Solstice - Starting a new year!

Happy Solstice!

Quilts are falling into my head like the snow that doesn't hit Texas very often. So many quilts. It's like a quilt-alanche inside my skull. Nice and warm, so I am okay with it.  :)

I did not meet my goals - but not for lack of trying. I came up 1 short on the piecing for the last year. But all things considered, I will not ding myself for that!


Piecing:
1. Hawkeye Minimalist - Done
2. The View from Godzilla's Mouth - Done
3. AQ - Done
4. Mermaid Scales - Done
5. Aztec Sunrise - Done
6. Cathedral - Done
7. Fiestaware - DONE
8.  NOT DONE.

 Quilting:
1. AQ - DONE!!!!! 
2. View from Godzilla's Mouth - DONE!!!
3. Mermaid Scales - DONE!!!!
4. Cathedral - DONE!!!
5. Clipper Ship - DONE!!!

Now comes the planning for the next year. Currently, I will shoot for another 5 quilted and try to hit my goal of 8 pieced. (if I manage to get both done this time, I will raise the numbers... maybe).

Piecing:
1. Uffington Horse
2. Blues
3. Squid
4. Chupacabra
5. Mandala
6.  War Quilt
7. Across
8. Girl Dreams

Quilting:
1. Fiestaware
2. Hawkeye Minimalist
3. Crazy Diamonds
4. Door to Moria
5. hopefully one of the above from piecing!!

The quilting part of the list will be the toughie! Two of these are full on pictures, like Clipper Ship was, but they are (or will be) on full-sized quilts (as in the bed size full size). Fiestaware also has a picture to be quilted into it. I... should get started, shouldn't I??

I also want to play with conductive thread and fabric in the coming year. It seems so far away right now... I have 365 days to play with everything. But if I break it down (which is probably a bad idea), each quilt to be quilted could only take 73 days.  Each piecing project can be no more than 45 days - sounds like a lot of time... but it isn't really.

Wish me luck!

Planning!

When I stress, I design quilts. Or piece quilts. Or applique quilts. Or even quilt quilts.

Right now my brain is handing me one design after another, as fast as I can write them down. They are not all winners. I only write down about half the ideas. I know I will never get around to the majority of them, but it’s interesting to see what my brain gives me.

The two best ones of the day:

War Quilt – a trench warfare scene done in sepia tones, land in black, sky in shades of sepia and the people in silhouette, and black explosions above the ground. Quilted into it are words: blood, death, soldiers, civilians, patriotism, nationalism, despot, and so on… enough to fill up a quilt.

Across – I haven’t figured out a way to do this one yet, but the image in my head is of an appliqued figure of one gender. Quilted into it is a figure of other gender, representing what they are inside, whatever the outer shell reflects. I don’t want it to be insulting or demeaning. I kinda want to piece the applique so it looks more Picasso-esque – the sense of the body being just not right, but I am not sure if that would be confusing.

There is a texture quilt forming in my head – all the same color, but different textures. I could only manage that if I could find white fabrics that would take dye in the same way, so the shades are damnably close. But I want it so much.

***

I don’t think in pictures. I think in words, in textures and scents and sounds. The only things that creep into my brain in picture form are quilts (and the occasional random thought that just makes me go “?!?!”).  I have tried other arts and other crafts before, but quilting is the only one that truly produces a result that matches what is in my head. I doodle, but I do not draw. The few I have attempted have garnered only laughter, no matter how much work has gone into them. It’s not an innate talent, and the remembered humiliation keeps me from trying anymore. But quilting… quilting works for me.

I get satisfaction from a completed quilt. It’s work – designing, choosing fabric, piecing, quilting, and binding – but it is utterly satisfying to look at a quilt, and think “I did that. Start to finish. That was me.”  

 I put another quilt in the hoop the other day. It will take me a while – it’s 100  12” blocks, and each block will have a geometric design quilted into it with variegated thread.

But I know what will be next on the list after that. I am building my goals for the next year, and we shall see how I do again! (The next one will be for me – a Hawkeye pin-up pic quilted into my Minimalist Hawkeye Logo quilt. Sometimes it IS just for me).

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Closing in on the end

Getting close to the end of my year...

Piecing:
1. Hawkeye Minimalist - Done
2. The View from Godzilla's Mouth - Done
3. AQ - Done
4. Mermaid Scales - Done
5. Aztec Sunrise - Done
6. Cathedral - Done
7. Fiestaware - DONE
8. Beekeeper's Quilt - this will take forever, but I have all my hexies cut out and am making pieces.

 Quilting:
1. AQ - DONE!!!!! still need to get pics.
2. View from Godzilla's Mouth - DONE!!!
3. Mermaid Scales - DONE!!!!
4. Cathedral - DONE!!!
5. Clipper Ship - DONE!!!

I have succeeded on the quilting front! Woohoo!!!

One more to go on piecing. I have a couple of options that I am considering.

I know people who quilt and piece more, who quilt and piece faster. But for me, this is pretty darned impressive. I am keeping up with my goals.

Come the end of the year - which for me will change over at the solstice - I will lay down a new set of goals for the next year. I haven't quite figured out what those will be yet, but that's on the to-do list.  :)

I have SO MANY IDEAS.

1. Hawkeye pinup. (ooh.... I could quilt this into the Minimalist Hawkeye quilt!!)
2. Uffington Horse (and quilting)
3. Blues (all about the fabric)
4. Squid
5. Chupacabra
6. Zen Garden Quilt (lots of quilting)
7. Mandala Quilt
8. Door to Moria Quilt (in which quilting is the point)
9. Quilt Fiestaware
10. Japanese Tea Garden
11. Quilt Crazy Diamonds

I guess I could start with these! (Right now on the frame is Crazy Diamonds.... it's gonna take a while!)