String Spools, and Dove in the Nest

If it hadn’t been for ALL of you, encouraging me to finish this little quilt that didn’t seem to have much potential, I wouldn’t have this lively little FINISHED project! THANKS! “You don’t know how it will look until it’s finished!” I almost didn’t follow my own advice!

It’s quilted it in a playful swirls, with bright “King Tut” brand, variegated #40, thread. It took a little practice on my Magna Doodle to get the pattern ingrained on my brain, but once started, I couldn’t stop. (I'm still practicing my machine quilting on my domestic machine. The heavy quilting tends to blend the many colors. This was a delightfully entertaining project to quilt, with each border quilted in a different pattern. The binding was finished tonight while DH was watching a too-complicated espionage movie on TV, and I was trying to spend some quality time with him. (Does that count as quality time?)


This little Mama dove is almost totally hidden, yet is 6 feet from my eyes. When I unfurled my quilt for the photo, she flew away - I felt TERRIBLE! But she'll be back, and we can watch her family grow.

Memorial Day 2007

No words needed today.

"Know When to Fold 'Em"

Kenny Rogers sang something about playing Poker, and "Know when to hold 'em" and "Know when to fold 'em" ... Sometimes things do not work as planned, and it's time to do some quick finishing on this little quilt and fold it!

I went with the Spool arrangement (the block on the right, below), even though the strips went the wrong way. First error. It draws the eye to all those different directions, making things tooooo jumbled and confused. Also, the strings are each so bright and contrasting -- they don't blend. Recognizing that this setting was not working, I reduced the size of this project. I will finish it up and get on with something else. My efforts at auditioning borders didn't improve it a lot, but I believe that dark purple will make it passable. I won't call it a failure, I'll just call it ... uhhhh Done!

(hmmmm - what if I had used a dark color instead of a white for the half-squares? - should I try that???)

Look at this earlier successful turquoise quilt. I had alternated the light background between white and light blue. My strings were closer in value and they were mostly blue, turquoise, lavender. The quick corner triangles were also softer, and less "in your face"..., also in the same color families.

I was totally mesmerized from 3 recent delicious string quilts at www.quiltville.com -- couldn't wait to recreate one, but alas (old timey word!) mine didn't work!

I don't mind posting projects that don't work - how else can we learn from each other?

String Settings

I am playing with my string blocks. There might be too much white so I added the quick corners in purple and turquoise. It gives the block a whole new look, doesn't it? At this point, I'm not sure which one to use -- maybe I should keep playing! I have a LOT left over. Actually, I've made both of these quilts before - can't get enough of those strings!

I really like the second one, kinda 'spool' like, but it would be MUCH better if those strings went cross-wise. Maybe someone out there in blogland will make one -- if so, I hope she sends me a photo.

Did you see this, May 19?

No photo can recreate the amazing vision of the moon with one of our planets, the evening of May 19, 2007. They were brilliant - my photo is not even a fraction as inspirational as this heavenly sight. I need to review my Instruction book for my camera, to learn how to take night shots. I hope you can see whichever planet that was to the lower left of the crescent moon.

Many years ago, I took an interest in astronomy - but frankly, the amazing-ness, if that could be a word, was overwhelming. Some nights I felt like nothing at all, gazing upward. And I can't even comment about the physics of it all - I am totally uneducated in that direction.

Another sky picture -- we are hoping those thunderheads will bring moisture.

Strips and Strings

Once again, I got all carried away by some string quilt photos posted on several blogs, and mail lists. And in truth, I've been wanting to make another one or two for a while. I made 88 blocks, but cut enough strings for 176! A slight miscalculation ... duhhhh.

Anyway, I like to use telephone book pages for several reasons. 1) they add stability to odd shapes; 2) the lines on the pages help to keep my strips straight, if that's what I want; 3) frugality, and recycling, 4) the page/paper is a measured size, so that means I don't have to take the time to measure my strips - I consider this the best advantage. Of course, then you have the thing about time needed to remove the paper afterwards, so if someone argues the point, I'll probably have to agree that using the paper, vs. removing paper, is probably a washout.

Anyway, I DID use up loads of my bright strips, and I'm feeling admirably thrifty. Not sure how I'll set these together, and I'm leaning towards adding purple and turquoise quick corners on the white, just to tone the white down somewhat.

I cut the triangles from the roll. The roll was about 5 inches tall. Then I added the white triangles, sewed, then pressed, and then trimmed to exact size. The block ends up about 5 inches raw. The roll of paper is what is left over, definitely enough for another quilt.

Quilt Guild tomorrow! yeahhhhh! Better get my stuff together!