Ludiosis - the Flimsy

In this photo, the top for Ludiosis is sewn, partially pressed, and hanging over the upstairs balcony alongside its scrappy backing.

I am SO happy to see how well the two sides suit each other.  I thought they would but we all know how doubt creeps in around the edges.

(LUDIOSIS - noun meaning the sense that you're just making it up as you go along)

As seen from the downstairs perspective in the late afternoon light.  

I don't usually press all seams open but I did for these blocks since they would end up being rotated as needed during layout.  

This is what the back side of the top looked like after its final pressing.

This is the front of the top after pressing.  

The finished flimsy on the design wall - 52" x 72"  

There were well over 100 different fabrics used during the making of these 4" blocks.  All of them came from the resource boxes (fabrics less than 1/4 yard), leftover binding strips, excess cutting from previous projects, and unused blocks from other quilt tops (including some gifted by Lynne).  The narrowest strings were cut at 3/4" and the widest pieces 3"

I calculated at one point that if all 234 4.5" pieced blocks had been laid end to end, the total measurement would be have been 1,053 inches (equal to 29.25 yards) long.  That's a lot of happy scrappy goodness.

The first photo (and the top 2-3 rows in this photo) show the most accurate colors.  I can't wait to get Ludiosis quilted and outdoors in natural light for more true-to-real-life photos.

Quiltdivajulie

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"No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere."

Sheryl Crow

Moving Ahead

I will need an empty design wall in the coming days meaning I needed to deal with the scrappy backing fabrics for Ludiosis.  Some of these vertical seams are sewn with others waiting to be stitched.  

(thanks again Lynne for the HSTs)

Ludiosis will need a back 62-64 inches wide by 84" long, so I'll quickly be able to tell how much I need to add to each side.  I've already realized there isn't enough of the single fabric I had hoped to use but that just means I get to go shopping in the stash.

I did finish leader-ender stitching the first seams for the blocks of Scrumdifferous and am well into making scrappy blocks for Ludiosis.  That 4.5" block count is somewhere between 50-60 now of the nearly 300 needed.  This has become my evening play-time stitching project.

All twelve pillow slabs have been pieced and pressed.  Batting has been cut for each of them along with an assortment of backing squares from the stash.  

Getting to this point really feels like a milestone for the project.  I know there's still quilting, making envelope-style flaps, assembly, and binding the completed covers - but somehow those don't seem nearly as daunting as what's already been done.

When I ordered the new 16" pillow forms, I was surprised to find they now come vacuum packed (the bottom five layers = 10 forms).  

I opened one package upon arrival (the two normal-looking inserts on top) and now it is time to open up the rest of them.

I mentioned needing an empty design wall soon and this box of fabrics left from previous backings is why.  I had thought that they would become the pieced backing for Rastro (one of the Macnas bonus quilts) which I hope to quilt and finish by the end of September.

But then I looked back through my photos for the project and saw this one. There are some of those fabrics I used up but there are others I still have.  

Hmmmmm . . . now I need to pull out the remaining pieces from that second photo and ponder how I want to proceed.  And given my history, most of you can guess where this is going :-)

As Dory would say, "Just keep swimming stitching!"

Quiltdivajulie

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"And the dandelion does not stop growing because it is told it is a weed.  The dandelion does not care what others see.  It says, "One day, they'll be making wishes upon me."

B. Atkinson

More Pillow Slabs and Squirrels

There are only two more pillow top slabs to piece before I press all twelve and square them so they're ready to pin baste.

However - the studio squirrels have been busy distracting me.

Backstory - I've been stashing leftovers and gifted pieces and parts for the past year or so and sorted them into several potential projects over the past six weeks.  

This particular group was set aside to become the scrappy backing for a quilt project I named LUDIOSIS (noun - "the sense that you're just making it up as you go along").

(includes backing fabrics from Kefi, Xanadu, and Fandango plus HSTs gifted by Lynne during her new-flooring-induced studio clean out)

Now the HSTs are sewn into columns (shown here folded in half), and the also-folded-in-half leftover backing strips are pinned to the design wall.  

The water lily print from Repose may or may not make the 'Final Cut' and the same is true for the floral backing from Kefi.  Very much in the still-thinking-about-it phase. 

The overall plan is to get this scrappy backing sewn together and hung in the waiting to be quilted closet.  That way the back will be ready when the quilt top is done and pin basting is imminent.

This photo shows the jumbled contents of a second project box for the quilt top including leftover bindings, Macnas series rectangles, tumblers and extra blocks from Lynne, and strips from a number of  previous projects.

