Heliophilia - the Quilt

Heliophilia (love of sunlight) is finished.

(for such a sunny quilt, it was a very gray day to take outdoor photos)

The first time I posted about this quilt top is HERE.

The scrappy pieced backing was sewn together in November 2017.

and was originally intended for Partly Sunny.  

The top for Partly Sunny had a long and winding story -

you can read parts of it HERE 

.  

I am so glad that Lynne didn't want to use the backing

because I absolutely love it!

Liberated unmarked free motion quilting  

with my beloved all over fans and flowers

(with a few paisleys and pebbles added for good measure)

using Glide thread in Buttercup.

48" x 60" 

* * *

In other outside-the-studio news - 

DH and I received our first doses of COVID vaccine yesterday.

Younger son gets his second dose today.

The on-site drive-through process was a breeze

compared to the frustrating and erratic online appointment systems.

Funny (not "ha ha" funny) story -

The online system used for the second doses flaked out multiple times

while trying to get him registered for an appointment -

and then we ended up with two appointments

on two different days in two different locations.

I spent enough time on hold cancelling the extra one

that I was able to attach the binding to Heliophilia

and have all but the last few inches flipped to the back 

and machine-sewn down - thank goodness for speaker phones!)

Quiltdivajulie

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“She turned to the sunlight.  And shook her yellow head and whispered to her neighbor: ‘Winter is dead.’”

A.A. Milne

 

Partly Sunny - the Flimsy

The first time I shared this project was

 almost two years ago in November 2017.

The plan was for 374 die cut 3" finished 

HSTs laid out 17 wide x 22 long

using 48 fabrics - 24 yellows and 24 grays.

The fabrics had been pulled back in June 2017

but it took another few months to settle on a design.

As things progressed, the layout changed to 16 x 20

for a top that would measure 48" x 60"

And then, things changed in a big way.

I decided to abandon the single orientation 

approach and instead used the HSTs 

to piece Depression blocks.

It happened because I just couldn't face

pinning and stitching 320 individual HSTs together.

(I hadn't learned Wanda's webbing system 

from her Colorwash 360 class yet - 

I'm so glad I took the class and learned her method)

This post from January 2018  

shows the results of that decision.

And then the quilt top . . .

and the scrappy back hung in the closet.

I knew I wasn't in love with the revised layout

but I kept hoping I'd fall back in love with it.

It didn't happen.

In January 2019 I shared this post

and began unstitching the entire quilt top.

One HST at a time, I felt better and better about my decision.

 In April 2019 I shared those unstitched HST blocks

on the design wall as they were originally intended.

The blocks were clipped together

 and prepped for webbing the top together.

But then they again sat in the project box waiting.

Until a week or so ago when I sewed them all together.

After pressing the new quilt top,

I happily pinned it to the design wall.

Oh, NO -- there's ONE HST turned the wrong way!

Being a liberated quilter, 

I would normally chuckle and move on.

But in this case, that one errant block

was all anyone who saw the photo could see.

So I did a bit of surgical unstitching

to remove that block and turn it around the right way.

And here is the result.

At long last, Partly Sunny is a flimsy worth finishing.

The best part is that this scrappy back 

is already pieced and 

the flanged binding is already made.

One day in the not too distant future

Partly Sunny WILL be quilted and finished.

Quiltdivajulie

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“I believe that curiosity, wonder, and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.” 
Kay Redfield Jamison

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

Partly Sunny on the Design Wall

I started this quilt top in September 2017.

It reached flimsy status in January 2018.

Then it spent a year in the closet waiting to be quilted.

In January 2019 I decided to take the flimsy apart

in order to go back to this layout

since I never really liked the other one.

And now those liberated HSTs 

are laid out on the design wall once again.

This layout makes me so much happier.

Now all 320 HST blocks have been

carefully taken off the design wall and

clipped/labeled so they're ready to be sewn together.

* * *

One day in the not too distant future

there will be a new and vastly improved flimsy to share.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Just be yourself.  Let the world see the real, imperfect, flawed, quirky, weird, beautiful, magical person that you are."
Mandy Hale

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

Progress on Several Fronts

All 48 blocks for Dumpster Diving 5-Catharsis are pieced!

Over the next week, 

I want to get this top sewn together

so I can use the design wall for another project.

(and the generous handful of leftover 14" lengths 

of sewn-together strips has been added to the mix

for what will become Dumpster Diving 7-Respite)

After counting HSTs needed for 

Dumpster Diving 6-Lagniappe

(from the cut off corners of the Catharsis blocks)

I had a nearly 50 corners left over.

Those that were large enough

 were run through my die cutter

using the triangle-in-a-square Go! die

(along with leftover batik scraps for the sides)

and will become a 24" x 28" wall quilt.

(final layout not yet decided upon)

I've named this small project 

Dumpster Diving 7 - Respite.

(meaning: a delay or cessation for a time 

or an interval of relief)

I had intended to get Quilt No. 697 for the 70273 Project

quilted and finished by the end of the month,

but all things considered  I am content 

to have it pin basted and ready to quilt instead.

One good thing about all that time being still

and resting/recovering in the recliner is this - 

The no-longer-loved quilt top for Partly Sunny

has been unstitched and returned to its

HSTs-in-waiting status.

A little at a time,

these blocks are being pressed and,

as soon as DD5 is off the design wall,

I can re-create my original layout plan.

* * *

"Nothing can be done except little by little."

(Charles Baudelaire)

This month has absolutely been proof of that.

Quiltdivajulie

Reimagining Partly Sunny

I finished this flimsy last year 

and it has been hanging in the closet

waiting to be quilted ever since.

I absolutely love the quilt top's scrappy back

but I do not love the top - which is undoubtedly

why it is still hanging in the closet.

A week or so ago I was talking to Lynne 

and she mentioned this top and how 

she preferred the original layout.

I agreed with her - I liked it better, too.

I told her I was going to take the flimsy apart

down to the HST level and re-make the top

more like my original layout.

Unstitching definitely takes time 

but it also feels good when it means 

the quilt will be what it was meant to be

instead of something far less.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Let yourself by silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.  It will not lead you astray."
Rumi