Two years later...

Back in July 2010, before I gave serious thought to ever making a quilt, I came across this quilt when I was merely fabric shopping at Oklahoma Quiltworks. I was in the midst of becoming enamored with poppies. This was one of two quilts I fell in love with. Only recently has its colors reminded me of Italian giardiniera—simply lovely pickled vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, and peppers. Did I mention I loved bright greens and oranges together? I bought fat (22" x 18") and linear (44" x 9") quarters of each of the fabrics with the idea of making little fabric yo-yo discs, but with no final project in mind. Those pieces became the beginning of my now-sizable fabric/fat quarters stash.

Fast forward a bit. I came across a pretty little quilt pattern called Lemon Pepper from Madison Cottage Design. What attracted me to the pattern was that it was made of fat quarters, and I have lots of those on hand. I made the crib size one, with a bit of variation. It called for 35 blocks (five across by seven down), but I made 36 blocks and arranged them six-by-six. That total helped me mathematically as well. Oddly enough, I did NOT build this in Photoshop first. That said, it meant I organized the fabrics differently.

The instructions for this quilt were not exact. It said 'mix it up.' Random order? How does one make order so it appears random? That took my brain on quite the hamster wheel ride. Each block contains nine fabrics. Nine. Like Sudoko. I can find a solved Sudoko puzzle and assign each fabric a color number and arrange them accordingly. Ouch. It started out as a good idea but wound up searing my brain. So I ranked the fabrics and noted/classified the nine as three greens, three reds, and three grays. I let the greens dominate the order. Oh, did I mention in this strip quilt, each row is made of three widths of strips. Sorting strips to make the 36 blocks was another short course in random order. 1-2-3, 2-3-1, 3-1-2, 3-2-1, 2-1-3, and 1-2-3. It made sense to me. Once I arranged each three-strip, nine-piece block, I knew I didn't want them jostled. I got the idea to lay each block's components within a 'page' of a filing sorter—31 plus 12 slots (below).

I got it all pieced together and wound up taking the top with me to Prairie Quilt where I'd gone for a demonstration, but I hadn't really thought about what I wanted to use for a backing. Loved the demo on hexagon piecing. (I absolutely love the folks at Prairie Quilt! If I ever need to buy another sewing machine, I'll get a Pfaff from them!) The demo was upstairs which is also where they display their sale fabric. And from across the room, my eyes lasered in on the same orange lantern pod fabric used on the front! Okay, to have a real appreciation for this amazing find, consider this: I found this two years later, in a completely different shop, AND on sale for 30% off! Divine providence for sure!

The last trial for this quilt was in the quilting. I still have not gotten comfortable with free-motion sewing. It's kind of like 'random order'—very foreign in feel and uncomfortable to do. But maybe I could build up some muscle memory and power through it. So I did. I used my Bertie's BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) to stagger, swirl, stutter, loop and curl my way over my quilt's surface. I told a friend it looked like I had Tourette syndrome spasms—and I probably inappropriately cussed a few times, too! Sigh. I finished up the binding and now it's done! Haven't a clue what I'll do with it, but think I will use some of the left over strip pieces for some gifts. I glad to have another project done, especially because it goes back to the beginning of this fabric journey of mine.

It's a bird, it's a frog, it's a cat, it's a bat...

It's Super Houndstooth! I came across this mega-format look back in January and knew I wanted to make it someday. It's much easier to discern when looking at the whole quilt (below).

My inspiration for this was a pattern by V and Co. The pattern was available to purchase via download, but I opted to work it out for myself. An though it's quite dramatic in high contrast colors or black and white, I've seen it done in a multi-color palette of bright prints as done by Kim Lapacek, from her pattern by StudioCherie. She has used hand-dyed and batik fabrics. Be sure to check it out—it's a completely different 'vibe' and is quite striking! It reminds me of a beautiful watercolor painting.

At the right is my Photoshop-generated planning image. I think I've mentioned before that, so far, all my quilts start out as a digital Photoshop file comprised of scanned or photographed fabric. It helps me to work out different issues and processes long before I start rotary cutting my fabric.

This wound up being 9 x 9 blocks of 5-inch (finished) squares. There are 25 solid brown; 16 solid pink; and 41 diagonal 4-piece blocks. I was delighted to discover the 4-piece blocks are identical, only rotated 180˚ to work on a brown or pink row. Tah dah!

I can hardly wait to meet Miss Cairo and give her something she'll have as she grows up. The backing material is called Pine Boughs. I am also thinking I might want to get names embroidered by someone with that capability. My appliqué work is not what I'd like. By the way, these were all fabrics I bought on our May 21st stop at Prairie Quilt in Hennessey. We were up in Perry for the high school graduation of Luke Andrew, who is soon on is way to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs this month. We ambled our way back home via Enid and Hennessey for each of our shopportunities—Tom at a plastic model shop in Enid, and mine at Prairie Quilt. Compromise is good!

