I've made progress on the Flowers quilt (a Linda Brannock pattern) but it's been slow because I've had to build up my quilting callouses again.
I quilted around the flower and pot on this block and need to quilt the pot and the background. I thought I would quilt diagonal lines on the background but now I'm not so sure. Maybe I should quilt vertical lines. I have to decide soon and then either mark the lines or use tape for a guide. I've also quilted most of the triangles surrounding the block.
The next block I'll work on is this one. It's bigger and will take longer.
Here are both blocks side by side. Getting both of these blocks quilted will be my One Monthly Goal for November.
My goal for October and for this month of November should have been cleaning the room where I quilt (and work on family history, use the computer, and so many other things).
I almost chose that as my goal but decided it was too embarrassing to
show photos of the space in such disarray. What a mess! Instead, here is a photo of my small cutting mat and the area surrounding it. I've already
neatened the area a little but those stacks of fabrics are now a higher
than in this photo. I'll be working at neatening, sorting, and organizing this room this month and probably for the next several months.
We had two beautiful foggy days last week. We have many bare trees but almost as many are holding onto their colorful leaves. It won't be long till they're all on the ground, though. And the time change! I wish we could stay with regular time all year instead of having to switch the clocks twice. It takes me a few weeks to adjust, both spring and fall. After I adjust I will these longer nights. To me there's a coziness to late fall and winter nights.
I'm linking this post to
November One Monthly Goal Link-up at Elm Street Quilts. Thanks for hosting, Patty.
Also linking to
Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. Thank you for hosting, too, Kathy.
I hope all is well with you!
--Nancy.
Your quilting goal inspires me. I need to make a goal like this for the quilt I have had in my hoop F.O.R.E.V.E.R. Your sorting and "neatening" goal also inspires me. My sewing room could also use a good dose of this, and I won't be showing photos either! LOL
ReplyDeleteWait till you see how miserably I fail to meet this quilting goal this month, Janet! I'm already sensing that it was too big a goal. Maybe I'll just have to watch a movie every day till I finish those two blocks. Haha.
DeleteWhat quilt have you been working on for so long?
Now that you've said you won't be showing photos of your sewing room it makes me want to issue a challenge to other quilters to show one area of a messy space. I don't think I have enough readers for a challenge, though. I really can't work in a room that's completely neat with everything put away but when the stacks and piles start to close in around me I know I need to do something. (But did nothing about it yet today.)
I'm with you on keeping the fall back time. I'd even go with constant DST, if I have to, but prefer regular time. Just quit changing it! LOL. Your blocks are gorgeous. I kind of like the idea of diagonal lines on the first one, continuing the diagonals from the HST. But it would look great, either way.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could go with DST all year but I remember when Nixon was president, he tried that and the winters were worse than with regular time. The kids left home in the dark and arrived home in the dark. At least with regular time it's still light in the afternoons when they get home (at least in the part of our time zone).
DeleteThanks for your kind comment about this quilt. I'm trying out diagonals now but in the opposite direction to the triangles. I saw a quilt online yesterday--one of Linda Brannock's patterns--in which the quilter stitched diagonal lines across the whole quilt, ignoring the sashing. I'll figure this one out....
The flower and pot in your first photo was one of my favorite blocks to applique. I think it's because it is so unusual. I have not idea what the real flower is supposed to look like. I try to straighten my sewing space before I leave the room. My room is so small that it looks messy when it's clean - ha!
ReplyDeleteThat particular flower is particularly unusual, isn't it, Robin? And fun, too. I only know the kind of plant because I was looking for something else about Brannock's blocks and saw that it is called a bromeliad. They are a family of plants that usually have spiky leaves extending outwards, like a pineapple. I saw only one example online with leaves curving toward the flower like Linda's.
DeleteYou're good to straighten before you leave your sewing room every day. I neaten the center of my cutting mat (usually) so I can begin right away when I come back. Really, it's that I have piles around the room, stacks of fabric for an in-progress quilt, or from a just finished quilt, or to audition for the next quilt. And I'm just a collector of small things.... I'll get a handle on it here one of these days!
I love your flower quilt and its handquilting. I know you ll do a good choice for the filler.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the dark afternoons, I wish ''they'' would choose just one.
Your space looks fine! My opinion is: one can clean and tidy and be meticulously perfectly neat---or one can create and sew and enjoy making. But prob not both.
PS The ugly locust has lost most of its leaves at the green stage; the few that are left are green. Obviously your locusts are a more attractive species. Big crop of the pods on the other very old locust trees now litter the walkways; ankle breakers in the sudden darkness. Mo and I tread nervously.
Thank you for your confidence, Lizzy.
DeleteI remember you saying how early it gets dark where you are--at least an hour and more earlier than here--and I don't suppose I would like dark afternoons, either.
If that were the only space that was a mess I would be okay with it because, like you, I can't create in a pristinely neat environment. When it's that tidy I just don't even want to pull out fabric, or anything else for that matter. It's the stacks I have laying around that are the problem. They're beginning to close in on me and take up what little space I have.
I'm so sorry about your ugly locust tree. It's too bad they didn't choose male trees when they planted those! I hope they don't cause you a fall!
I love your quilting project! How about echo quilting around the lovely curves of that design?!?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kathy. I thought about echo quilting but decided to do straight lines. Sort of, I think it goes with the primitive style of the quilt a little better. Maybe....
DeleteYour flower quilt is going to be lovely with all the pretty blocks you are stitching. I am forever tidying up the mess in my sewing room. Goodness, it always looks as if a fabric bomb has been detonated in there. I can relate to your quilting callouses. =) Enjoy your quilting.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kim. I think the flowers on this quilt are quirky but I like most of them. Others who commented also mention that they have a mess in the places where they sew. Perhaps it is a common situation among quilters.
DeleteI hope you enjoy quilting that pretty Flowers quilt. I really don't like straightening my quilting/sewing area. I started sorting my fabrics and then just stuffed them back in the cabinet. Good luck with the straightening up. Doing one small area at a time seems to work best for me.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cathie. I have been enjoying quilting the flowers. It will be a while before it's finished, though.
DeleteI like your idea of doing a small area at a time. I should begin now and just keep going.