I walked past my sewing room today and was amazed at the mess of it.  It is a big mess of projects, fabric, bins and boxes of fabric, piles of fabric, rulers, papers/patterns, and…more fabrics.  I am working on three main projects right now, Mrs. Millers Apprentice, Live Simply and Frolic.  All are large and all are in various states of done-ness.  I am at the put-together stage of MMA, all the blocks are done, the setting blocks are done too.  The borders need to be cut, but I can’t do that until the main body is sewn together.  I also need 88 more 3-triangle blocks to do one of the outer borders.  Yesterday I worked on months 10 and 11, today I want to get the center part together.  It’s sort of a mini quilt, using nine, 3 1/2 inch blocks that were made each month.  The background story of this quilt is Mrs. Miller (farmers wife) teaches her neighbor’s daughter to sew.  These little blocks are supposed to represent her work.  I like the blues and tans of this quilt, it is one I am making for me.

The Frolic pieces are coming together too, although I am a bit low on Aqua colored scraps.  I was forced to buy/order more fabric to alleviate this deficit.  While looking through my current stock of scraps for more aqua, I came across a large bag of mixed solid scraps.  They had fallen behind some other piles and had been quietly multiplying themselves for the past few years.  These scraps are from my Amish with a Twist 2 quilt (circa 2015),  I think if I combine them with the scraps from my Gravity quilt and the Live Simply quilt, I’d have enough for a bed size quilt. The colors are compatible in “real life”, what I have in mind is similar to this leader ender quilt that KatyQuilts is making.  I am hoping all the jewel tones will sparkle and shine, AND there will be three less bags of scraps.

I have a scrappy top made from 2 ½ inch squares, from Wedding Dress Blue called Growing Up Odd.  I thought I had a picture of it, but not on this computer.  Not sure if I want to do something with the sashing strips or just go free range squares.

This is my design wall today, it is the least chaotic area in my room today.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.  She has a post about finding calm in December.  I think I need to read it now.

 

End of the year compilations are starting to appear on some of the Quilter’s blogs I follow.  I am impressed with the amount of finishes, but also the numbers of UFO’s (completed and resting).  I’m trying to get a list together of what I want to accomplish next year.  I get stymied though, it’s like an avalanche of images that crashes in my mind.  Too much input.  I’m going to start small, how about January goals:

1. Frolic
2. Mrs. Millers Apprentice
3. Live Simply (log cabin)
4. 4 Baby quilts – commissions
5. Finish peppermint poinsettia quilting
6. Quilt Feathered star

That’s easier.  Goals for the next six months, rather general:

1. Quilt tops that were completed last year, and before
2. Keep on top of current BOM, Botanica Park
3. Start wedding quilt (sept. wedding)
4. One UFO from Last List 
5. Construct quilt kits bought in 2019

Number four is the list from last January, I got one of them finished.  There are still three from that list will be included in Number 1.  Looking back on that post there were also some other 2019 goals:

1. Work on To-Be-Quilted Pile
2. List/Sell More Quilts in Shops
3. Design and Make Applique quilt
4. Use Stash
5. Make BOM’s
6. Explore Social Media, Blog

I accomplished All except 3 and 6.  Although I did design quite a few quilts including “Sew She Did”, but the appliqué masterpiece is still just an idea.  Then there’s number 6, I can’t seem to make the leap to social media promotion.  I resist FB postings, although there are a few people that I follow, I just don’t have the enthusiasm nor the follow through to properly use it to my advantage.  Yep, that’s it in a nutshell.  Finally, what about using up stash and quilt kits?  This is going to be a priority this year for me.  I’ll be interested in how this all turns out next year.😁  

 Other Quilty accomplishments from 2019:

1. PIQF/RD2CA quilt “Sew She Did”
2. Finished Christmas Fig BOM top
3. I finished 30+ quilts
4. I Donated a bunch of quilts
5. Sold a bunch of quilts

 

That’s all I have for today, I’m going to print this and hang it where I can review it, with regularity.

