Considering Quarter Cabin Options

I love this statement I read about improv quilting on one of Cheryl Arkison's recent blog posts.  She said,

Part of improvisation is the ability to accept that you are starting without knowing where you will end up.

I don't think of myself as an improv quilter but I've definitely got that aspect of the process covered.  So often I have a block, or a feeling, or scraps in mind and begin without a specific plan.  I make a bunch of blocks, see how they look together, and go from there.

This is just what I'm doing with these little 4" (finished) quarter cabin blocks that I started on a whim over two years ago.  I had lots of random strings in too many colors.  So I pinned, sewed, and trimmed until I had 100+ little blocks.  And still no idea what I would do with them.

And then I thought of a string quilt with a green background because I'd just found green cotton for $1.00/yard.  So I cut side-setting triangles of green and sewed them to the sides of the quarter cabins.  I have yet to sew these into strips, which is why they look off kilter in the photo below.

My first idea with the strips was something like this, except with leaves of the colors and fabrics I used in the blocks.  And just recently I thought maybe I should include some red flowers.  I have no idea where this is going.

The leaves in the photo above are only about 2-3" long and half as wide.  As I look at this photo I wonder if the strips will be so balanced/comparable in size and interest that they will cancel each other and become boring.  I wonder if the vines/leaves need to be stronger or more dominant, with larger leaves and flowers and wider stems.  (Since I've already sewn the triangles to the cabin blocks there's no way they're going to be bigger.) 

The width of the cabin strips will finish at 6½".  I have six strips which will finish at about 84" long.  

Considerations and questions I need to answer:

• I'm wondering whether I need to be careful about the color placement of the cabins.  I wonder about this because as I look at the photo below, my eye goes to sections where there are several lights together.
• Width of this quilt, or maybe all dimensions.  Single bed?  Queen bed? 
• I need to determine the width of the vines/leaves/flowers strips.  Part of the consideration of this is dominance of these strips, but also the final width of the quilt.  I don't need to use all the cabin strips but if I use 6, their combined width will be 36".  Five more strips at, let's say, 10" will increase the width to 86".  Or would it be better to use 5 cabin strips and 6 vine strips, which would equal 90".  Or 4 cabin strips and 5 vine strips to equal 74".  Or . . . .   This quilt is not yet talking to me!
• Vines in red, leaves in light green, flowers in reds?  Vines in red, leaves multi-colored but no red, flowers in red?  Few leaves, more flowers?  More leaves, occasional flowers?  Carefully placed flowers or randomly placed flowers?  All the same kind/style of flowers, a variety of flowers?
• Or, instead of vines and flowers, sew strings together, cut them all 3" or 4" or 5" wide, and use them between the cabin strips?
• There are so many options!  My mind keeps going.

My next step is pinning then sewing the cabins into strips.  Maybe by the time that's done this quilt will have an opinion about itself and I'll have a good idea what to do next.  Even if not, it will be easier to move strips around than it is to move the individual blocks around.

So often I find myself in this situation.  I was going to say "in this mess" but it isn't really a mess, just a part of the process when I don't have a finished quilt in mind.  It's both fun and challenging.

Do you ever find yourself in situations like this?  If so, what do you do?

I'm linking this post to Humble Quilts Stringalong Month 9 at Humble Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Lori, and for the incentive it provides.

--Nancy.
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Decisions, Decisions: Quarter Cabins and ...?

Almost at the last hour I'm adding a link to Lori's Humble Quilts Stringalong Month 6.   I keep going back and forth about whether log cabin blocks are string blocks or not.  I decided they are, since I've used only scrap strings to make them.  Every so often I pull these out and make a few more. 

These will finish at 4" and contain every style of fabric--prints, solids, plaids, most colors, fabrics of different decades, and a variety of string widths.  They are a hodge podge.  I love brights but usually make a mess when I try to put too many together.  Still, I kept making more of these.  I don't pull them out often enough:  I started them in 2014 and have only 86 blocks!

