Halloween Quick Quilt

The final mini quilt in my seasonal series was for Halloween.  Since my boys love Halloween I tend to decorate quite a bit for it, so naturally I needed a quilt for the entry way. 

I bought this bundle of fabric featuring the adorable Maude Asbury Halloween prints.  I wanted to show off the prints in what little space I had, so I put my two favorites in large swatches on the top and bottom of the quilt, and threw in a little strip of scrappy improv.  With the rest I made some little drunkards path blocks and mixed them up into circles until my eyes were pleased.  I quilted it with straight lines.  Measures 19"x27". 

Short and sweet construction, and a cute little Halloween quilt to display every October.

Sunset Waves

In early 2014 Sherri Lynn Wood, an artist whose work I greatly admire, put out a call for pattern testers for her book.  Except we weren't really given patterns, we were given Sherri Lynn's loose instructions for improv quilt construction, which she called "scores." 

My quilt, Sunset Waves.

The score I was assigned was called Layered Curves.  I won't go into the whole process of creating the blocks.  You can check out Sherri's book for that!  I will say it was my first time to sew any curve of any kind.  And it was my first time attempting to work without a ruler.  For those keeping track, I didn't use any rulers or templates when cutting my curves.  I wasn't supposed to use a ruler at all, but I struggled to cut my blocks freehand so I did use a ruler to trim them up.  From my instruction from Sherri Lynn, which was all done online, I didn't realize the significance of this choice.  But later I would understand the importance of going ruler-free in this process, and wish that I had stuck with it.

Blocks in progress.

more blocks in progress

This quilt was finished in March, but I had to wait to share it until we got closer to the book's publication date.  Sherri Lynn's book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters is coming out in the spring 2015.  I can't wait to get my hands on it, even though my quilt was not chosen for publication in the book. 

basting.

I had a tumultuous relationship with this one. While in progress, I mostly hated it. When it was done, I loved it. After I took a workshop with Sherri Lynn Wood last month, I realized it is missing the expression of line that could have happened if I had put away my ruler as instructed. Like I said, I put it away for the curves, but couldn't make myself make blocks without it! I regret that now. But I still like this quilt.  My favorite thing might be all the hand-quilting I did.  

hand-quilting detail

This was absolutely a learning process that made me push myself into uncharted territory as a quilter. I'm looking forward to working with Sherri Lynn again at QuiltCon, and trying more scores from the book when it drops!  I'm also happy to say that this quilt will be hanging in the QuiltCon show.

Working

I'm a working person now.  I work.  I have a job.  

I was really nervous about getting a job after being a stay-at-home mom for 11 years.  I was anxious about what it would do to our family's schedule, and what it would mean for my creative pursuits.  I was extremely self conscious about filling out job applications and not being able to list any work experience (working as a waitress 13 years ago just didn't seem relevant).  It also stirred up some lingering insecurities about never having finished college.  The whole process was more emotional than I would have expected. 

But I tried to put my fears aside, and I filled out a few applications around town.  I also started to answer ads for after-school childcare.  I ended up finding a family to babysit for after school, and getting a call from Paper Source.  Of all the places within walking distance to our apartment, Paper Source was my number one choice for a possible workplace.  So I was pretty happy when they called me, and very excited when I aced the interview and got hired.

Working has been good.  I like feeling like I am contributing financially, even if it's just a little.  I like getting out of the house and interacting with a variety of people.  I like my coworkers and my manager.  I like choosing work outfits and doing my hair and makeup.  I like coming home and telling the boys and Nate about my weirdest/nicest/funniest/rudest customer of the day.  Paper Source is a fun place to work because my crafting skills and creativity are valuable.  Sometimes it's hard to get into sales-lady mode, to talk about "product stories", or ask every customer to add their email to our list without feeling silly.  But the things that are hard or awkward are far outweighed by the things I love.  I'm really happy and thankful for this job.

I like my babysitting job too.  The kids are very sweet.  They love the boys and the boys enjoy having them around.

I definitely feel busier.  Housework is tricky.  Laundry mostly gets done on the weekend now instead of daily, for example, and we have a backlog like we never had before.  Life has a new rhythm and we are doing our best to adapt. 

I do think my quilt output will slow down in the coming year, but not by much.  I still have a couple days to myself per week, and I try hard to use them productively.  I love my days off more than I can say.  I think about before I was working, but both boys were in school, and how every day was a day off, but I couldn't appreciate them as much.  It was like too much of a good thing;  it was saccharine sweet.  Now I can fully value my time off and make the most of it.  Don't get me wrong, I still have days when I get caught up in stupid tv and internet rabbit holes and accomplish absolutely nothing.  But they don't happen as often. 

Time does seem to pass faster now that I am working.  I feel somewhat mournful over that.  Summers will be slightly different, now that I will have to fit in my adventuring with the boys around my work schedule.  It's a little harder to be spontaneous, and I will miss that.  Some things about working are hard, but overall I am pleased with the change.  I did a lot of worrying about this transition before it happened.  Now that I am here, I'm happy, and proud of us all for adjusting like champs. 

Autumn mini quilt

I will be honest...  I'm in love with this little quilt. It's my autumn mini quilt for the entryway. 

I knew I wanted to try Kathy's block from Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking II. I love the quilts she has made using this block, and I love the story behind it. One of her students was trying to make a wonky star block but put the points on the wrong corners of the square. Instead of shrugging her shoulders and telling her to start over, Gwen helped her student see how the block could be used in its own way and create a completely different look.   I just love that.  Liberated quiltmaking at its best.

Picking out colors for a fall quilt was tricky for me at first. I tried using what I thought of as traditional fall colors, carefully picking out all my favorites from my Kona card. But when all those reds, yellows, browns, and oranges were together I hated it. It was too on-the-nose and too turkey-looking. It was awful. I couldn't handle it.  

I started over and tried a different approach with my colors. I took out some fabrics and added others, namely some greys and violets and teals. Angels sang. I was much happier and ready to proceed with my blocks.

So, Kathy's block in a mix of fall colors.  Then I built it out with some solid squares in the same colors.  I added some light blue borders, and then used a scrappy binding.  The quilting was supposed to look like a leaf, not a teardrop.  I'm thinking of adding some handquilting to help clear that up.

The quilt is up in the hallway, making me smile every time I come home.  I think it is my favorite so far. 

triangle baby quilt

This quilt was another project completed over the summer.  A friend from high school had a beautiful baby boy and I wanted to make her a quick quilt.  I used Big Thangles to make a bunch of half square triangles in blues, greens, greys, and just a bit of red and orange.  Even using Thangles, my HST's did not come out perfectly.  I have a talent for non-perfect HST's.  I decided not to trim them up since I was in a hurry and this quilt would be used by a tiny human.  Despite my not trimming, and many points not matching up, I was pleased with how this quilt came together.  I had fun pulling fabrics from my stash, and my favorite part of the process was arranging the squares on my design wall until they were in a nicely random pattern, with the pops of warm colors exactly where I liked them, and three full diamonds strategically placed.  I quilted this myself, with some very simple straight lines.  Hopefully baby Nico and his mom are getting a lot of use out of this little quilt.