From Quilt Top to Quilting -

This is how I decided on the big yes.

Does that happen to you too?

You pull out umpteen different things from purple to red to fuscia to turquoise hoping one of them will do the trick as inner border -

But they all made that skinny little green sashing disappear.  I needed something lighter than the green sashing for the inner border. But darker than neutral or my little neutral rectangles at the ends of the sashing would also disappear.

And I dug into the bins that are currently stored in the garage/shop at Quiltville Inn just KNOWING there would be something to do the trick.

And I found 1/2 yard of this piece:

If you have been quilting for any length of time the print may look familiar to you.  I’m guessing late 1990s, early 2000s?  Anyone recall?

It’s a strange shade of melon that tied in the more modern oranges and corals in the tulip blocks, didn’t fight with the green, was darker than light, but lighter than medium.  it does the job.  It’s a bit unexpected as a color, but it also has warmth where the green is cool.

My one saving grace with older stash is the things I loved working with then, I still love working with now.  I call them CLASSICS.  Stripes, Plaids, Dots, Textures, Tone on tone, patterns – and these older fabrics work just great with the newer ones. I don’t think prints like this will ever truly be “out of style”.

There are some colors that go on out as quickly as they came on in – but they will be back around!  About every 20 years or so. LOL!

I’m thinking of Williamsburg blue.  And that dusty mauve (which was one of my wedding colors, combined with burgundy. Eeek!) and back to the greens in this quilt – that grey-ish sea foam green?  It doesn’t like to play with the brighter yellow greens and limes that have been current lately.

But just give them time, they will come back around!

And anything I really don’t want to keep around I can easily slice up into strings and find a way to use them that way.

Ready to load in the machine!

Backing Sneak Peek!

(Wrong side of fabric.)

The floor mat is there to keep the cats off!

I got as far as piecing the backing yesterday.  And let me tell you, it is not gorgeous! LOL!  

I had 7 yards of a weird green that had dragonflies and kind of orange flowers in it.  I had some leftover very green plaid, and a length of leftover string border.  When the quilt is quilted I “MAY” be brave enough to share a photo.

But the point is – I used about 8 yards of random stuff as the backing for this queen-sized quilt. There will be many more backings like this in my future because while I believed “She who dies with the most fabric WINS!” in my 20s, 30s, and into my 40s – as I near the end of my 50s I realize the game has changed.

It is now “She who sews it all up before she dies WINS!”

And oh, what fun we are going to have doing it!  Are you in the same boat?

Blossom Time is the perfect example of stash annihilation.  Fabrics from the 1980s through today are in here.  Different genres and manufacturers and designers are in here. There are hundreds of different fabrics from my life as a quilter in here.

The reason I fell in love with the tulip block (Besides it being very cute, springy, and easy!) is that each blossom only took two half-square triangles and one square.  That meant a lot of short strips could be purposed and GONE from the Scrap User’s System.  

And this quilt is all about the variety in color and styles of fabrics to make it fun.

It would not be nearly as entertaining to make if I made it from a jelly roll – all one line of fabric.  All one background.  All those “same prints just in different color ways.”  No thinking to be done. I would lose my interest.

A couple of weeks ago I had another offer from a fabric company wanting me to design fabric with them.  I turned it down.  Because I don’t sew that way.  It’s just not me to design a quilt around one line of fabric, never being able to include other stash from other designers and manufacturers, eras, genres and more in my project. 

My hands would be tied as to what I could make, what it would look like, what colors would be my “brand” from here out until eternity.

 

At that point, the quilt becomes an advertising billboard for the fabric line and manufacturer – not something that came from my own stash and my heart,.

It would limit my choice and stifle my creativity.  And my desire to work with it ALL.

And I want to sew this way!

I used the remainder of that melon inner border fabric in two of these Nearly Lemoyne blocks that are coming along just fine.

And I’m doing the same thing here – I’m digging through my strip stash for strips that are long enough for each fabric placement.  Upper left: Older melon fabric with a newer bright and bold print.  the block next to that contains an older Jinny Beyer dark teal, with a more modern batik.  The bottom right has that same melon print mixed with a purple.

The dark teal/aqua block to the left of the melon/purple one uses a strip of recycled shirt as a background.  

The little blue triangles to the right of the sewing machine needle are recycled from my own shirt!  It was one of my favorite ones that I wore for Tuesday night line dancing lessons back in 1998 or so when we still lived in Idaho before moving to Texas.

This is how I like to play.  I don’t think ANY fabric line, no matter how many prints it entails would give me the variety that I crave in my quilts.

However YOU like to sew – be true to you!  Sew what you like to sew with, however you choose to mix it up.

Last night’s sleepy dog block modeling!

I finished the last two that I had base blocks made for while watching nearly the last episodes of CSI (Las Vegas) last night.  We’ve only got two episodes left to go after so many seasons – if you are looking for something to binge, this took us months of nearly every evening watching a couple of episodes.

Today the plan is to get the quilting started on the Blossom Time quilt.  I haven’t chosen a quilting design yet – so that is first up.

Easy quiet Tuesday ahead.

Anything going on in your world?

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Anyone else feel like they woke up in the wrong parallel universe? Lol!

I talk to my 80 year old dad every evening and his response when I ask him "How's your day, Dad?" Is "I'm stuck in Groundhog Day, the movie!"

I love his sense of humor. I worry about him because he lives alone on the other side of the country. I am so grateful for technology allows us to text, talk, and video chat on a daily basis.

I don't know how I would have survived the pandemic had I been around in 1918.

I am still wondering what the history books will say about us and our outcome after this has finally reached an end, if it ever will.

I try to find the humor in every day, and things that continue to touch my heart and make me smile.

Quilting is my inspiration, my lifeline and my solace.

I have a feeling it is yours, too!