I think they usually end up back in the closet, not for lack of strings, but because I haven't been able to decide how to use them.  They're too busy to lay side-by-side in a quilt.  And really, with only 86 made (and another 20 in progress) it would take me more time than I want to spend to make enough for even a small quilt.  (I love the charm of little blocks but my enthusiasm wanes when progress is slow.)

I happened to be at Walmart last week on an errand with my daughter and stopped to look at their fabrics.  I remembered reading someone's recent post about a dollar-a-yard sale.  I doubted our local stores would have the sale but, sure enough, there were some bolts, including Waverly solids, for a dollar.  You know I'm not a fabric snob when I use thrift store shirts for fabric but still, I like new fabric to be quality fabric.  But a dollar a yard!  It was too good a bargain to resist.

These solids captured my attention and I brought home 6 yards of the green, a yard of the red, and a half yard of the coral.  Surely I could use them somewhere.  (Have I said how much I love red and green quilts?  They are irresistible to me!  So much energy.)

I washed the half-yard piece immediately (not the others so I could return them if the small piece didn't wash well or feel good after drying and pressing) and was really pleased with the result.  I don't know about long-term wear but the piece I washed felt comparable to Bella and better that Kona (but not quite as nice as Riley Blake Confetti Cotton).

So I had this long piece of green fabric and these log cabin blocks.  A strippy quilt had crossed my mind for those blocks.  What if I put the cabins and the green fabric together?

And what if I added alternating strips of vines with leaves?  I pulled some scraps from my applique box and put them together.  Maybe....  Maybe colorful leaves.  (Or would they be too much color?  I should cut some and see what I think.)  Maybe larger leaves.  Or maybe not vines and leaves but some other alternate stripe...?  Concentric circles?  A series of strips?  Or what...?

The questions I must answer before continuing are:  How much do I love that green fabric?  Will I love it in five or 10 years?   And, will I enjoy cutting, preparing, and appliqueing hundreds of leaves (or any other motif for alternate strips)?

I think choosing a solid color for the quarter cabins is a good idea.  I think it will help unify them.  (And the only unifying factor of the blocks now is the red centers, which use a variety of reds.)  But the other questions....  But I do love that green....  But would brown or black or some other color be better for the cabins?

If you have any thoughts (positive or negative), please share!  Thank you for taking the time.

I'm linking to
> Humble Quilts Stringalong Month 6
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
> Moving It Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag
> Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
> Main Crush Monday (MCM at Cooking Up Quilts
> Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
> WOW at Esther's Blog
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
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String Mismanagement

When I began quilting in earnest a few years ago I had lots of long strips of leftover fabric -- strings.  I dumped them into a half-bushel basket, adding to the basket as more strings came along.  What was I thinking? 

This week I searched through every possible source of neutral scraps for my scrap squares, including that string basket.  What a mess!  I found a bunch of light strings but they were so crumpled I had to iron them.  They look much better.  They look usable, in fact.

And I've used some of those strings to make more 4" squares.

There are enough squares here to make 22 blocks (with 4 squares each) though they're not all from those strings.

Laid out in stacks of four, they look like this.

One of these days I'll have enough to make a quilt.  Right now they are leaders/enders for each other.  I match fabric pieces, pin, and lay a stack by the sewing machine.  It's easy to whip right through them.  Stitch, press, match, repeat.  And the stack grows.

Sometime in the last year or two I changed the way I manage strings.  I lay them flat, one on top of another, so I don't have to iron them before using them.  Of course, there's still that half-bushel basket of strings that need to be ironed.... 

How do you store strings?  If they are wrinkled, do you iron them before sewing them?  Just curious.

