Jibberish - The Quilt

My Stroop Effect effort started in January 2015

as one of that year's 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

(there's a link in the linked post

for information on the stroop effect)

I made words and blocks for three months

but then the project was shelved

while other things took priority.

(i.e., writing BUILD A BARN) 

Fast forward to August/September 2016.

After finishing the rest of the

color words and strata blocks, 

I was finally able to test my 2015 layout.

You can read about that by clicking here.

By the end of October 2016,

most of the strata blocks 

were used to create this 

16" x 20" table mat . . .

. . . and the letter blocks had become

this quilt top known as Jibberish.

After way too much internal debate 

over possible quilting designs,

Max and I quilted Jibberish using

Hobbs 80/20 batting, Glide thread,

and liberated diagonal crosshatching.

31" wide x 39" long

(double click to supersize the photos)

Scrappy black and white binding

* * *

Linking up with The Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

CLICK HERE

to see what the others are sharing this week.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Let's work hard, but take the pressure off ourselves and have some fun with the process. Otherwise, what is the point?"
(Gaye Adams)

My February Studio Goals

Jibberish - the flimsy

I want to FINISH at least three

of my smaller quilts-in-waiting this month.

Jibberish 

(from my RSC 2015 Stroop Effect project) 

is very high on that list.

Something Fishy - the flimsy

So is Something Fishy

from Round 5 of last year's

Gwen-Inspired Medallion quilt-along.

Not yet named - the flimsy

The third to-be-quilted piece 

features 6 short rows of leftovers

from my Colorful Crumbs flimsy.

None of these will take terribly long -

it is mostly the "getting started" part -

which is why they are now on THE LIST.

* * *

The rest of my studio goals for February

revolve around the AHIQ quarterly challenge,

this month's RSC projects,

and some barn building . . .

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Angela has called out SEA GREEN for February

I don't have much (if any) sea green in my stash

so I'll be using a mix of teal, aqua, and turquoise.

I already have turquoise and teal

sixteen patch blocks from last year's RSC.

Instead, I'll make up a placemat slab

and a mini-quilt I've been considering.

This would also be a good month

to start cutting fabrics for

the next grandson quilt

(currently nicknamed Adventure Awaits)

and 

the pieces/parts for a quilt DH liked

from our visit to Spool last year

when we were in Chattanooga

for the AQS show.

(both quilts include shades of turquoise)

Ad-Hoc Improv Quilters

Our first quarter challenge

involves all sorts of

 Chinese/Roman Coins style quilts.

I have two different projects 

already underway.

I don't know quite how or when it happened

but this one has identified itself as 

The Clothesline Quilt.

Maybe because the colors from the first segments

triggered childhood memories of hanging 

freshly laundered dresses, blouses, and linens

outdoors in the early spring?

We'll see if that name persists.

The coin strings are about 2/3 sewn together.

And then there are these

cut-up solid strings and scraps

from Something Fishy and Windblown.

I've started sewing the pieces together

but don't have a good idea yet

of where I want to go with this one.

For those on Instagram,

I've shared a few WIP photos there.

(link to my IG feed in the sidebar)

AND . . . 

this group of fabrics

has been waiting for me

since the end of November.

I really want to build a barn

(or two or three)

during February!

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------
More smiling, less worrying. 
More compassion, less judgment. 
More blessed, less stressed. 
More love, less hate. 
Roy T Bennett 

Process Notes - Styrofoam Plates

Scraps sorted by color before starting on Colorful Crumbs

I've had several questions

about the foam plates

that appear in many of my

work-in-progress photos.

WIP photo from the making of Wind Farm

Here I used the plates to sort and then keep   

 sets of four block-quadrants together.

By doing all of the sorting first,

I was able to sit and power-sew

the blocks together.

free pieced letters from The Stroop Project sorted by color

Here I used the plates to keep 

the color groups together as I worked on 

the design wall layout for The Stroop Effect.

I am lucky to have dedicated work space

but I also deal with Quilter's ADD

so I like being able to quickly move

one project's pieces and parts 

out of the way in order to work on another.

pieces sorted to sew blocks for Plaid-Mania

In this case,

I started with the plates laid out individually

so I could sort/distribute scrappy pieces

as I was cutting from the many different plaids.

Once each plate had its necessary parts,

I started stacking the plates and,

when they were fully loaded,

I moved the whole pile to the sewing machine.

I used the plates again when I cut scrappy squares

to make four new Christmas pillows.

I find it easier to distribute the colors into groups

when each group's space is defined.

(loose piles that tip over and run into each other

just don't work well for me)

So why do I use foam plates?

They work hard.

They're cheap.

They don't take up a lot of space

between projects.

They're lightweight and easily portable.

When loaded, 

they allow me to take advantage of 

vertical space instead of having things 

scattered all over my sewing surface.

They can be used over and over again

and, should one crack or wear out,

they are cheap and available

year-round at lots of local stores.

