InspiRED - the Quilt

inspiRED aka Inspi(RED) aka InspiRED is finished.

(I used multiple variations of spelling along the way)

Finished size 48" wide x 60" long. 

The colorful inserts were trimmings from the making of

LUMINOUS, my 2018 NOT a Mystery quilt project.

Design inspired by Amanda Jean Nyberg's Bright Birch Trees.

Quilted with liberated baptist fans and Glide thread in Apple Red.

Backing - Cassandra by Robert Kaufman.

Binding - Moda Bella solid red.

This finish absolutely counts for the early-2019 

RED challenge over on the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters blog.

Quiltdivajulie

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“Listen to your own voice, your own soul.  Too many people listen to the noise of the world instead of themselves.  Deep inside you know what you want; let no one decide that for you.”

Leon Brown

Inspi(red) - The Flimsy

The idea for this quilt arrived in February of this year

as I trimmed the strip-pieced center panels for Luminous.

I've always wanted to make my version of

Amanda Jean Nyberg's Birch Trees design -

and this was the perfect opportunity.

I could combine the already-pieced skinny insert strips

with reds from the stash and count this project

 towards the AHIQ Red is a Neutral challenge.

I've also always wanted to make a RED quilt -

so the collision of timing with all these elements

was absolutely perfect for me.

The finished top measures 48" wide x 60" long

and features 20 different red fabrics from my stash.

I found a very red reproduction print in the stash 

that will work beautifully for the back -- 

another bit of fortunate timing.

Inspi(RED) makes me VERY happy!

And I have another empty project box.

Quiltdivajulie

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“Think and wonder, wonder and think.”
Dr. Seuss

Luminous - the Quilt Top and Back

I last posted about this project HERE

when all of the blocks were finished.

The project's introduction post is HERE.

I also shared it early on over at the AHIQ group blog

(click HERE for that post)

and on Sujata's Basket Full of Scraps blog 

as part of the Unconventional and Unexpected Challenge.

(click HERE for that post)

Created using the process described in

 Teresa Rawson's X Marks the Block tutorial.

(permanent link in the sidebar)

And now, eight months later,

I have a finished quilt top AND a pieced back.

The top measures 50" x 60"

For those of you eagle-eyed readers, 

I made 35 blocks but the top contains 30.

Why the change?  

Mostly because this saturated pieced backing 

wasn't quite long enough for the final row

and the resulting 70" length.

(Note added later:

This quilt top and back were gifted to a friend

whose husband fell head over heels for it)

I used four of the leftover blocks

to piece this 20" square table mat

for our dining room table.

Quilted using my favorite 

liberated free motion fans

and Glide thread in Tomato.

DH's newly wood-turned bowl looks spectacular on it.

* * *

And for those wondering where 

my weekly Optic Strings update is,

I took last week off on that project.

Hope to get back on track with it this week.

* * *

And this precious young man

is now THREE years old.

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Thank you for the pure joy

you've brought to our lives.

Quiltdivajulie

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“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, and the alienation from the sources of our strength.” 

Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

35 Blocks on the Wall

Hooray!

All thirty-five blocks for Not a Mystery

are done and laid out on the design wall.

I am still surprised each time I walk into the room

 at how much I like this background fabric.

I am glad it waited in the stash for such a long time

just so it could be part of this quilt.

Now it is time to get busy and sew these blocks together

along with the completed blocks for Catharsis . . . 

then I'll have TWO flimsies to share!

Quiltdivajulie

NOT a Mystery - Update

Note:  Some of you may have seen this post 

over the weekend on the AHIQ Group Blog 

or on Sujata's Basket of Scraps blog - 

but I'm sharing it here as well 

so it becomes part of my own blog record.

This is the quilt from Unconventional and Unexpected

that Sujata suggested for the U and U quilt along.

I knew from the beginning that I would not

be making mine in the style of the original,

so I've been waiting to see which direction

my version would take.

In the meantime, I ran across this vintage beauty

photographed by Ann Champion and shared on Flickr.

And my brain immediately leaped to a quilt design

I've made twice before.

This version named Happy Happy Joy Joy, 

or HHJJ for short, was made 

during the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

And this version, named Girly Girl,

 was made shortly thereafter

to celebrate our great niece's birth.

In HHJJ, I used strings to fill in the side triangles.

In Girly Girl, I used half square triangles.