I haven't had much sewing time these past few weeks.  I've been helping organize a women's conference at church -- scheduled for tomorrow!  We're having 17 presenters and 20 workshops and there could be as many as 200 women attend.  My part has been contacting the presenters to get the titles and blurbs for their presentations, find out what their needs will be (copies, AV equipment, etc.), letting them know their rooms and presentation times, etc.  The organizer commented that every time she asked one of the women to present she felt like she was asking them to marry her.  I chuckled at that.  Then I began my part in the process and I felt like they'd all said yes -- to me!  I've sent and responded to countless emails.  I'm looking forward to clearing out my inbox in the next few days! 

I'm linking this post to
> Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts
> Friday Night Sew-In at Sugarlane Designs
> I May Have a Scrap Problem at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Thank you for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
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#1 November Finish for a Lovely Year of Finishes

Early in November I wrote of my goal to finish the binding on a quilt I call Dark Strings.  Despite surgery, visits from family, and work, I am pleased to be able to say that I've met that goal.  The quilt has been bound, washed and dried, and slept under.  A true finish!

Here are the details about this quilt.

Measurements
66 1/2" x 87 7/8" - top with borders
65 1/4" x 86" - after quilting
64 3/4" x 85 3/4" - after binding

Timeline
9/10/14 - string blocks begun
10/16/14 - string blocks finished
11/1/14 - corners added to blocks
11/21/14 - blocks sewn together
7/7/15 - first border sewn
7/8/15 - second border sewn
7/11/15 - scrappy back sewn
7/13/15 - layers basted together
7/18/15 - quilting begin
11/5/15 - quilting finished
11/7/15 - binding sewn on front
11/15/15 - finished sewing binding on back

Batting
Soft 'n' Crafty 80 cotton/20 poly, 3/16" loft.

Observations

• This quilt has been particularly hard to photograph, not just for the finish photo but through all its stages to completion.
• This is probably the fastest I've ever made a quilt -- just over 14 months.
• As I hand quilted I realized that some of my stitches on the underside of the quilt barely caught a thread or two.  I tried to stitch more carefully after that.  (I'm still learning the art of hand quilting.)
• I really like the look of the wide border when the quilt is laying out on the floor or on a bed but I'm not so thrilled with it when it's folded across the back of the couch.
• I still like the 80/20 batting (which I've used for several other quilts).

I'm linking this post to A Lovely Year of Finishes November 2015 Finishes Party at Fiber of All Sorts and Binding Blitz at JulieKQuilts.  Thank you both for hosting.

--Nancy.

P.S.  You can see other photos and posts about this quilt here, here, and here.
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#1 November Goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes

 In November, I will (I will!)

• finish the hand quilting on this quilt
• cut binding
• attach the binding, and 
• hand stitch it to the back of the quilt  

I'm linking this post to A Lovely Year of Finishes - November Goal Party at Sew BitterSweet Designs.

--Nancy.
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String Play

I've been having fun playing with strings this week.

Because I have a lot of red and light-colored strings I considered putting together a block like this.

But I wasn't pleased.  Something about the size of the strings or the size of the blocks or the proportions between the two.  Maybe uniform sized strings would be better.  And as much as I love finished two-color quilts, I get bored making them.  I set those pieces aside.  

I moved on to log cabin blocks by themselves.  Each one is about 5" square with the narrowest logs being 3/8" sewn.)

I really do love log cabin blocks but I think they are most effective when the strings are narrow.  (The blocks in this quilt on pinterest are 3 1/2"-4".)  Most of my strings are at least an inch wide and I didn't think I wanted to waste the time and fabric cutting them narrower.  I laid those blocks aside, too.

Next I made some quarter log cabin blocks, like these.

Hmmm.  Maybe.  These are 4 1/2" blocks that will finish at 4".  Lots of color.  Bright.  Too much color?  Gosh, they are a lot of work.  I press seams after each log and then cut off excess to make the sides even.  It takes a lot of time, even with a system of sewing a dozen at a time.  These are some of the questions I asked when looking at these blocks:  Do they need more than just red centers to unify them?  The same red centers?  The same size red centers?  Should they be bigger?  Would it be better to have logs the same size?  Should I be concerned about wide logs?  But after all, it is a scrap quilt....  Do you ask yourself questions like these when you're in the process of beginning a quilt?

