Peace

Peace.

Both a complex and simple thing. We all know we need it and it is about the hardest thing to create.

As a quilter, a creative soul, I find peace when I see, cut, play, sew, and even fold my fabric. I get inspired by the creations of the designers or other quilters. And when I get those moments - whether they are stolen in the early mornings, between naps and loads of laundry or I am luxuriating in an entire morning of hot tea and a pile of fabric - I find my peace.

Sure, there are many among us who love and adore solid fabrics and revel in the quiet energy they reveal in a quilt. I am not one of them. I love exploring the patterns and concepts that designers put out there. I love playing with the patterns, mixing it up and seeing who plays nicely together. I like creating order from that potential playground catastrophe.

there is peace in pattern

My jumping point for the fabric selection, and the inspiration for this piece definitely comes from this stack of Architextures from Carolyn Friedlander and a strong compulsion to create.

Free pieced letters, a la Unruly Quilter. Slabs upon slabs as we outline in Sunday Morning Quilts. A design wall to bring it together.

And there was peace.

Making Progress

I promised myself that I wouldn't start anything new, nothing at all, until at least two things on that massive WIP list got done. Two steps forward, one step back is the story of my life after all. Seeing as I'm desperate to play with some new fabric, need to make a couple or three stockings, and there are pillows needed for our new sofa I thought I better get going on getting things done.

So here is an update:

- Anniversary Quilt is now basted, thanks to Lee, her big family room floor, and her daughter keeping my littles entertained.
- Maple Leaves is quilted and waiting for its binding later today.
- Wine Gums is half quilted, binding already picked out.
- Gum on Concrete is also basted.

It must also be stated that I picked out the fabric for the pillows for the new sofa (and bought the pillow forms) as well as drafted my plan for the Architextures fabric.

Oh, and while helping Lee baste a charm quilt yesterday I remembered that I have 2000+ charms for a Y2K charm swap I did 13 years ago! The box is somewhere in the garage, hopefully not being used as a nest for mice. I think that might win for my oldest UFO.

Two steps forward, one step back.

Thirty Three

You know when you move or at least do a major clean you uncover a wicked amount of crap... er, stuff? Yeah that.

Yesterday two of my local quilty friends, Andrea and Lee, came over to help me get prepped and start moving my scattered quilting stuff to my new space in the basement. It isn't quite done yet, hopefully by the end of the week. But the closets are in and were ready to be loaded. So load and fold and inventory we did.

I love my fabric, but I must finally admit that I do indeed have enough. I've really got to use more before I buy more. Or find it a new home. But I've known that for a while. What was more.shocking to me was the amount of quilt tops, WIPs, and intentional quilts that I had.

O   M   G

Instead of burying it all back in bins and ignoring that I might perhaps have a problem with starting and not finishing quilts I decided to actually inventory all those piles. And because I believe in full disclosure of my faults here is a full listing of all the projects awaiting my attention. I've numbered them for full effect.

Quilt Tops - Ready for Quilting

1. Anniversary Quilt
2. Cosmos Blocks
3. Wine Gums
4. Improv Sampler
5. My version of Checkerboard from Sunday Morning Quilts
6. Slaveship Quilt Inspired by The Book of Negroes
7. Gum on Concrete, my version of Splash from Sunday Morning Quilts
8. An old Amy Butler quilt top I picked up a sample sale

Quilts - Basted and Started Quilting

9. Girlie Quilt
10. Low Volume Circles

Works in Progress

11. Mid Mod Bee - Blocks to be assembled into a top
12. Unscripted Bee - Waiting for a couple of blocks, then to be assembled
13. Hand Pieced Diamonds - always ongoing
14. More Cosmic Burst blocks - I have a whole other set of blocks for a baby quilt
15. Voiles - Still cutting and piecing every now and then
16. Name quilt for my daughter - haven't done anything since this post
17. Chandelier quilt - was so close, then discovered a big mistake and have never fixed it
18. Mountain Meadows - have made no more blocks since
19. Liberty Circles - I make a handful every now and then but I'm still not assembling the top
20. Blue and green Christmas Tree quilt - I cut the pieces last year then promptly put them away
21. The alternate pink/black/white blocks I started when working on the girlie quilt
22. Respite - a project started in a Bill Kerr design workshop
23. Pieced Stars - a BOM I started years ago when I wanted to do some precision piecing breaks when doing a lot of improv
24. Japanese Curves - Fell in love with a Japanese fabric and a curvy pattern, took a class, never finished
25. The Water Quilt
26. Maple Leaves

Class Samples (Pieces I work on while teaching, as examples)

27. A values quilt in neutrals
28. Green/Yellow/Orange Improv blocks

Intentional Quilts

29. Sympatico and Organic solid stack
30. Lucky Penny Bike Path
31. Some vintage feedsacks intended for Amanda's quilt from Fresh Fabric Treats
32. Turkey reds, blues, and whites for a striped project
33. A collection of screen printed and low-volume favourites

To cap all this off, as Andrea and Lee were leaving the mail arrived, and in it was a fat quarter collection of Architextures, my friend Carolyn's new line.

O  M  G
!

Maple Leaves Update

So close to getting the Maple Leaves done... I really hoped that they would be done by now and I could show them off on my new design wall. Alas, Hubby's real job is the focus of his time, not the finishing details in the basement. (We're also waiting on a ceiling product that I procrastinated on ordering, so it isn't all his fault.)

As far as I'd planned I have one more leaf to make. That will make 12 in total. And a finished quilt size of 48'' by 72''. This makes it lap size and still rectangular to mimic the flag shape.

For additional colours I've added in yellow and turquoise - in homage to the Ukrainian flag, my cultural heritage. I've also played with value, making some flags in low-volume fabrics for a different look.

In case you were wondering, I am going to set this without any sashing. I'm not keen to add any additional colours and I don't want to use white and take away from the center portion of the flag. It might also be that I have a thing against sashing.

Many folks have asked for a template and pattern for these. I am definitely going to put something together, but it will be at least a month from now. I need to get the house in order and I'd like to actually finish the quilt.