Sometimes it doesn’t work

That beautiful fabric I bought a week ago?  I had a vision for it.  I knew exactly how I was going to use it.  I chose the fabric for a specific pattern that I had never tried.  I could see it in the store…… it was gonna be great.

So last Tuesday I cut up the fabric and started laying the pieces out on my design wall.  This was to be the center of a quilt:

OMG is it ugly!  I hate it.  Sometimes, it just does NOT work.

And all the pieces were cut.  Yep, all of the fabric.

Back to the board….. laying out the pieces in a new way.

I am MUCH happier with this layout.  I have lots of work to do to figure out the rest, but at least the center is planned.

If you have quilted for a year or more,  I bet this has happened to you.  If not, well…. either you are not adventurous enough, or you are lucky!

As for that first layout….. I have another fabric that I think will work.  I figured out why the oriental fabric wont work and what kind of print will.  I love it when I can determine the “why” of why an idea does or doesn’t work as intended, don’t you?

Scrap Garden

I have 2 buckets full of 2.5″ strips.  In an effort to use up some of those strips, I started cutting out a new quilt last week. This is the quilt all laid out on the design wall.

The entire wall is now covered, and it never made a dent in the buckets of strips.  I started sewing the pieces together today.  It is brainless sewing, since I used a template for the half hex.

I finished listening to Prayers for Sale while sewing.  Not my favorite book, but not awful either.  Next up to listen to is The Glass Castle.  I may start it tomorrow.  Or not.  Sometimes, I need a day or two between books.   For some reason, I like to let the finished book “settle” before I start the new one.  Same is true for movies.  We watched Precious last night, and that will take a week or so before it “settles”.

Yesterday I had a half day to myself.  I went ALONE…. yes, ALONE….. to the local quilt shop to do a little retail therapy.  (My friend Kay S. says I was doing my civic duty by boosting the economy!)  I spent 2 glorious hours finding the fabrics I need for a new project that is spinning in my head.  I got a new book last week, and I am revising one of the patterns in it to make it the way I need to.

This is what I bought:

It is only the 2nd time I have ever bought oriental themed fabric.  I normally don’t like it.  But isn’t this one yummy?  And the first 4 fabrics in the top left corner are Fairy Frosts.  Those are the accents in the quilt.

I have to get that Scrap Garden off my wall so I can this new one up!  The new one will be time consuming.  Much more difficult piecing and layout.  Lots of planning.  I hope the effort is worth it.

Look who came home

Look who came home.

red winged blackbirds

killdeer

and most exciting….. the robins.  a whole flock of them!

and the snowdrops are blooming!

And a gratuitous shot of Chrissy… just because she was feeling pretty and was posing for the camera as she slogged through the mud and snow.

Lonestar repair done

Remember this quilt?  (you can click on any photo to enlarge it)

I wanted to refurbish it to use as a tablecloth.

During the Olympics, I glued the replacement diamonds on.  Then I stitched them all down with a small zigzag,  made new binding and added it.  And washed and blocked the whole thing.

Before:

After:

And now, in use.

It was worth the effort.