So with the design method settled,

I moved on to my waiting fabric pulls.

I had pulled these scrappy pieces

shortly after Bonnie Hunter introduced

her 2018 Good Fortune mystery quilt.

I never planned to make her mystery quilt

but I was drawn to the colors and her inspiration.

Double click to see greater detail

This photo was taken by our DIL in the Forbidden City 

during one of her Asian business trips.

It captures Bonnie's inspirational color palette perfectly.

(I even used this photo as my desktop wallpaper 

back when I was working at the law firm)

I also had this fabric pull set aside

for the current AHIQ Red challenge.

Once I started looking, the overlap between the two

was obvious and they quickly became one project

that suits both the UandU QAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge.

With the intensity of my colors,

it was clear the low volume prints

needed an upgrade.

This long-stashed Marblehead was my choice.

  

I pulled these four fabrics from the stash

to use for the quilt's pieced back.

Initially I was not going to add the narrow strips

along the sides of the center insert.

But when I cut one WOF strip of a well-aged red batik

and laid it alongside the first pieced center segment 

you can see the results -- Those rich red 1" strips 

simply HAD to be part of this quilt.

I'm planning a layout 5 blocks wide x 7 blocks long

for a top that will measure 50" x 70" 

8 blocks made, 27 more to go.

And when I trim the center strips to 4.5" wide,

these marvelous lengths are the cutaways.

I already have a plan to use them 

in another small quilt!

Hooray for the UandUQAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge

and for shopping my stash to create this project.

Quiltdivajulie

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"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  What you'll discover will be wonderful.  What you'll discover is yourself."

Alan Alda

NOT a Mystery Begins

I pulled these pieces from my resource boxes

after the introductory post for Bonnie Hunter's

2018 mystery quilt.

I knew I wasn't going to make Good Fortune

but the colors and the inspiration appealed to me

and I named my project NOT a Mystery.

A few weeks later,

I shared this photo of a fabric pull

for the latest AHIQ Red challenge.

(the two fabrics in the middle will be 

used to create a pieced backing)

This is the quilt that Sujata is focusing on for the beginning

of her Unconventional and Unexpected QAL.

I knew I wasn't going to make mine her way

but I also hadn't settled on how to proceed.

And then I ran across this vintage scrappy

shared by Ann Champion on Flickr.

And my plan was born.

I added some blues, greens, and golds

in keeping with the colors of the backing fabrics.

(teapots and the paisley/floral)

and realized just HOW similar this palette was

to what I had pulled for NOT a Mystery.

Hmmmmm . . . 

So now the two projects have become one

and I've started cutting strips to piece scrappy segments.

* * *

And as much as I'd like to dive in head first 

and sew, sew, sew, life has other plans for me.

The next few weeks will be busy 

with teaching and presenting both at my local quilt shop 

and for Kevin's Scrap Club near St. Louis.

They will also be filled with several transition meetings

now that I've been nominated to the Board of Directors  

for the Davies Manor Association.

Not only am I a new board member

but I've also been elected President

to take over in late March since

the current (and entirely amazing) President 

is retiring and moving out of town.

For the short term, 

I'm predicting there will be fewer blog posts.

We'll see how things go!

Quiltdivajulie

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"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
Roald Dahl

Catching My Breath

Omigosh - my head is so full of good ideas . . . 

I mentioned a while back that I plan

to participate in the QAL Sujata is hosting

based on Roderick Kiracofe's book.

After spending several hours with the book

and the various fabrics pulls in project boxes,

I have settled on eight different inspiration quilts.

EIGHT?!?!?!

Yes, eight.

Some are strings which will also fit with

Lori's #stringalong2019.

(part two of her intro is HERE)

Others are perfect for the #UANDUQAL.

(participants are posting to the group blog HERE)

Still others are perfect for the #AHIQRed challenge.

And ALL of them use fabrics from the stash,

many of which had been  pulled and 

were just waiting for their destiny to arrive

But which one to start first?!!

I have narrowed it down to two . . .

One involves these low volumes plus a bit of red.

The other involves this fabric pull

inspired by Bonnie Hunter's recent

 Good Fortune mystery quilt palette

plus more reds and a bit of yellow.

But first . . .

I must finish assembling Someday is Now

which has languished on the design wall

since early December.

One seam at a time.

Quiltdivajulie

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