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Meadow Quilt FINISHED!

3/29/2025

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Back in 2019, I started this piecework by making paper templates and using scissors to cut out mini triangles and so on.  My friend & not-yet-quilting-mentor kept watching me do it with a face that said "you're doing it wrong - I could show you!"  But she didn't impose, and I'm the sort who has to do it my way first - that way I figure out what problems need solving; afterward, I appreciate learning better techniques!  I also get bored with beginner projects and kits, so I start with a vision beyond my capacity, and ride the struggle bus the whole way.  That's just how I am.  
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My first quilt (so heavy!)

12/26/2023

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I am visiting my mom for Christmas; look what she has on her bed!  
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A Groovy New York Beauty

8/17/2023

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Silk culotte suit, circa 1971, Emma Knuckey. AucklandMuseumCCBY.
What colors characterize an era?  For the 1970's, it was as if the bright colors of the 1960s got tea-stained.  Lemon yellow dulled to burnt Sienna and harvest gold; acid green to avocado.  Everything was earthy, mellow, and warm.  These colors found their way into clothes and furniture and appliances.  My childhood home (in the 90's) had a bunch of them, because our furniture was secondhand from my great-grandparents!  I still remember our wooden couch with big square cushions covered in scratchy flowers. 

For me, 1970's colors feel like a childhood dream, because -- until a certain age -- all my dreams came in sepia.  (I still remember the first "color" dream I had, and how surprised I was because I'd thought true colors only happened when you were awake!) 

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Designing a Print

5/29/2023

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I have often admired One Block Wonder (OBW) quilts, and vaguely considered making one.  But since making one involves buying the same panel or print six or seven times, it's an expensive buy-in.  So when I discovered a website that would mock-up what a OBW quilt would look like with any given fabric, I decided to have some wholly digital fun, for a buy-in of $0 and 0¢. 

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Acid Trip wins a ribbon!

3/25/2023

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Begun April 2021, my Acid Trip quilt started as an experiment in string piecing, and morphed into an abstract expression of what I, a non-drug-user, think an acid trip might be like.  It was... a journey! 

Here are all the posts in chronological order:
April 27, 2021 - String Piecing
June 1, 2021 - Coming along
September 10, 2021 - Ideas for layout
October 27, 2022 - Done!
November 22, 2022 - Labeling
March 25, 2023 - this post

Along the way, you'd think I'd have used up all my scraps, but no such thing!  I still have lots of little pieces of fabric to play with.
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Grandma & Shadrach FPP (pattern drafting)

2/26/2023

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I wonder if I can design my own Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP)?  (Of course I can.)  I wonder if the cracked ice research I did may help?  (Why the heck not!) 

When my mom and I left East Africa, we went to Liberia, in West Africa, to visit the family of our stateside Liberian friend.  We took a lot of pictures of people there, to bring back to our friend who hadn't seen his family in years.  This photo, of Grandma with her grandson Shadrach, is lovely.  I decide to use my compass method to see if I can cracked-ice it into FFP slices. 
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Gustav's Jewel Box - my blank verse quilt in progress

1/5/2023

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Some quilts -- like my Memories of Africa Quilt or my Dandelion quilt -- start with a plan.  I sit down and draw an idea, pick my fabrics, and work my way toward a fore-visioned end.  I love working like that, because I can bring an idea into reality!  But those quilts tend to be thinky quilts, and sometimes I don't have the reserves to think my way through my hobby.  Lately, I've been getting home from work at 6:30pm, and it's dark, and I have just enough space in my brain for a little Foundation Paper Piecing... before I feel my focus slip, like a car falling out of gear.  I get maybe a half-hour of concentration, and then I find myself picking the wrong fabric for the pattern and having to rip seams, or just staring at the same piece for a while doing nothing.  I desire to be creative, but sewing to a plan leads to frustration. 

That's why I like to have a second project at the same time, a non-thinky project.  The Acid Trip, Scrappy Double Wedding Ring, and today's featured project are all examples of what I think of as "blank verse" projects. 

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    Karen Roy

    Quilting, dressmaking, and history plied with the needle...

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