Keeping Busy and Going Custom
We had storms yesterday and Gammill, the long arm company, did maintenance on the website and computer system so no long arm work yesterday. Instead, I finished up a wall hanging top that I'll be using for one of the Skill Builder lessons.
On the Motivation Front
I didn't spend any time reading more of The Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden yesterday, but I did learn something about myself and motivation. Sometimes I just need an exciting project idea to get my mojo back.
One of the things I did earlier this COVID year was to sign-up for a Copyright Camp. The instructor is Elizabeth Townsend Gard, a professor of law at Tulane University. I have to say this camp is probably the best $50 I've ever spent on my education. (And I have spent a significant fortune on my education over the years.) The focus was entirely on copyright as it applies to quilting. She plans to run the camp again and expand it to other art forms, so I'll share the information when it's available.
While working on my final project for the class, the heavens opened and inspiration shined down. Boom! Ok, not that dramatic. But, suddenly I was off and running. The juices were flowing, and I was in the zone. Creativity is like that for me. When inspiration strikes, my creativity runs wild. I love that.
No reveal on the project just yet since I need to order fabric (gasp!) and some of the prints I plan to use won't be available until October.
Something New Progress
Ok, so Monday, the "one thing" progress on my Black Cherries quilt was to get the box out of the closet. Yesterday I put a bit more effort into moving this UFO forward by placing the pieces on my design wall. It is a challenge for any UFO because I never know if all the pieces are there until it's on the wall.
It was touch and go for awhile there because I thought I was missing some of the black and gold triangles. I have more of the black fabric, but I don't have even a tiny scrap of the yellow. Fortunately, I found the missing pieces on the back of one of the brown felt blocks. Whew!
Now those brown felt squares are not part of the final quilt. I'm using those to hold the pieces for the basket blocks while they are on the wall. It's just easier to place all the small pieces on a square and then I can remove the whole set and take it to the machine for assembly. The fabric pieces stick to the felt and the felt sticks to the wall. Win, Win.
Before the Storms
Before the storms hit, I was able to finish up my Stars and Bars quilt. The original pattern was much larger and designed for patriotic prints. This one is smaller so I could use up some leftover strips and fabric from another project.
It makes a cute little quilt. I used two different block patterns in the stars and then concatenated two strip patterns for the stripes on the quilt. Concatenation is a technique using two or more alternating quilting patterns.
The star blocks are "Winding Ways 4" by Nancy Haacke and "Day & Night" by Laurie Thomas. For the stripes I used "SB Springtime Pearls" by Joyce Lundrigan.
Something Custom
My next big project on the long arm is a custom quilt I'm creating for an incredibly good friend. She is purchasing a home and the plan is to make this a house warming gift. I made the top from a Moda University series I participated in at Patchworks in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. I think the year was 2005 (06? 07?)
The fabrics are from my stash and were collected over several years. Some were purchased during trips I took with my parents. Others are from purchases made at different quilt shows.
Custom quilting takes several days, especially when I'm not able to quilt every day. Consequently, I'll be sharing my process and progress on this quilt over the coming week or so. In the meantime, as a teaser, here is a picture of the stitching plan for the quilt.
What inspires your creativity?
Until next time,