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

-----------------------------------------------
“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

-----------------------------------------------
“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

Overdue Times Three

Partly Sunny has been clipped and ready

to assemble for a month.

Feliz Navidad has been that way even longer.

Luminous is also waiting patiently.

* * *

It is time to sit and sew these together.

I really need to stop procrastinating

(by working on projects that are more fun)

and get these projects sewn together

along with the double four-patch 

(top and back)

shared in the previous post.

One thing at a time.

Quiltdivajulie

Not a Mystery and More

While the 35 blocks hung out on the design wall,

I thought a lot about a comment Jan O. shared

last time I posted about this quilt.

She used the word "luminous"

and I realized that was a perfect quilt name.

But what to do with Not a Mystery,

which I also thought was a decent quilt name?

As I was taking blocks off the wall,

a solution dawned on me.

This is my fourth quilt project 

inspired by one of Bonnie Hunter's

annual mystery quilts.

So  . . .

I created a new page here on the blog

and titled it NOT A MYSTERY

It features Dandelion Detour,

Joy in the Journey, Party Hat Optional,

and now Luminous.

Naming problem solved!

* * *

Our master bath renovation has started with

most of the noisy (!) demolition completed.

While they are working downstairs,

I have been upstairs cleaning up the studios

and updating/editing project files/boxes.

I also laid out and assembled 

the second and third quilt tops

from 70273 Project block drives

held locally after last fall's Davies show.

The long skinny top (No. 768) is pin basted and

the other one (No. 767) is ready for basting.

I also pin basted the final two sample barn blocks

to be used when I teach from BUILD A BARN

at Fabric for the Flock in August and October.

Now when the mood to quilt strikes,

these will be ready for action.

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------
"Making progress is a process, so take it one step at a time."
Ziarising

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

Weekend Studio Notes

Pressing a few HSTs each time the iron was turned on,

all of the blocks for Partly Sunny are now flat 

and ready to be laid out on a design wall.

(this is the quilt top I unstitched 

because I didn't like the layout)

This photo also shows my newly re-covered ironing table.

(fabric from Bernie's Needle and Foot Etsy shop)

On the left are the final untrimmed 

strip segments for Not A Mystery.

The segments on the right 

have been trimmed to 4.5" wide.

And here are the seventeen remaining center sections

ready to have their "molten caramel" 

side triangles sewn in place.

As I stitched these center segments

I used the pinned pairs of triangles 

for Sea of HSTs as leader-enders.

Here are some of the pressed HSTs --

I'll take them with me to our 

Wednesday quilt group and

snip the corner ears/square as needed

while we sit and chat.

I also spent a fair bit of time

sorting through the mountain of low volume fabrics

Mari shared with me last year.

Mixing her fabrics with some of mine,

this group of 5" x 10" rectangle pairs

is ready to run through the die cutter to

make a subdued half hexagon quilt.

(the two folded fabrics at the top

will be used for backing)

And this group (mostly my fabrics) is cut 

and ready to sew into a rail fence style quilt.

The best part is that the two bulging boxes 

of gifted low volume fabrics are now empty.

* * *

This week I want to 

finish up the blocks for Not a Mystery

and get started on the quilting of 

Quilt No. 697 for the 70273 Project.

And as I work, I want to keep this thought in mind:

(double click to read the quote more easily)

Quiltdivajulie

Fabric Info

For those who have asked --

this is the info for the background fabric

in my Not a Mystery quilt project.

Caveat:  I bought this several years ago

and I don't know if it is still available.

Quiltdivajulie

Change of Pace

After so many days of purples, greens, and grays,

I needed a change of pace color-wise so I pulled out

my Not a Mystery project for the U and U QAL.

I pieced ten more center string/strip sets

and trimmed them to 4.5" wide before

adding 1.5" red batik strips to the sides.

The red, green, blue, and orange segments

 in the project box are wider and I will be 

using those for the ends of the strip/string sets 

to prevent too-small pieces in the block corners.

(I re-discovered them when I pulled out

the box to get my red batik strips)

Eighteen blocks done.

Seventeen more to go.

(these are on the wall in the design studio -

Catharsis is still lolly-gagging on 

the design wall in my sewing studio)

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------
"Seven Wonders of the World -- 
to see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to feel, to laugh, and to love."

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

-----------------------------

"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