Design Wall/Bright Stars

Well, it's not Monday, but here's what's on my design wall. (Better late than never, right?)

This is an old UFO. (I have no idea of how old, I just know it's old!) I found this in a pizza box while I was reorganizing my sewing area. I have all the blocks done and it appears that I have all the background pieces cut and ready to go as well. You probably can't tell, but the pieces that look like quarter square triangles are actually 3-D praire points and I have the squares cut and ready to fold. Heck I even have the sketch that I made and the scrap of paper I used to determine my yardages. I sure wish I had included a date on one of these papers. I think I'm going to start doing that so I know when I started projects. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't. It might really be painful to see how long it takes to complete some of these quilts.

It's funny, but I love these colors and am surprised that I would have chosen them. They are so bright and wonderful! I went through a fairly long period of time when everything I made was pretty conservative. I mean, really conservative. Thimbleberries was just about all I used because I knew that no matter what I picked, the fabrics would all play well together. I started to branch out and add some other fabric lines, but often the majority were still Thimbleberries or all from the same fabric line. I was afraid to mix prints so I had just a few prints and them complimented them with Moda Marbles or something similar.

My husband calls that my "safe" period of quilting and was really glad when I branched out and tried other things. The idea of making a scrappy quilt, no matter how much I desperately wanted to, just about tossed me over the deep edge. I loved the looks of them, but just couldn't figure out how it seemed so effortless for other people to make them. I tried, but ended up making them very controlled and not really scrappy. My idea of scrappy was to use four different greens (all the same value) and a single background fabric. Whoa!!! That was a really big deal.

I've changed that up a bit. Check out a few of my more recent quilts. Carolina Crossroads is more controlled, but still fairly scrappy. My quilts using Judy Niemeyer patterns (Summer Solstice, Glacier Star) aren't really scrappy, but they certainly didn't follow my "normal" fabric selection process.  My Tumbler quilt is very scrappy. As a matter of fact, there are no fabrics used twice in this quilt. That's 577 different fabrics! My 4-Patch Galore quilt used a bunch of different fabrics and I love how they all worked together. Of course we have the raffle quilt I made last year that was scrappy 30's reproductions. I love this quilt! And of course, we have my still in progress Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. Anyway, you get the picture. I've expanded my horizons and just love to try to work with tons of fabric now.

Getting back to the quilt I just "found." I'm choosing to ignore the fact that there are a some points that don't match. I thought about taking the time to fix them, but then I decided that they really aren't that bad and I can live with it. (You really have no idea how "freeing" that decision is!) Anyway, I'm excited to get busy on this, but it will have to wait a couple of days because I have to finish up a memory quilt for someone.





As I said before, I found this while reorganizing my sewing area. I don't know about you, but I ALWAYS make such a mess when I'm reorganizing. I know that it will be better when I'm done; but man, what a mess! I've been reading the book Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter, and I love it. I've taken the information provided and began to look at my sewing area a bit more critically. I really have an issue with clutter (never put away things after I use them) and realize that the main reason is that their "home" really isn't very convenient or practical so I needed to figure out how to change that. This reorganization is definitely a work in progress, but I'm excited that I now have some direction.

I borrowed the book from the library and had to wait for it since the end of last year. It was well worth the wait, but since there are so many people who have placed a hold on the book, I can't renew it.  :-(  It is actually overdue by 2 days now, but I don't want to give it back until I'm done reading it. I've taken a bunch of notes and should be able to return it in a day or so. It is worth the 10 cents a day late charge! Oh heck, I'm just going to buy the book. I know I will use it over and over. If you are unhappy with your sewing set-up, you really should read this book.

Check out what other quilter's have on their design walls.
Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times
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Quilting by the River's Linky Party Tuesday.