic to me. Also, the expectation that someone may sleep under the quilt clarifies the message and the design quite a lot for me. It's like a duty of care to keep the message positive and healing. 

So as soon as I realized that I want to make a bed quilt, the design came together in a few minutes. These pairs of opposites will be the border. I only need one or two more and that's done. There's a couple I already sewed together stacked that will have to be unsewn, but that's easy at this point. 

It may sound strange to say that bed quilts are my artistic medium, but I feel so much relief when I say it that I know it's right. I'm pretty excited actually. 😂 It's good to know. 

(Oh, and no, still no sign of those Grunge fabrics btw. But maybe they are getting closer. 🤣 )

Moving Along

I've made another word pair since last time:

And I was still thinking about using the leftover crumbs in the quilt. I thought pieced hearts would be cute.

Maybe they are cute, maybe in a different project, but the crumbs feel too stingy here. I'm starting to get a sense of where I want this to go, and crumbs don't fit the narrative. Maybe some other form of improv heart will still work, we'll see. 

So now I know I don't have to worry about those, I'm hoping things will start moving again!

Left and Right

The plan was to use the green fabric for "left." But left was completely finished before I realized! Anyway, it was perfect because I had just enough of the red and green floral fabric to fill in the space as it is now. Balanced! 

I'll be honest, the flying geese are pointing in on purpose. That's my little prayer that we can all find common ground in the middle a little more often! Partisanship has become so insane, and we are all less free when we let one side tell us what to think without even listening to the other. 

And yes, federal election in Canada on September 20. Don't forget to vote! 

Ripping Seams

Yesterday I made "wrong," and today I made "right."

Wrong wiped me out, I was so tired after! Obviously the R and the G are a little challenging, but I needed the seam ripper a lot.

Then today I thought it would be easier, and it turned out to be worse. I actually had a seam allowance on the front at one point! 

So I've stopped sewing the words together while I have a think. It's probably time to improvise. 😄

Just Start

I think it was back in January that I was out running errands and I heard Katy Perry on the radio. The lyrics were such an accurate picture of recent events for me that I just started to laugh. A few days later I thought it would be a great improv quilt.

But then the obstacles started to rise. I had SO many projects, and literally no room to work. I have some great Grunge fabrics i bought for an improv art quilt, but I couldn't find them. And what was the quilt going to mean, anyway? The original spark that made me laugh was gone. I got busy on all those other projects that I finished recently. 

Only... I kept thinking about it. 😂 But what was it going to mean? If it's just trivial is it even worth the time? If I try to make it more significant is the foundation strong enough to hold up? And where tf are those Grunge fabrics? My stash is toooo big. 🙄

This August the #30DaysOfImprovQAL started, and it seemed like a really good idea. I signed up, read the materials, watched the fun videos Shannon and Amanda put on Instagram, didn't start...

...because I realized the quilt i still want to make is this one. And I still don't know where those Grunge fabrics are, so I'm just going to use what I have at hand. 

This morning i was all set to pull solids for this quilt, because it's modern and improv and most people make word quilts with solids... and i didnt even do that. No more distractions, I'm just going to start where I am and see what happens. 

What's it going to mean? Idk.

What fabrics and colours am I going to use? Idk.

What am i going to call it? Idk but not idk. 😂 Hopefully something better will emerge.

Am I going to fall flat on my face? Maybe, but you just don't know until you try, right? I can tell you one thing. It's already bigger than I planned. 😅

I keep reading that as gold instead of cold. Maybe I'll run with that later. You can see i started with a mistake in hot too, but I left it. I filled in the right side with the leftover crumbs, which is kind of slow, so I hope I haven't set a bad precedent there.

We'll just have to see where it goes!

Good Fortune Flimsy

My version of Bonnie Hunter's 2018 mystery quilt Good Fortune is a finished flimsy! It's the first time I tried a dark background for one of her quilts, and I love how that worked out. If I start a new one I'm thinking I'd like to do a dark background again. 

It's also the first time I turned her design into a medallion by replacing the nine centre blocks with something else. I surrounded the Mariners Compass i discussed previously with some turned edge machine applique. Lucky coins and rubber tree leaves! The coins have been done for almost a year, but the leaves were inspired just recently by the AHIQ string tulip quilt.

The free-pieced tumbler strips i made for the border turned out to be short, so I filled in the corners with a few of those extra brown squares. Still plenty left. 😂 I'll probably use them in the next one too, if I do one. 

I keep saying "if" because I still have several other Quiltville quilts to finish, plus so many other large traditional quilts that have been started. I think I'm ready to try something intended more for art than function. I realized there's never going to be a perfect time so I may as well just start. I'll come back and finish these traditional quilts as a break between new projects. 

In any case, it's very satisfying to have this done and I'm very happy with how it turned out. My favourite so far!

It finished at 84.5" square, which is the size I prefer for a queen bed. 

Thanks again to Bonnie for another great mystery. The way she breaks down these complicated designs makes them very doable. I'm always amazed i made it!

String Tulips Sprouting Fast

So I'm done all my AHIQ String Tulip QAL blocks, and I'm a little sorry that I didn't capture most of the process that got me to this point. As i said in my last post, PC-based blogging just isn't working for me any more. Let's hope this mobile Blogger app will hold up.

These are a few pictures from my Instagram account, @lakeviewmonica. I realized today that I should blog first and Instagram after. So that's something to shoot for. 😄

Anyway, the main tweak i made to Ann's tulip blocks was the addition of those improv cut and pieced leaves in the background.  I used light greens for the leaves so they wouldn't overpower the tulips.

The stems and tulips are turned-edge machine applique. Both are stitched with a zigzag stitch in deep purple thread. I love using thread as a design element in applique I've decided. I tested first with machine blanket stitch, but the zigzag just looked better. And I have to admit my decision was influenced by the fact that zigzag is a utility stitch on my machine. Since AHIQ is largely about utility quilts and all. 😉

For now all the blocks are labeled and put away in a drawer. I've been trying to excavate my Design Bed of Shame (aka the spare bedroom bed) a little before I start this new improv quilt along on Instagram. I think there's only 3 current projects on it now.👍 Getting there!