One more try.  These are 6" blocks in all brights, mediums, and darks.

These are perhaps not so time-consuming as the quarter cabins but the strings are longer, so probably the same amount of sewing time but less time cutting after each seam.  These look more peaceful than the quarter cabins.  Maybe....  The light squares would be formed from triangles at the corner of each block, probably all lights and different on each corner.

One of the challenges I face when I begin a quilt (without a pattern or when I'm not trying to make a quilt like one I've seen) is that I sometimes stop too soon.  Many blocks are more likely to give an idea of a finished quilt than a few blocks, but I quit after a few because I don't want to waste my time on blocks that won't become a wonderful quilt.  I need to give my ideas enough time (by making plenty of blocks) to know how a finished quilt might look. 

Hmmmm.  I've been busy this week but I haven't accomplished much.  And I'm trying to remember why I thought I liked sewing string quilts.  Mostly already cut?  Well, not exactly already cut.  Some of the strings are pretty shifty and uneven and have to be trimmed.  The time?  Unh-uh.  They take a long time to sew and press (because I press seams open to hand quilt).  And think about it:  the smaller the pieces of fabric, the more seams and time needed to make something large.  Being frugal?  Yes -- I'm not wasting much.  A jumble of colors?  Yes, I like many colors together if there's either some control of the colors or some pattern.  And it's fun to see what colors will look like together without committing to a whole quilt with just a few colors.

Some of the things I've been thinking about this week as I've stitched and ironed these blocks is the difference between seeing all of a quilt at one time, as in a photograph for display, and seeing only part of a quilt as it lays on my lap and feeling it around me.  There's a difference, isn't there?  The most beautiful quilt from a distance can be less than satisfying when seen in bits up close.  And if it doesn't feel good, it will probably be hung or folded for display and/or put in a closet and left there.  I want my quilts to be pleasing both in the overall view and up close, and I especially want them to be comfortable.

My quilt progress is like a guessing game.  Which will I choose?  Or which will I choose first?  Or will I choose something else?

I hope you're enjoying whatever you're doing.

I'm linking this post to
WOW (WIPs on Wednesday) at Esther's Blog hosted by Esther.
W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced  at Lee's blog, hosted by Laura.
Let's Bee Social #19 at Sew Fresh Quilts hosted by Lorna.
Thanks, ladies.

--Nancy.
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Early Strings, Strings Everywhere. . .

. . . hanging over a bulletin board,

waiting on the sewing machine,

and nestled into two baskets.

And there are more where those came from.  I just haven't pulled them out yet.  Who knows what these strings will become!


I was thinking about strings last week, trying to decide whether to start a project with them now or not.  Then on Saturday, Denise Russell of Pieced Brain invited me to participate in her Strip-easy Quilt Challenge.  I think I might.  I have enough strips that I should be able to make something from them, don't you think?

I'm linking to
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and
I Quilt Thursday @ Pretty Bobbins.  Thank you, Kelly and Gemma.

Thanks for stopping by!
--Nancy.
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W.i.P. Wednesday: Sunday Morning and String-X

This is the first time participating in W.i.P Wednesday, hosted from Freshly Pieced. I hope I'm doing it right.

I have two works in progress. Well, I have more than that, but I'll just show two today.


These first photos show strips and blocks for my version of Cheryl Arkison's "Sunday Morning" in the book Sunday Morning.


I've been a sewer for a long time so some of my fabrics are old. I try to use them in bits and pieces in the scrap quilts I make. But you know, those mushrooms might just have to come out of that block and stay out of this quilt!

The second quilt has been a work in progress for way too long, probably two years or more. I love piecing tops so much that I don't move on to quilting the tops. I'm devoting time every day so I can finish quilts instead of just finish tops. This is an adaptation of Bonnie Hunter's String-X quilt. I didn't paper piece mine and I changed the size.

Thanks for stopping by.