Quiltdivajulie

Resolution (At Last)

I started work on 

The Stroop Effect project

in January 2015

as part of that year's

Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

When the pieces and parts were finally ready,

the originally-planned layout didn't work.

Since then I have lost track 

of just how many times

I've sewn some of the parts together

only to un-stitch the seams yet again.

(You can click here to scroll through

the series of posts for this project)

* * *

Earlier this month,

I sent the whole project 

into hibernation.

And then,

only a few days later,

inspiration struck.

Within a matter of hours,

most of strata blocks became 

this 16" x 24" table mat with 

minimal DSM walking foot quilting.

I named it

Resolution Part I

But what about all those 4" letter blocks?

When I finally stopped

trying to spell words,

one thing quickly led to another.

Within 48 hours, 

this top was sewn together.

Resolution Part II

measures

32" wide x 40" long

and will be quilted 

in the very near future.

YES!!!

* * *

Linking up with the

Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

CLICK HERE 

to see what the others are working on.

Quiltdivajulie

Thursday Thoughts

This photo is important for two reasons.

ONE

Those three small Stroop Effect Projects

have been subjected to unstitching.

I've taken them apart and reassembled them

two and sometimes three times now.

For the foreseeable future,

the pieces and parts 

are going into hibernations.

TWO

I've started using my recently-gifted

Sew Together Bag.

Heidi made this beautiful bag

and brought it to me when we met

during our class at AQS Chattanooga.

You can read her blog post 

about the bag HERE.

She even added a special zipper pull.

Thank you, Heidi!

In the sewing studio,

I've been playing with the 

leftover crumbs and strata

from the liberated wedding ring top.

Because my regular machine 

is away for a few spa days,

I've shifted to my backup Bernina

tucked in what used to be the studio closet.

(yes, this is the same space where 

the BUILD A BARN writing happened)

I've also been playing along with 

the Quilts Madder QAL

over on Lori's blog.

These were Part 1's pieces.

These 48 finish-at-1.5" HSTs

represent Part 2's effort.

Part 3 will be posted in a few days . . .

Quiltdivajulie

The Stroop Effect - Resolved

In case you missed Part 1 of this post,

CLICK HERE.

Removing word "red" 

made it easier to see

what to do with these four words.

Just a short while later,

this small quilt top was sewn together.

24" wide x 16" high

(I'm thinking about DSM

walking foot outline stitching

 in coordinating colors for this one)

I sorted through all those 

busy background prints -

choosing pairs of 4.5" squares

to make six four-patch blocks.

This cheerful little top measures

12" wide x 24" long.

(Max and I might try 

the orange peel design

in the background squares

and then see what happens)

And then this happened -

so simple but so elegant.

16" square

(I will do straight line

DSM walking foot quilting 

with invisible thread on this one)

I plan to use the remaining letters

to make blank greeting cards.

(not sure if I will use a zig zag 

or a straight stitch yet,

but I have lots of Aurifil colors

to mix and match)

Tops and backs pinned on the design wall

In the end,

The Stroop Effect project

has yielded 

three small quilt tops

a nice variety of blank cards,

and a sizable number of 4.5"

scrappy black and white squares

as "seeds" for a future project.

* * *

Over the weekend,

I will link this post with

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

CLICK HERE 

to see more scrappy RSC goodness.

Quiltdivajulie

The Stroop Effect Revisited

This photo from a month ago

was the last sighting of 

my Stroop Effect project.

(I started it in January 2015 as part of 

that year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge)

Shortly after that photo was taken,

 the free pieced letters and the scrappy 

black on white background squares

were finally laid out on the design wall.

Maybe it was the extended length of time since

my "grand idea" for a crossword puzzle layout,

but seeing the blocks arranged this way 

on the design wall did nothing for me.

For the next three weeks,

I fiddled with the strata blocks

(angles and arrangement)

hoping I would rediscover that missing

 happy "AHA" feeling.

It didn't happen.

Was it the busy background prints?

I removed them - 

but the layout still didn't sing for me.

Was it the clusters of strata blocks

in the four corners?

I removed them -

hoping the letters/words on their own 

would save the original idea.

They didn't.

Note to self:

There would have been 

more layout possibilities 

if I had just gone ahead 

and pieced all of the letters 

for each color word

instead of being so rigid about 

that initial layout idea.

But somehow I suspect 

I sensed this dilemma could happen

as I had already gifted the 

leftover letter fabrics to a friend . . . )

Since the overall proportions of the 

crossword layout felt a bit "squarish"

(13W x 15L or 52" x 60")

I tried removing some of the words.

I liked the look of a 

consistent background color

in these six words.

And then "green" was edited out

leaving five words on the design wall . . .

. . . with all of this colorful goodness

piled on top of my sewing table.

* * *

Clearly it was time to stop and ponder yet again

but with the understanding this project would NOT 

return to another extended period of hibernation! 

Quiltdivajulie