Tuesday, 24 October 2017

AHIQ - share your improv #26

I am making progress with my shipping forecast quilt, which is to say that I have made a lot of HSTs.  I had great plans for yesterday, but then the boiler died and I had to sort that out and before I knew it the day was gone and not one stitch had been sewn.

However, since it is AHIQ time I thought I'd mention that I have decided to quilt my Yellow Birds next (it has words on at least) but that when I got it out, and in fact after I had pin basted about a quarter of it, I decided I didn't like the shape.  It looked like this.
Seemed fine at the time but now it's just too square.  I know that's a bit perverse when I've just finished a square quilt, but that worked (because it was consistent, I think: square blocks, sewn into bigger square units, sewn together into square quilt) and this doesn't.  So I unpinned, un-backed and am in the process of adding a couple of rows of geese to make things more rectangular.  It's a bit of a pain, but better than quilting something and then deciding I don't like it.

On to AHIQ and this was scheduled to be the start of our next challenge, but after some discussion we have decided to postpone this until the beginning of next year - Ann very elegantly called it "consolidate and review".  The reasons for this are two-fold: firstly there seem to be a few people who have started one of the previous challenges but not had time to finish yet, so this creates an opportunity to catch up a bit.  Also, in case you hadn't noticed, Christmas will soon be bearing down upon us and that tends to make quite a few demands on people, so if you don't want to make up quilting ground, you can have a few extra moments to wrap stuff, or eat mince pies or do whatever you like to do at this time of year (mince pies and Christmas cake for me, all the way).

If you are all up-to-date/don't do Christmas/are super-organised/never stop sewing and would like a challenge then maybe you could try something new on the quilting front.  You could go graffiti style, like Karlee Porter, try circles if you usually quilt in straight lines,or vice versa, mix hand work with machine quilting.  I have a notion to try something based on Welsh whole cloth quilts some time soon, if I can figure out how to get what's in my head onto fabric, though it won't be happening this year.   Alternatively you could try a different thread - maybe thicker or thinner than usual. 

So he remaining link ups 2017 will run, as usual, on the 4th Tuesday of each month and the next challenge, possibly in a slightly revamped form, will kick  off in January. In the meantime I look forward to seeing what people have to share this month.

I'm linking this up with Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE 


9 comments:

Quiltdivajulie said...

Good decision to postpone the next challenge until January. Time will become overly precious in the coming weeks and none of us need any additional stress from the quilting studio. My goal will be to get at least a few more quilts quilted by the end of the year. Including the Words quilt from the most recent third quarter challenge. Hoping to have it ready by next month's link up (it is currently pin basted and ready to be quilted).

patty a. said...

I will link up the wool utility quilt that I am making for my brother. I will link my post tomorrow so I can add more detail pictures of what I am doing. It is hard to believe that we are almost in November! Taking the quarter off to finish up projects is a great idea.

audrey said...

I'm so happy with the delay in the next prompt. Love being challenged but I'm starting to feel time challenged already and it's not even Thanksgiving! Funny how your quilt is still telling you what to do. Had the same thing happen to me before and it's always better to change things before it's irreversibly too late!

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

Great idea to change things now with your 'bird' quilt, it would have niggled away at you while you were quilting otherwise. And yes, Xmas is fast approaching! I plan to get a bit of improv happening next year, look forward to your next challenge then. Thanks for sharing with 'sew stitch snap SHARE'

Ann said...

Yellow Birds seemed done to me but that was probably due to the photo angle; it looked a bit rectangular. I'm sure you have a plan and it will work out well. I look forward to the before and after shots.
We made a good call to consolidate and review. So many things to finish before I scarf down Christmas treats. It's cornbread dressing for me.

Cathy said...

Hmmmm...wondering how you could possibly make Yellow Birds any better!

Janie said...

That's a good idea to postpone the challenge, I agree. I have a lot going on
around here! Your 'Yellow Birds is looking great, Kaja.

Monica said...

I'm very interested to see what you will do next with this one! And I think you and Ann are right, it is a good time to consolidate. :D

Mystic Quilter said...

Lovely to see your Yellow Birds again! Good idea to postpone a new idea until the New Year, especially as I have been woefully absent with mine!