And now I have this - a tall stack of cafeteria trays containing those random leftovers cut into uniform 4.5" widths by an array of lengths.

The tray on top holds stacks of newly-sewn strip sets with the next addition pinned so I can use these as leader enders once the last 10-15 Scrumdiffereous pairs are sewn.  

My inspiration came from the 2023 Scrap Happy Quilt tutorial by Gigi's Thimble.  That said, I am not going to sew all of my 4.5" pieces into a massively long strip like she did (been there, done that with the Dumpster Diving quilts).  Instead, I am sewing groups of pieces together, trimming out 4.5" blocks, then adding any usable cut offs to the trays of available segments.

This green basket on top of the stacked trays contains close to 40 finished 4.5" blocks.  I need nearly 300 for my 54" x 72" plan, meaning there's lots more sewing, pressing seams open, and trimming ahead.

* * *

So I don't loose total control to the squirrels, once all of the blocks for Ludiosis are made I'll use Cathy's SAR (some assembly required) approach and put them back in the project box to be turned into a top after the last three Macnas bonus quilts are finished.  

Quiltdivajulie

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"It is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything."

Winston Churchill

August Recap and September Begins

In August I finished Journal for Joy - a scrappy eclectic glue book celebrating all sorts of things that make me smile.  

Holus Bolus, the first of the four Macnas series bonus quilts, was finished.

A stack of harvested Asian bits were transformed into a themed accordion journal.

Pieces and parts were cut, sorted, and pinned into pairs for Scrumdifferous.

I finally finished the long pending Squirrels altered book.

And the set of six reversible scrappy strip-pieced September placemats that were cut out on August 1 had their bindings finished on August 31.

Along the way there was also a lot of stash shuffling and editing, multiple donation boxes were sent out into the world, and the studio squirrels raised a ruckus leading to two more new quilt projects that truly need to wait until after the last three Macnas series bonus quilts are finished.  

And finally, continuing with my year-long series of monthly back yard photos, here is one taken early morning September 1st.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Most people don't want to be part of the process, they just want to be part of the outcome.  But the process is where you figure out who and what's worth being part of the outcome."

Scottie Pippen

Scrumdifferous - Bits of Progress

I spent much of Thursday prepping pieces and parts for a scrappy quilt to be named SCRUMDIFFEROUS (an adjective for something that is excellent or first-rate).

This is a photo of the un-prepped scrappy leftovers laying on top of yardage that will be used as backing.

This is what all of that was turned into.  

There are 65-70 rectangles (2.5" x 4.5") in each of the five color groups.  Some were left after making the four bonus Macnas quilt tops and others were cut from an array of abandoned 2.5" strips.

The roughly 350 2.5" squares were cut from light rectangles left after making the four bonus quilt tops plus several shorter pieces of yardage that were begging to be finished off.

The plan is to turn these into a quilt in the style of CAIM and COMFORTABLE and Githerments.

At the end of the day all of the rectangles and squares were sorted and paired, ready to be used as leader-ender or mindless evening sewing.  

(Scrumdifferous is the first of 3-4 projects sorted from my overflowing box of gathered leftovers)

* * *

This is what the 35 sewn WOF strip sets from the last post looked like after being pressed.  

This is what they look like now.  

The shorter lengths (18") will be used to piece top slabs and the longer lengths (20" plus) will be used to piece backing slabs for September's set of six placemats.  

(The extra strips on either side are to be used along a side edge if any of the strip sets aren't quite wide enough - I make my top slabs 17" x 24" and the backs 21-ish" x 28")  

Once quilted  the slab sandwiches will be trimmed to 14" x 20" before binding.

Onward . . . 

  

Quiltdivajulie

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining."

Shirley Chisholm

July Recap

Last month I spent time sorting and restacking the yardage in my stash.

There was also considerable editing done, along with culling scraps in the resource boxes.

This photo shows just how much space was cleared as a result.  The right half of the third shelf down is no longer filled with fabric.  

That same right half on the bottom four shelves no longer houses fabrics but a few magazines waiting to be harvested for my journal making adventures.

(the stacked drawer unit and Raskog cart were also cleaned up/out since the paper stuff accumulates even faster than fabric does)

I pulled out these fabrics to make a set of six reversible placemats for September.  

These fabrics were set aside to make a set of five utility mats for our December living room.

And these greens from the stash/resource boxes will become a set of six placemats for use next March.  The reverse side will be made using blocks Lynne sent after finishing her Field of Dreams quilt.

Ruska, a gift quilt, was quilted and finished.

