Four years later

I started this quilt four-plus years ago. And for some reason yesterday I was seized with the motivation to quilt it.... I'm about two-thirds done!

It is a testament to scrappiness and free-piecing. I have changed a lot as an artist and quilter since starting this quilt, but I am still very pleased with it. I'm excited that I may finally be able to snuggle under it soon.

In-Progress Garden Quilt

To be honest, I started with a strong bias against appliqué. It is so precise and perfect (italicized words should be said with notable distaste). I never imagined I would have appliquéd as much as I have. However, when I was spending a lot of time on my tuckus in school appliqué kept my hands busy and my mind less antsy.

In my early quilt frenzy I would go the library and rent 10-15 quilt related books each week, soaking up techniques, patterns and of course, beautiful beautiful quilts. I was unexpectedly inspired by Mary Lou Weidman's book Quilted Memories. All her appliqué is free-form, and sewn with abandon. As you might guess, I loved her "who cares what color thread you have!" approach.

So, class by class and block by block I worked on a quilty tribute to my beloved backyard garden, slugs and all. I had thought I would just stitch the randomly sized blocks together, but when I laid them out together they didn't cover enough space. I wanted a laying in the sun quilt, or a picnic worthy quilt. It had to be bigger. So I added borders last week using the fabrics from other squares in the quilt. I'm not sure the layout above is the most perfect layout a person could come up with, but I am certain that I need to get over it and stitch 'em together already so I can enjoy the quilt this summer!

I will show some of my favorite blocks in close up detail when it is quilted. But I thought it looked so happy laid out that I had to share this part early...

A reckoning

I'm getting pretty inspired seeing so many lovely free-spirited quilts on Sew, Mama, Sew that I'm dreaming up beautiful new projects to use my scraps on. But settle down there, sister! I still have a ton of Unfinished Objects to complete. I thought I'd post them to give you a taste and also so I can brag when I'm finished.

This is the next in line. Another group baby quilt! The theme was farm animals. Looking pretty good so far. Scrappy border coming up.

Here's a crazy strip pieced quilt that's already quilted. It's been that way for five months. What is so hard about adding a binding?

This is ready to be quilted. It has been in this state for two years. It will be the biggest quilt I've done on my little machine so far, and I'm a little apprehensive.



This is a few squares of an applique quilt based on my garden that I started 2 and a half years ago. I've decided on a layout. Now I just need to sit down and stitch it all together.