New Year's Resolution #1

January's quilt is done and I am so pleased with the results.

I gave the quilt top to long-arm quilter Terry around the middle of January. She had it quilted and handed it back over to me on Friday. I spent yesterday evening preparing and attaching the binding. It's DONE!!

The details: quilt top made in August, 2011; size is 70 inches by 80 inches; fabric is by Moda's American Jane called Breath of Avignon.

I always say this quilt looks like a Van Gogh painting with the bright, intense colors. I even called the quilt "Vincent" back when I first posted about making the quilt top.

Strippy quilts are fun and fast. I had a lot of fabric from this line, and some pieces were border prints. I used them in the solid vertical strips, and maintained the little yellow bit on the edge - it looks like rick-rack. That's just one of the neat little touches that make me adore this quilt.

I am gearing up to do some hand quilting while we watch the super-bowl tonight. I have no favorite to win - I would love to see Manning get another Super Bowl victory; and Carolina is just full of former OSU Buckeyes. Either way, I will be happy for the winner. Just hope to see a good game.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Totally Weird

The coolest thing happened a couple of days ago. It has to do with this book that I have been reading about Vincent Van Gogh called Sunflowers.

I'm not far into it, and actually I'd just picked it up after a few weeks' hiatus to read my book club book. I was trying to remember what had been happening without re-reading too much and that is when this cool thing happened. I was just casually reading along when this word jumped, and I mean that practically literally, jumped off the page at me: Avignon.

I got goose bumps. Really major ones.

Because, you know, I have been working on a project using this fabric called A Breath of Avignon.

Does stuff like that happen to you? I call this sort of thing 'synchronicity' which, according to Wikipedia, is the experience of two or more events, that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in the 1920s. I didn't know all that until I just looked it up, but I did know the definition.

I think it means I am supposed to be working on this quilt with this fabric at this time. Like maybe all the stars are in perfect alignment for me to create something really awesome. Hmmmm, well that may be exaggerating a bit, but it certainly feels right.

Since I am making up this quilt from parts of several quilt books and patterns, I have been trying to come up with a name for it. In all likelihood, this quilt will be named with this whole coincidence in mind. I'm holding off giving it a name until after it is finished, but I'm thinking that Vincent Van Gogh might get a shout out.

On Monday when Sharon was here to sew, I spent much time figuring out how to proceed with my Avignon project. I had 21 blocks made and sewn into 3 strips of 7 blocks.

I studied the largest piece of border fabric that I had: a red, 2-yard cut with 3 complete borders. I had to really get my thinking cap on because this was math-related. If I had 3 pieced strips, then I would only need two border prints to separate them. If I had 4 pieced strips, then I could use all 3 borders. No waste. No leftovers.

So I got to work making another set of blocks. In that thought process, I also decided that the quilt should be longer and have 8 blocks (instead of 7) in each strip, so I made 11 more blocks. (Man, I hope everyone followed all of that; trying to put into words the way a quilter thinks through a process is not easy!!)

Whether you follow or not, this is how things stand now: I have 4 strips of pieced blocks with 8 blocks per strip. I am ready to cut the border print and sew the strips together. Then I will have a new decision to figure out: how to do borders. I'm thinking a small yellow inner border, but will there be enough fabric to do it? Stay tuned.

Breath of Avignon Happiness

Yes, I cut it. That tub of gorgeous fabric that has been teasing me for most of a month has finally been  assigned a project. This is one of those quilts that I'm inventing as I go. I am taking various elements for several books, patterns, and quiltmakers to come up with my very own design.

Some pics to show you my progress. After it's all done, I will attempt to bring all the various tangents together.

First, I cut all the fabrics in the 2 charm packs into 3 1/2" squares and made these 4-patch blocks. I did everything random - no placement planning at all. Pretty exciting stuff!!

Then, from the half-yard fabrics (I had 7 of these), I cut 5 1/4" strips into squares, which were cut diagonally to get these half-square triangles.

And those triangles were applied to the 4-patch blocks. Now I have 21 of these blocks which will be sewn into 3 columns of 7 blocks.

That is what I will do today when Sharon comes over for our weekly quilting session.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

I Know It's Crazy, But...

...I haven't finished the borders on Economy Blue, and all I can think about is the next quilt I want to make! Are all quilters like this??

Economy Blue with top and side border placed, but not sewn.

I have a lovely bin of fabric from a year or two back called A Breath of Avignon by Sandy Clop/American Jane for Moda. It's been behaving itself in its bin all these many months, but here in the last week, it will just not be quiet!!

The roaring bin of A Breath of Avignon; 1-yd. and 1/2-yd. cuts plus 2 charm packs.

It began as a whisper; then when I ignored it, the whispers became a bit louder, and finally, these past couple of days, I'm dealing with a definite ROAR coming from the bin in the sewing room. A French roar, mind you, but a roar, nonetheless.

Wouldn't it be roaring at you, too??

I don't dare start cutting this fabric until I have Economy Blue's borders attached.

These are the remaining blocks with which the other side and bottom borders will be constructed.

And one additional, yet significant factor to consider before cutting, a dilemma: my B of A collection contains very few neutrals, and a number of border prints. I'm feeling the need to be very selective with the patten I choose to use for this fabric. I've been paging through a lot of quilt books and magazines, searching for inspiration. At present, I'm leaning toward a strippy quilt, using the border fabrics to create the columns. Since I'm rather favoring the simple, get-em-done-fast quilts, I like the idea of big blocks, perhaps 4-patch or 9-patch on point. Perhaps an Ohio Star. Or a Churn Dash. Or I could mix it up and have a variety of blocks on point in the pieced strips of a strippy quilt.

Any ideas from readers would surely be appreciated.

A tangent that sorta' relates, but not exactly...I was reading blogs a bit ago and came across Creature Comforts, one that I've just recently begun to follow. Her topic today is Color Crush. I really like the recognition that we go through "crushes" with particular colors becoming our favorite for awhile - be it a week or a month or whatever.

I admit it: I've got a Breath of Avignon Crush going on.

Happy Quilting, Friends!