Paint Party, no. 12 of 13 in the Macnas series, was quilted and finished.

And Yutori, no. 13 of 13 quilts in the Macnas series was quilted and finished.

There was also a squirrel invasion in July that led to this quilt top named Nimiety.

I also created Nimiety's scrappy pieced backing.  Both the top and backing are currently rolled onto pool noodles to be pin basted and quilted sometime this month.

No photos for this but I also emptied and sorting the overflowing box of leftover quilt backings and assorted other bits and pieces into six different project boxes for future quilts inspired by designs/patterns I've stashed but never used.   I don't plan to dig into any of these until next year aside from some cutting of pieces and parts as time permits.  But after staying so focused on finishing, it felt good to make plans for new scrappy adventures.

I also moved the two studio plants outdoors for the summer and changed the lower curtain fabric (the other yardage had faded over its 3 year life in that window).

The nearly 5-week month and lots of hot steamy weather that kept us indoors clearly made for more studio time than usual.

* * *

And because today is August 1, here's the monthly photo of our back yard.  The grass is the greenest it will get this summer, the neighbor's crape myrtle adds a big pop of color, our black eyed Susans are at their peak, the azalea bush has grown and filled in so much in the last month, the coleus in the large pot are thriving, but the in-ground hostas as struggling with the intense heat and hot sun but they'll recover later in the year when the weather moderates.   

(The temporary fence is there because we've had the grand-dog for the last two weeks.  Keeping her out of the dirt makes life much easier, especially when the dirt turns to mud.) 

Quiltdivajulie

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"Clutter is the enemy of clarity."

Julie Cameron

Catch Up Post

In between a lot of other things, I have finished filling the partial sketchbook for Eclectic Energy, my scrappy circles project.

This is one of my favorite pages in the entire journal.  

And this is another of the final few pages that I especially like.

The remaining punched circles have been sorted by size and tucked into 4 x 6 photo boxes so they're ready for future projects.

Since then, there's been a lot of editing, tossing, and clearing the top of my paper play table.  At the same time, there's been some serious pondering as to what I prefer to work with/on.

To that end, I am stopping my shipping tags for Full Deck Challenge 4.

Instead, I'm in the process of trimming a wide mix of random, neutral papers into 3 x 5 rectangles.  

The plan is to glue those rectangles onto dollar-store index cards, creating backgrounds.  Over the next few months, I'll collage onto the front of each prepped index card when time permits. 

In terms of storage, I've created a loosely organized ROYGBIV approach, much like I did with the Color Wheel rolodex project.  The card guides encompass warm neutrals, purples, oranges, pinks, greens, yellows, black/white/grayscale, blues, and reds.  (the other cards in the back of the box are ones I've already prepped)

These are my three warm neutral test cards. 

Test cards for the purple, black/white, orange, and red sections.

The biggest goal in all this is to tear up, cut up, and use a lot of the scrappy ephemera I've collected in the last two or three years.  It isn't doing any good where it is . . . 

* * *

I still have four days left in May to get Hanabi, Macnas series no. 10, quilted and finished - wish me luck!

Quiltdivajulie

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"Clutter is the manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination."

Christina Scalise

The White Coat, V2 Begins

In 2011, I had a hare-brained idea that was first shared here on the blog in this post.

(some of the missing photos in the linked posts are awol because they're no longer in the online album but thankfully the post's link to Em's  inspiration post is still working)

This photo shows the front of the finished coat with elements gifted by a LOT of my blogging buddies, too many of whom are no longer bloggers.

This is the back view of the finished coat.

I wore it several times when doing trunk shows or at the beginning of classes but for the last several years it has simply hung in the back of my waiting-to-be-quilted closet.

Removing all of the elements from the white coat was the handwork project I mentioned in the previous post.  I've kept the black and white fabrics and selvages intact for now.

The dancing ladies in this photo were made by Nancy Near Philadelphia.

The seminole piecing in this photo was contributed by Lynne.

This particular block was shared by Sujata Shah.

And the embroidered piece was sent by Mrs. Goodneedle.

With everything removed from the cut-apart coat and safely stored in the project box, I can go through and measure each piece to help me as I ponder how to give them new life.  

So far, I've thought about a fabric book or possibly a throw quilt - but it is far too soon to decide.  

I need to let all of this marinate for a while before moving forward.

And, if you want to read more about how the original white coat project came together, you can use the 'white coat' link at the bottom of this post to see all of the related posts.

Quiltdivajulie

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"I just don't feel like I have to explain myself."

Dolly Parton