A finish

This feels a bit like cheating - posting a finished quilt without having shown any of the work that went into it, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  I started this some time last spring (again, no blogging means I don't have a proper record of dates), worked on it on and off, through homeschooling and house moving. Now it is done, and has gone off to its home so I can share.

I  started with the moons and a colour palette (rich greens and blues and a little bit of mustard yellow/gold) and the rest followed from that start.  There are several shirts and a big piece of dressmaking remnant in amongst the fabrics, some (I think) easier to spot than others.   In several cases I have used both sides of a fabric in different places; those are not so hard to find, on the whole. 

I had been mulling over various ideas for tops using very pointy little triangles for quite a long time, originally inspired by a CD cover that I liked  a lot, and it made me very happy when I realised that they would be a great match for the moons in this.  They are fiddly to make but I love the way they look.  In this quilt they look a bit like trees or mountains, I think, so that the whole thing has a feeling of landscape about it.  That wasn't something I planned, but it happened as I went along, which for me is how all the best stuff happens.

I used organic cotton wadding, which is my current preferred option, and quilted it with perle no. 8, in a variety of shades, mostly ones I already had.  The quilting comes out in concentric circles from each moon. 

The back is a combination of left-overs from the front and bits from stash.

It is bound with what I believe to be an Alison Glass sunprint, from stash, with a couple of little inserts that came from the quilt scraps.

This is my second finish of the year so I'm already ahead of the game.  Let's see if I can keep it up!

Done circling for now

This one is done for now.  I added one last row and then one tiny column up the right-hand side.  It looks slightly lopsided in the photos because the child holding up the left hand side is taller than the one on the right, but the quilt itself is a little more regular.

I am really very happy with how this has turned out, so feel I have ticked the Positive Thinking box very nicely.  

I have also finished the unblogged quilt, which will be packed up and posted in a day or two, so hooray for finishes all round.  A brief pause, then on to the next one.

Not one, but two

One row, one column and so close to an end I can smell the finish line.  Only now it's half term, so we'll have to see how it goes next week.

I knew I wanted triangles across the top, so that bit was easy, but the strip that is with them was one I had already made specially for the bottom left corner.  I'll have to rethink that, I guess.

Then, although I don't need more width, I had to come back down the side.  I know, I know, it is my quilt and I could abandon the medallion at this point and just add across the bottom.  Only I've come this far...

so I've added just a wee narrow piece to get me back down to the bottom again.  Most of it is the same fabric that I used in the wee houses.  I'm very happy with how it looks; I much prefer it to finishing with the sharp yellow on the edge.  

I'm also nearing an end with my current quilting project.  It's not one I've blogged, which always feels odd, but I'm no more than a week off a total finish, with just a couple of days of quilting and then binding to go.  Like buses, my finishes are all coming at once.

You name it, I tried it

 And up the right hand side I went.

This column took flipping ages.  I had houses at the top, birds at the bottom;houses at the top, birds in the middle; birds at the top, no houses; no birds and no houses; you name it, I tried it. This is what I settled for in the end.

Of course the irony is that any one of the other solutions would quite probably have looked fine if I had persisted with them.  I wonder what would happen if I just stuck with my first decision every time and didn't do all this tinkering.  Would it make much difference?  Maybe not, but tinkering is what I shall continue to do.

This is probably wide enough now, though not long enough yet, so I only have to add more columns if I fancy it.  More tinkering ahead, I guess.

Not rushing - or not much

Slow going now.  Lots of interruptions and more than a little downright indecisiveness. I am trying to stay with this quilt and not rush it just because I want to start something new.  And yes, I could start the next thing before this is done, but I have learned my lesson the hard way and will not be trying any multi-tasking.

Anyhow, I have added the bottom strip and have started trying to figure out the right hand side: one more column and then this will be at a width I'm happy with.  At least, for once, I am in no danger of running out of fabric.

Never say never again

Just when I was sure there would be no more birds, this happened.

I tried various other options but nothing was doing it for me, so I peddled back a bit and dug out the birds.  Since I have only a handful of them left but wanted this strip to be a good length, I have added in squares of the other pale fabric, which does pretty much the same job. 

I have a rough idea of where I need to go to finish this now, though you may well note that every round of this is providing a new challenge. Good exercise for the brain/creative muscles (that's what I am telling myself).  So much so that I might try another medallion some times soon.  For now, though I want to finish this and start making string blocks.  If you haven't already checked out the latest AHIQ challenge, do have a look, either by following the link or by visiting Ann's blog.

What was that I said?

Did I say less fiddling than usual?  Ha! That'll teach me.  It's taken me several false starts and a whole week to do one little strip across the top of this that I am satisfied with.  

The first part - the mucky green with yellow inserts - came together in a pleasing, straightforward way but then I hit a bump in the quilty road.  My logical brain wanted to use a particular fabric.  It made sense.  I hadn't used it up at the top, it should have provided a neat contract with what went before.  Only it didn't.  In fact it didn't work at all.

Undeterred I made another strip using the same pale fabric but with a different partner.  That was no better.  So I had to admit I was wrong and go back to the drawing board.  

Eventually I came up with something better.

And yes, I know it's upside down here. Sometimes I find it helps me to look at something from a different angle.  

Here, for the sake of thoroughness, is what it looks like the other way round.

The foreshortening that I get from photographing work on the floor means this looks longer and skinnier than in real life, though it is emphatically a rectangle.  I think maybe one more round and it may be done. If I keep up the same pace that will take me to the end of February!