Something New, and Something Old, too

I had several false starts on the background for this block and finally settled on the one above.  (Close-up below.) 

I still have to settle the placement of the pieces, including the leaves at the bottom, and trim the strips across the bottoms of the flowers, before I can start stitching the appliques in place.  The background for this block is 16½" x 19½", which seems huge.  I've never worked with such a large block and wasn't sure how to square it up.  I finally used the lines on my cutting mat.

This is a block of the month sew-along of Linda Brannock's "Flowers" quilt.  (I'm already behind a few months.  It feels like I'm always late these days.)  I love some of the blocks, others I could leave, but I thought there was plenty of variety to give me more applique experience without the challenge of creating the patterns myself.

I go through cycles of wanting to make my own patterns, then wanting to use ready-made patterns.  Both can be a challenge for me.  With the ready-mades, I struggle to use a pattern as is, often choosing to make changes.  And sometimes I find it hard to get beyond the colors the pattern shows.  When creating one's own pattern there is lots of trial and error to make it the way one wants or imagines, but then there's plenty of play and fun involved with that, too.

I went to a little quilt show a few weeks ago.  It was in a small town, inside a house that had become an art center.  There were perhaps two dozen quilts, most were folded over furniture.  The lighting was so poor that I didn't take photos.

The two best things about the show were quilter's yard sale (I couldn't resist) and this great old quilt which was folded over a railing at the front of the house.  The color in this first photo is most accurate.

I fell in love.  It was so scrappy and I thought the quilting was interesting, too, with its imperfect Baptist Fans.

The batting was very thick.  It was the kind of quilt I'd like to nestle under on a cold winter day.  Is super thick batting available these days?  It's interesting that the stitches were as small as they were considering having to go through so much thickness.

Also at the show they were handing out this flyer about folding quilts on the bias instead of with the grain.  I hadn't heard that suggestion before but I know that when I pull out a quilt that's been folded for a time it doesn't like flat as it did when it first came out of the dryer.  Nor do my quilt tops lie flat when I pull them out.  I'm going to try this diagonal fold and see how it works.

The next project I need to think about is which top to quilt and what backing to use.  I like to have a quilt in a hoop at home and applique to take in the car so I always have something to do.

I wish you well!

--Nancy.
.