Pushing Myself, Creatively Speaking

How do you push yourself to continue being creative? I love sewing, it's a really big part of who I am. But sometimes I feel like I am just churning things out and not being terribly creative. Or it begins to feel same ol' same ol' to me. So I started thinking about this yesterday. And in the last year or so, there are a couple of things I started doing to keep things fresh and new for myself.

Now, I have never been a big joiner when it comes to quilting. No quilt guilds, and only a few classes back in the early days. I love working on projects, but I hate packing everything up to go work on projects. I am a bit of a solitary maker. And then I love to show it off when it's done. I stayed away from many techniques that seemed too hard. And then I realized that that is what was holding me back and making me stale. I had to get over it and do something.

One of the first things I did was to make this set of tiny blocks to work on my precision piecing. These all finished at 2 inches square. I found that while they weren't tooeasy, they weren't too hard. Slow it down and do it right.

The next thing I did was to take the Penny Sampler quilt class on line from Rachel. I love her classes for their content, but I was also able to work on this at a pace that worked for me. The other thing about it was that there were some techniques in this class that I needed to learn and master. Like paper piecing. I came away knowing how to paper piece. It's still not my favorite technique, but when it's called for, I can do it. Also, this was a 12 month class. I have NEVER taken that long and slow to make a quilt and I found I really liked that slower pace, with time for other projects as well.

The next thing I did was to make this quilt for my niece. I used only fabric from my stash, except the background fabric. I have never done that, and only blues, which is also the first time I have made a quilt using only two colors. It wasn't that it was hard, just different and helped me to stretch myself a bit creatively.

I am currently working on an English paper piecing and applique piece, also hosted by Rachel of Stitched in Color and Jodi at Tales of Cloth. I never had any interest in EPP when it was all the rage a few years back, but now I cannot seem to get enough of the slow hand stitched pace of the hexies.

And now I have joined in on the 100 blocks in 100 days 2018 on Instagram. I bought the book for inspiration, the year it came out and then it sat on the shelf. This 100 day project is really pushing me creatively. I am doing every 10 blocks in one color, like a rainbow of sorts. I added pink, teal, dark pink and split the violet into red violet and blue violet to have enough for ten sets. It is all coming from my stash and scraps and choosing the colors is tough, but oh, so satisfying. I do a happy dance for each one I pull.

So that's what I am doing to keep moving forward as a sewist, quilter and maker. Tell me, what to you do to keep it fresh for yourself?
Talk to you soon.

A Beautiful Friday Finish

I have finished the quilt for my niece and have just returned from the post office, sending it off to her. I am thankful that it is done and pleased with the way it turned out. Pictures? Of course.

 I chose the Churn Dash pattern for two reasons. Number one, I have always wanted to make a Churn Dash quilt and number two, my sister encouraged me to use a traditional pattern and make it fit my niece's sensibilities with the fabric choices.

 Now, apparently I can't count, because I had these blocks left over. But fortunately they look wonderful on the back of the quilt. If she gets tired of the front, the back is like a whole new quilt.

We decided on shades of blue, since that is her favorite color. We threw in a few grays for interest and made some of the blocks reversed also for interest. I decided to make a few blocks out of 4 smaller churn dashes. The large blocks finished at 12 inches so it was easy to just make 6 inch blocks and slip them in there.

I love the combinations of fabrics and the shades of blue in here, from the very dark to the very light and all the blues came from my stash.

 I made the label on the back from one of my new labels from Dutch Label Company and stitched it to a leftover 6 inch block and then hand stitched it to the back of the quilt.

I can't wait to hear how she likes it. I know it will be just perfect for her. Talk to you soon.
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Churning Along

This is going to be my Friday finish. The quilt top is not finished, but for the last nine days, not counting weekends, I have been piecing and pressing these churn dash blocks and today at 4 pm they were finally all done!

We went from this, last Monday May 7...

...to this today. This is 41 blocks all stacked up. I was planning to do 6 x 6 which is 36, but I had counting difficulties. So the extras will go on the back of the quilt.

 There are 6 of assorted greys, all 12 inches square...

 there are 6 dark blues that are reversed...

 there are 11 dark blues in assorted fabrics...

 there are 13 assorted light blues, some there are 2 of...

and finally there are 6 of these, made from (4) 6 inch blocks.

The background fabric is Swiss Dots by Riley Blake. I originally ordered Navy on Cream, but when they pulled the bolt to cut is at the Fat Quarter Shop, they found it was mislabeled and was actually black dot on cream. They were so kind and called and emailed me right away. I decided to go with the black on cream and they rushed it right out to me.

Now I don't have EQ or any software to help me design quilts. I do it by trial and error and graph paper. So I had no idea how much fabric to buy. All the other fabrics were in my stash. I ended up buying 3 yards. I though it was enough. I had cut all my pieces and counted them and labeled them with post it notes. But I ran out before I got finished and ended up ordering another yard.

I think if I had counted how many blocks I had at that point, I was probably fine, but I assumed all my blue pieces were correctly counted. Ha! So I cut more background when I received the extra yard and I finally realized I had extra blocks. Now I have about a half yard left and it may become the binding, but I am not positive on that yet.

The next step is to figure out an arrangement, but that will be tomorrow. I am tired right now.
Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

Blue, Blue, My World is Blue

I'm working on a new quilt project for my niece. She loves blue. So with my sister's help, I pulled almost every blue in my stash for this. My niece is going through a rough time right now and so I am sewing all the love I can into this quilt for her.

These are the first three blocks. Now I have to get back at it so I can get this thing done. Talk to you soon.