Starting vs Finishing

You'd think being under stay-at-home orders I'd find time to blog. Sadly that hasn't been the case. I have been having fun playing with fabric combinations though. These are potential new quilts. Bright. Happy. Can't wait to start these.

I fell out of the blogging routine the year my daughter got married. Three years ago next month. I managed one post a month for the last 2 years but somehow this year it just completely dropped off. During that time I have been quilting. Really. I have. Just check out my Instagram @springleafstudios for quilting and my other IG account @springleafcolor for color inspiration.

It finally dawned on me that one of the biggest reasons I haven't kept up with blogging is because I tend to only write about finished quilts. And if you know me even a little, you know finishing isn't my strong point. I'm much much better at starting.

So instead of waiting for the next finish, I'm sharing where things are at the moment. Today. May 2020.

I have two new tops and the backing ready to send out for quilting. These two were both pieced during the Covid-19 quarantine and I'm anxious to finish them.

I also made a quarantine quilt I'm calling Looking on the Bright Side. Here's a portion of it. I'm not happy with the border so it's under contemplation. More later once I resolve what I want to do with it.

I have five quilts waiting for binding. Some of them have been quilted for a year. The binding is prepared. I even do most all my binding by machine now. What can I say? No good reason they aren't done. Top quilt here has priority because it's my new favorite. It's also the newest top to be quilted. Blog post soon I promise.

I have many projects in various stages of being cut or ready to piece. One of the top ones was for the 100 day project. I cut the circles and sewed the background blocks in anticipation of appliqueing a circle every day. Didn't happen. I don't think I'm cut out to do one small thing a day. I tend to be all or nothing.

The biggest UFO is my bento box quilt started as a demonstration for the QAYG presentation I did for my guild. That was in 2018! Once the presentation was over it was out of sight out of mind. But since my daughter claimed this one, I finally got back to it earlier this year. I'm doing spiral quilting on each big block and love the look. 17 down and 8 more to go. Hopefully I wrote down the measurements for the joining strips. It worked perfectly for the demo. Check out the QAYG posts here to learn more.

Here's a few photos of other projects and fabric pulls. Will I finish any of these anytime soon? Or will I start something completely new?

I hope you are finding time and motivation to quilt during Covid 19. Some days are better than others for me. Some days I'm fired up and can't wait to start the next quilt. Some days I'm not motivated for anything. Most days I should simply try to finish the projects already underway. Starting vs finishing. It will be an ongoing battle for me but at least it's progress. I always feel like I'm moving forward.

How about you? Are you moving forward on projects during quarantine?

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Quilty Update

Bit by bit I'm making progress on my quilt-as-you-go projects that I wrote about last month. All 25 blocks are now done for the bento box quilt. I really struggled with these blocks for reasons I'm still not clear on but once they were cut into quarters and rearranged into the final blocks things got better.

I had to clear a wall in my bedroom and put up a queen sized piece of batting in order to have enough design space to work. Not the best lighting but I go to bed staring at all the fun fabric combinations.

I chose spiral quilting for the blocks and so far have 3 done. It's just so much easier to spiral quilt something small.

I also finally made an attempt at free motion quilting the first row of my disappearing 9-patch quilt today. I'm using a new to me QAYG method for this one and am hoping it works. If this method goes well I might use it to make a new version of my Cascade pattern because the design lends itself well to quilting in columns.

I've only got a month to go before my QAYG presentation for my guild. Now that I'm getting the swing of things, there are so many other ideas I'd like to make as samples. Just not sure if I'll have time.
Wish me luck.

I'll write a more thorough post about the whole experience later in September. Until then, hope you're enjoying summer and your making.

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In the Works

Seems like I haven't posted many quilty things on the blog lately so unless you follow me on Instagram it might not seem like I'm quilting anymore. Trust me though . . . I am. Several different projects are actually in the works.

In the fall, I'm scheduled to do a presentation on quilt-as-you-go techniques to my guild. I have very little QAYG experience but have always wanted to learn. Since the quilting part is my least favorite thing, I've often wondered if QAYG might be a good solution to my 'fear of free motion'.  FOFM.  No better way to learn something new than by committing to demonstrate it to others. Wish me luck.  : )

I have a disappearing 9-patch that is pieced and ready for quilting. Fell in love with this print that I picked up last year and then filled in with various yellows, pinks, corals, and oranges. These are the big 9-patches before cutting them up. As you can see, I added lattice to the blocks after seeing this quilt by my friend Elizabeth of OPQuilt. My blocks aren't as big because I wanted more blocks for more variety while still having a relatively small lap quilt.

This is how it looks pieced into rows. Next up will be a new to me quilt-as-you go method done row by row.

I have also pulled out all my old fruit and veggie fabrics. I plan to use them by making napkins, QAYG placemats, maybe even a QAYG picnic quilt. Given their end use, I decided to prewash which I don't usually do. What a mess of threads that made!

I still have one more small load to wash and then I'll get started. Summer is the season when I use fruit and veggie dishes as part of my kitchen/dining decor so these will fit in nicely. Just need to get them done before summer is over.

For the last several days, my studio has been swimming with fabric in aquas, dark teal/blues and chartreuse as I cut for a bento box quilt. Years ago I became intrigued with an aqua/chartreuse color scheme I saw in a gift shop and have been collecting fabrics ever since.

Initially I couldn't decide what quilt to make with this collection. I've always wanted to make both a bento box quilt and an x-plus quilt. The bento box won out because it fit quite well with the QAYG technique I plan to try. I'm using a modified version of the Modified Bento Box Block tutorial by Film in the Frig. I changed up some of the strip widths to better showcase the large scale prints in my fabrics. Seeing this quilt by Anne of Play-Crafts also helped me decide on this design because the color scheme is somewhat similar to mine.

Once the pattern was chosen, the cutting began. I pulled lots and lots and lots of fabrics. And the mess grew and grew. Then it was unfold. Iron. Cut. Cut some more. Cutting was way more time consuming than I expected once I began to consider which fabrics to cut into which widths. In many cases I cut several different widths from a single fabric but in some cases I didn't have enough for more than one width. Here are some of the first strip combinations.

My original plan was a large lap quilt but once my daughter saw the fabrics she feel in love and this has doubled in size to a queen. I have 12 blocks sewn and quartered and 13 more to go. That means more cutting and more fabric combinations for the new blocks. Slowly I'm getting there. Right now it looks like this.

This one will be a long time in the making since I'm doing a QAYG for this too. It will certainly be a good test of making a large quilt using QAYG methods and I'm more than little apprehensive about it. Wish me more luck.

I'll share more about my exploration into quilt-as-you-go after the presentation. It should be an interesting experience with plenty of pros and cons along the way. I was quite surprised at how many different QAYG techniques there are once I started researching. Marianne at The Quilting Edge is the master as far as I'm concerned. Her work is amazing. She has some good tutorials on her method which you can find here.

 Have you used QAYG techniques and if so, do you have a favorite method?

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