One of the things I've done with these past four quilts is make a 'mini' for each—maybe the size of a block or two—in this case about 11 x 5.5 inches. I use scraps of the same fabrics (top and backing) and batting. On each, I try out different stitching options; play with binding; adjusting tension; thread tests, etc. On this one, I even made some notes! It's great having a 'practice space' and have a keepsake memento, if it is a gift quilt. Of the five quilts I've completed this year, three left our house as gifts. I think that's a pretty good percentage! I love getting to share this creativity with my family and friends!

It's fortunate I finished the quilt when I did—this is what was left when I finished using a decorative stitch securing the binding. I'm still using Coats Cotton for most of my piecing and quilting. Occasionally I use some Gutermann or Mettler but I guess I'm a cheapskate. One of my Bernina teachers recommended using the those because they're made in Europe just like my machine, and are apparently twisted opposite of Coats & Clark. Maybe someday I'll take an up-close look at it.

It's been a busy day. Overnight, I signed up for a Freemotion Quilting class at Sooner Quilts in Guthrie. A friend of mine said she was taking it and it sounded like a good idea. I also discovered the teacher is someone I worked with 12–14 years ago. Today I had the chance to visit Quilter's Corner in Midwest City where I bought four new fat quarters. On the way home, we stopped by Oklahoma Quiltworks and they had my June BOM ready. And when we drove up, I saw my first online order from fabrics.com on my doorstep. Whew—what a day! 

Time to go play with my fabric!

Electrifying...

Zentangle motifs in fabric

Due to a bit of inconvenience (electrician rewiring areas of our house), I was freed up to make a pilgrimage to Prairie Quilt in Hennessey a week ago. I went solo this time and kept myself entertained with singing along (loudly) with my favorite CD of praise music. To compound the crime, I recorded myself via my new Android app—AndRecorder. (I haven't listened to the audio files yet and hope I can be charitable.) That said, I'm betting GweNaomi was happy to miss this trip.

I think I officially looked at ALL the fabric this time. In addition to a handful of fat quarters, I found four little quilt square kits and fabric with Zentangle Patterns! Does that make the whole trip worthwhile or WHAT!? Although the first one I found was in browns, I later found these blues in another area and they photographed better. Before checking out, I edited down my pile of fat quarters from fifteen down to ten (plus three pieces of cut goods). Oddly enough, the ones I put back were mostly ones I saw when I first came in the door. When I come away with an assortment like this, I always wonder if there is a repeating theme/pattern to my choices. What do you think?

The day's bounty included half-yard cuts of my already made purse fabric.

It felt like I was doing a little 50's-60's time traveling with Sputnik. Then I moved into this dark, bold-n-gold space. Interesting. I even contemplated if the ladies working at this store could tell lots about the personalities of the quilters who come through there, based on their fabric selections. I suspect my selections most say I am not working on a quilt at all, which is true. For now.

Baby J was born on Sunday, January 21. She's a beautiful young lady and her parents are beaming! Next up, our church family awaits the births of Lady Smith and Baby P next spring!

New life for old...
Another project I've had in mind was what to do with my old journals. I started keeping one back in 1977 and stayed with it inconsistently for more than 20 years. There comes a point where they've done what they needed to do and can be released—but how? Hmm. Hmm? Hmm! Paper-making! Several months ago I ran many pages of journals through my cross-cut paper shredder and saved the shreds in two BIG Hobby Lobby bags.

Next in the process is to use a blender to pulverize the shreds, mixed with water, into a pulp slurry. Surprisingly it wasn't gray or white, but a very neutral green which reminded me of that 'eye-ease' paper from steno book, columnar pad, and lab/engineering grid paper days.

BIG NOTE TO SELF: Hold down the lid on the blender very securely because when an unchewed wad finally hits the blade, the mass will erupt everywhere.
 

Did Maytag his THIS in mind?

After the pulp contains no remnants of the paper, I poured it into a plastic dishpan. In 'normal' paper-making, this is where one would stir the pulp to align the fibers and then dip their framed screen into the mixture. I didn't make any of these screens but got the bright idea to pour the pulp through one of my clothes dryer's flat drying racks. Okay, I used two of them. I let them drip dry over the sink for awhile, so the drips from the uppermost rack would not drip 'holes' into the still wet pulp below, then slid them into the dryer closet for at least 24 hours. I ran the heated cycle a couple of times then just let them air dry.

Note the screen texture on the edge.

And voilà! The finished sheets are very bumpy and have very low tear resistance. But they're writable-uponable (my made up word). Without all that water, the paper dried to be mostly white. More than paper, it reminds me of the fiberboard molded drink carriers you get at drive-throughs to carry up to four drinks. I'm going to investigate some more techniques, find out how to strengthen the paper, build a couple of small frames, and try adding color, leaves, petals, etc. Hey, I might even wind up making something with the paper—how about the cover of a gratitude journal?

More than anything, this process mirrors my own redeemed life—shredded, crushed, mixed, poured out and made anew—ready for my new story to be written. Thank you, Jesus.