Clear the Decks

So, remember that WIP list? It grew. I couldn't help myself! But the more I talked about that list the more embarrassed I was. Not so much overwhelmed, but shamed by it. Was I that incapable of finishing something? What was I avoiding by constantly giving in to my impulse to create new things? (Oh the therapy required...) Really, though, I just get excited by new ideas and put all things aside to create. I know I'm not alone in that.

I also know that I was putting off quilting a very large quilt. The literal elephant in my sewing room was my anniversary quilt. King sized, already basted, thread in hand, and the dread of quilting that on my home machine. Totally doable, but daunting in thought. I also knew that finishing it would be freeing, not to mention kind of me since this was an anniversary present for our anniversary last year.

So I grabbed my specially purchased pink thread. (Thank-you Andrea for helping me pick it.) I loaded up my bobbins and some Downton Abbey. And I also cleaned off my design wall and packed away the WIPs I've been playing with. No distractions! I think that was the hardest part. And the most necessary.

So, this morning, after a few hours of quilting I don't feel like I made much of a dent in the quilting, but I started. And I'm not even sitting at the table to type this. I am not taking that quilt off the table until it is done. I swear. No new projects until the label is on this thing and it graces our bed.

Hold me to it.

Circles Inside a Pieced Background

More circles going on here. Shocker!

Someone in my Craftsy class asked about doing inset circles inside pieced backgrounds. I promised to try and let them know how it worked. What a fun experiment! I took leftover blocks from the Denyse Schmidt class at QuiltCon. No one claimed these early improv efforts and I couldn't let them go to waste. I took them with no plan and here they are.

As you can see, the blocks were not the same size. I created a random circle template and used it on both blocks. So the circle is the same size, but that's it. I'll likely trim things down and sew the blocks together. After I make more, of course.

And, for the record, it totally works to use a pieced block as the background. 

Workshop in Progress - Inspired by a Little Boy Painting

Sometimes inspiration hits and you just have to run with it. Regardless of what the to-do list looks like. The moment I saw this photo I knew I would translate it into fabric. There was just something about the energy of his painting, the colours, the shape... It all combined into a flood of Must Make That Into a Quilt Now!

My friend here in Calgary, Katrina, is often inspired by an artist friend of hers, Shimon Kate, so I find it kind of interesting that I was inspired by art in her family. Overlapping circles formed everywhere.

Here's where I'm at now (thanks to a random afternoon with school/playdate and sick baby taking a long nap). When I first started I envisioned it with four blocks. Something about emphasizing the notion of a quadrant. Now that I see these together I still like that. But it needs to be sized up and filled in a bit. Right now this would only make a wall hanging. And I want those red strips to be floating between each other more.

Or, I could make more... or not have such a precise layout. (I am a bit worried about the defining lines that would be created when these become 4 actual blocks. I think I can manage that with judicious fabric placement, but maybe not.)

Any other thoughts? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Superior Quilt Show

I'm not sure how many people go to Thunder Bay and say they had an awesome time (unless you are from a town in Northern Ontario and Thunder Bay counts as the big city) but I am officially one of them.

Last weekend I spent three days in Thunder Bay. Three very intense and fun days. I met some wonderful people who were incredibly generous of their time and spirit. I taught such an eager group of students that I was jazzed at the end of each day when they were tuckered out. And they all learned to embrace their scraps. I laughed in front of a crowd of over 100 as I told my stories and shared my quilts. I eagerly walked the show floor (and spent money) to take in the full range of quilts from thread painting to modern and everything in between.

(Made and quilted by Wendy Currie)

I walked on the waterfront of a still iced over Lake Superior (at least by the shore) and took pictures of the most awesome public sculptures ever. I drank beer with an air traffic controller/quilter. And all while keeping company with a carousel horse.

Thank-you very much to the Thunder Bay Quilt Guild for bringing me to your city, your show. it was wonderful.