On my design wall today are log cabins, these are for the Live Simply quilt.  I spent last week cutting, and cutting all the pieces.  I did it in a very organized way, and separated each color way, size and final destination (block or border).  Four different flat boxes, that can be stacked and relocated easily.  It has been quite helpful in the construction, as I only have to pull out 5 strip sets at a time.  I then sew nine blocks, assembly line style, together.  It takes about 75 minutes to do nine.  I have 56 blocks to make and 27 done so far, I want to get another set done today. Friday another clue for “Frolic” comes out, so I’d like to have room for that to happen.

I have fallen behind on Mrs. Miller, the BOM I am doing for 2019.  The last month should be arriving today or tomorrow. I have two (ten blocks) sets left to make and the last installment is the borders and finishing instructions, I’m not sure if there are more blocks though.  I want to get this top together soon, because I signed up for another BOM that starts 1/15/20.  It’s called Botanica Park, a Wing and a Prayer design, all batiks, medallion style.  You may remember the Forest Floor pattern quilt I made by them.

 

It’s a big (107″ square) quilt too. I’ll be busy with these four projects for the next few months.  Oh yeah, and an order for four more baby quilts.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put you foot down #31 today.

This past weekend I started cutting fabric for a log cabin quilt.  It was a kit purchased from Craftsy Bluprint a while ago.  There are over 1300 pieces, and four shades of seven colors.  Once I get it cut, it should go pretty quickly.  I noticed after the first day of cutting that my upper bicep on my ruler holding hand/arm was tender.  The next day I realized that I was pressing down with way too much pressure on the ruler as I cut.  Sort of an unconscious attempt to keep the ruler straight.  So I consciously released the pressure and had a better time.  The next day of cutting I started to think about lessening the pressure and what was causing it and realized that my rotary blade was dull.  I had to use more strength in my cutting arm to push it through the fabric.  I switched it out and had a better time of it.  New rule: before starting a large cutting project, change out blades and release the urge to press the ruler through the table.

I have a Christmas gift that came to me a bit early, and I’m trying to wait to use it until the day of the holiday.  It’s a Standing Desk Converter I found at Amazon, (no affiliation) in a box in my sewing room.  What is so great about it is that the top of it is the same size as my cutting mat.  My cutting mat is on the table that is also my sewing machine table.  I had an office conference table modified to hold my machine.  It’s a good height for me to sit and sew, but really hard on my lower back to stand and cut.  With the flip of a lever I’ll be able to elevate the mat to a more comfortable level to cut at.  Usually what I do is bring my cutting mat to the dining room table and cut there.  So I’m looking forward to the option of not having to lug all that stuff out to, and then fit it all back into my sewing room.

 

The 7 principles of art and design are balance, rhythm, pattern, emphasis, contrast, unity and movement. Use the elements of art and design – line, shape/form, space, value, color and texture – to create a composition as a whole.

I was recently reading about and seeing blog posts about Quiltcon 2020 acceptances and rejections.  If you look for #quiltconreject on instagram, you’ll see many beautiful and original quilts.  I wondered how many quilts are submitted, and how many jurors there are.  How do they pick the “chosen” and reject the unchosen?  Thats when I started thinking about the seven principle of design.  Of course I couldn’t remember all seven, as I learned them back in the 80’s.  A quick google search brought up the quote above.   Its seems like a lot to coordinate into making one thing.  Some makers are adept and some aren’t. But what about the ones on the edge, like if they did one thing a little bit better, they were a little bit clearer with their composition?  What is the tipping point, where everything falls into place, and you “feel it” “get it” or even like it.  There are artists/makers who intrinsically know, and can judge all the parts/pieces/whole in a few seconds.  Do they have some kind of mental checklist?  Is it a right brained or left brained thing?  In becoming a master artist, does this list get longer or shorter, or just read faster?

This post is sort of a continuation of my  Ruminations  post about a month ago.  I would like to make another show quilt this coming year.  Maybe even for QuiltCon 2021.  Self doubt is part of what holds back those goals.  In an age of self advertisement and promotion how does one stand out?  In the days before Facebook and even before the internet, people had to self promote themselves on merit, and talent, maybe a little luck or knowing the right person.  So how does one break through the fuzzy static of a world filled with selfies, twitter and visual noise?  Seems like one of those secrets that won’t be shared, because then everyone will be doing it.  Hey! Look over here! My quilt is freakin’ Awesome!  I’m more like “excuse me, did you happen to notice this thing over here that I, uh, made?”