London Fields - the Quilt

The pieces and parts for London Fields were cut

in December 2107 . . . 

Now, at last, the quilt is finished.

(no outdoor photos due to cold, wind, and rain)

Finished size is 52" wide x 64" long

Binding is a 2010 VIP Cranston stripe.

Quilted with my liberated fans and echoed flowers 

using Glide thread in Buttercup.

I cannot tell you how many times I changed my mind

about possible backing fabrics for this quilt top.

On Tuesday of this week I decided

to use this Sit and Snip yardage 

by Connie Haley for 3WishesFabric.

It turned out to be just what the top needed.

* * *

Next up on the quilting list?

Circumspect

Quiltdivajulie

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“It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.”

Pablo Casals

September Recap for 18 in 2018

For this month's recap, 

I'm starting with three projects

that seemed like marvelous ideas

but turned out to be less than I'd hoped.

The first involved a bundle of scraps from Mari.

I had planned to keep them all together,

plus adding in a few more from my stash,

to make a scrappy string-ish kind of quilt.

The more I worked with it,

the less it spoke to me . . . 

So I am going to share 

the low volume strips and bits

with a friend who is short on those 

and the rest is now back in my stash.

The second involved these fabrics 

from the Outback Wife line.

I love their stories and textures,

but no matter how I've tried to use them,

they came out dark, off-balance, and un-inspiring.

As a result, they've been handed off to someone else

who is wildly excited about them.

The third change-of-direction this month

involved my autumn tree quilt.

These untrimmed blocks left me disappointed.

The individual fabrics are okay,

but the feel of the mix just doesn't work.

It doesn't help that autumn is not 

my favorite season of the year, either.

This idea will return, but not in this form.

(go check out  Lynne tree plans shared here)

On the QUILTING front, 

I quilted and finished two quilts this month.

Scrappy Bow Ties (above) 

and 

Flummadiddle (below)

I didn't get to the other two 

that were on my September goals list,

but they will happen during October - 

one way or another.

One the PIECING front:

I pieced this top and donated it to 

a local guild's Hospice project

as part of my 2018 comfort quilts effort.

I converted my 25-patch low volume project into 

Just Because - a modified scrap vortex style quilt top.

This one really helped empty the neutral crumb boxes.

I finally finished piecing the London Fields quilt top.

AND I finished piecing the top of Tea Party

for our local show's annual challenge.

(this one MUST be quilted during early October

since turn-in days are October 30-31)

And last but not least, on the Squirrel Club front:

I spent a lot of time rearranging the stash

(and the studio itself)

due to the arrival of this bookshelf.

I spent time putting together 

annual photo books for the quilts I've made

during the last fourteen years.

I celebrated a major milestone birthday

and our older son celebrated his 40th.

I turned these into a series of step-out blocks

for the two Freeform Pinwheels classes

I'll be teaching in mid-October.

(design from Sujata's Cultural Fusion Quilts)

After week one's classes,

these step-outs will be turned into a quilt top

so I can use it in during week two's classes

when we talk about layout and assembly.

I also cut out pieces and parts to make

four additional Christmas quilts.

* * *

It was a busy month for so many reasons

and October promises to be even more hectic.

One stitch at a time . . . 

Quiltdivajulie

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"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

Steve Jobs

London Fields - the Flimsy

I was completely surprised at how quickly

these twenty blocks went together.

Larger pieces and longer straight seams

clearly made that possible.

Sewing the blocks together went quickly, too.

So now there is a finished flimsy on my design wall!

I'm going to go ahead and call this one

London Fields, just like the pattern name,

since I honestly can't think of it any other way.

Here are a series of close up photos

so you can see more of the scrappy goodness.

Upper left hand corner

Upper right hand corner

Middle left section

Middle right section

Lower left corner

And the lower right corner

I need to pull out this yardage for the back,

cut it into lengths, and sew the center seam.

Then London Fields can join  (L to R)

Flummadiddle, Tea Party, and sCRUMBtious

in the ready to be sandwiched/basted/quilted pile.

Quiltdivajulie

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"I get great satisfaction in creating a visual oasis to gaze at 
for a moment of peaceful escape from the turbulent world."
Evelyn Dayman

Beginning Again

To celebrate finishing the top and back for Tea Party,

I pulled out my long-stalled London Fields project.

I made the scrappy HSTs months ago -

in fact my original plan was to make this quilt

as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for 2018.

That did not happen for a variety of reasons.

London Fields is a pattern by Frankie and Ray.

I used their Aunt Bet's Quilt as the starting point

for the back of Retired last year.

All of the pieces and parts were cut long ago

and sorted using my plate system,

so all I had to do was sit down and start stitching.

And did it ever feel good.

These are so very, very scrappy.

It might make some people nervous,

but I know from experience that 

if you want to go scrappy, 

then you need to go all-out.

The next block is laid out and waiting for me.

I've modified the pattern's layout 

to create a 20-block quilt top --

enough to play with the pattern and scrappiness,

but not so much to be stuck on this for weeks on end.

Quiltdivajulie

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"The emotion of hoping expands out of itself, makes people wider instead of narrower; insatiable, it wants to know what makes people purposeful on the inside and what might be allied with them on the outside."
Ernst Bloch -The Principle of Hope, 1959

September Goals

There was a bit of online stash enhancement recently . . . .

For the sake of accountability,

I'm setting out some goals for September.

Some in the studio and some not.

. . . thanks to a $15.00 off coupon and 40% off clearance fabrics sale at eQuilter.com.

I want to quilt and finish at least four quilts -

Tea Party, 

Flummadiddle, 

sCRUMBtious, 

and my 2016 scrappy bow ties top

which still needs a proper name.

(suggestions are more than welcome)

I want to work on at least one 

of my long-stalled projects

and move it to flimsy status.

And late September was to be

 the beginning point for the I am enough QAL.

But I am not going to participate after all.

I am going to use the fabrics I had pulled in anticipation

to make the Quiltfolk Pattern No. 3 Source quilt

beginning late in the month

and carrying over into October.

And then in October 

(moving into November)

I want to make the 

Quiltfolk Pattern No. 3 Revival quilt,

albeit in a much scrappier color-way.

These are much more "my" kind of quilts 

plus I can make them at my own pace

instead of having to follow a 3-month QAL.

Finally, now that the weather is cooling a bit,

I also want to paint the two exterior doors

on the back of the house red 

so they match the front doors

and the one on DH's workshop.

Time will tell . . .

Quiltdivajulie

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"Success depends on getting good at saying no without feeling guilty. You cannot get ahead with your own goals if you are always saying yes to someone else's projects."
Jack Canfield