Truthfully, the week flew by and with some non-sewing concerns to deal with, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped with my project.
On the flip side, I now have a clear direction & can stitch successfully through my Christmas wallhanging. I'll probably save more time to stitch with less teeth gnashing!
With the block arrangement decided, I sewed the inner gold trim border in place and assigned either red or green as the blocks' main color. That bit of planning will be helpful now that I've made the decisions.
I worked the cretan and the herringbone stitches as the outer band on 2 blocks. I took the spacing cue from the fabric. Both stitches are favorites and I use them regularly in my handwork. No experimenting from me--not my goal.
I was also able to begin organizing my Beautiful Garden wallhanging. Following some reevaluation of my stitching purpose and enjoyment, I decided that my crazy quilt needed to be more personal. I have some memories and life events I plan to slip onto the surface (mainly through key embroidery motifs) that will document my family's history. It will be a 2nd layer of interest.
I've been hesitant until now to commit to the idea of adding familial historical motifs to a specific crazy quilt but I think this one is a good candidate. I'm going to make sure that the motifs have significance other than being "pretty". Toward that end, instead of designing a wallhanging, I've decided to design a quilt. I'm going to let the patches and the colors speak to me block per block. I'm not going to worry about how each patch within the block relates but instead how the whole piece relates to the smaller patches.
I'll be making 20" blocks. It sounds large but the machine embroidery takes up a good amount of that space. I feel more confident moving forward now that I have my muslin blocks pinned to the design wall and parts of my previous piece pinned to those blocks. I hope by next week to have a few blocks totally pieced.
It took a little time to stop the mental energy on one idea and move toward a new idea. -- It's amazing how much effort goes into this kind of work!
On the flip side, I now have a clear direction & can stitch successfully through my Christmas wallhanging. I'll probably save more time to stitch with less teeth gnashing!
With the block arrangement decided, I sewed the inner gold trim border in place and assigned either red or green as the blocks' main color. That bit of planning will be helpful now that I've made the decisions.
I worked the cretan and the herringbone stitches as the outer band on 2 blocks. I took the spacing cue from the fabric. Both stitches are favorites and I use them regularly in my handwork. No experimenting from me--not my goal.
I was also able to begin organizing my Beautiful Garden wallhanging. Following some reevaluation of my stitching purpose and enjoyment, I decided that my crazy quilt needed to be more personal. I have some memories and life events I plan to slip onto the surface (mainly through key embroidery motifs) that will document my family's history. It will be a 2nd layer of interest.
I've been hesitant until now to commit to the idea of adding familial historical motifs to a specific crazy quilt but I think this one is a good candidate. I'm going to make sure that the motifs have significance other than being "pretty". Toward that end, instead of designing a wallhanging, I've decided to design a quilt. I'm going to let the patches and the colors speak to me block per block. I'm not going to worry about how each patch within the block relates but instead how the whole piece relates to the smaller patches.
I'll be making 20" blocks. It sounds large but the machine embroidery takes up a good amount of that space. I feel more confident moving forward now that I have my muslin blocks pinned to the design wall and parts of my previous piece pinned to those blocks. I hope by next week to have a few blocks totally pieced.
It took a little time to stop the mental energy on one idea and move toward a new idea. -- It's amazing how much effort goes into this kind of work!
21 comments:
Glad you found your happy place :-)
Me too. I was getting pretty grouchy! But, I feel better now. Thankfully, I didn't continue trying to make a bad design mess better. I've been known to "try a little harder or try another solution" before admitting the sow's ear wasn't going to become a silk purse. At least I am learning to respond more quickly to a decision. That's progress!
This all sounds like a superb idea and it sounds like you are pleased with the whole thing now, so maybe it won't be a trial. Yay!
I think making the design decision is the most difficult part of a project. Wonderful that your decisions are made and you can move ahead and stitch, instead of gnash.
I like the feeling of warm layers in this block, and who doesn't like gold? I love some bling. Add it to lace and wonderful stitching, and wow.
The familial motifs will make the quilt more personal and significant.
I decided that it was silly to be saving items for one of these days. One of these days is now. I don't have a final planned use in mind (which is 100% rare for me) & I'm letting go of that hangup so I can enjoy the stitching. I decided (with the help of this group) that the journey was more important to me than the project. I had lost sight of that part of the process. Last week's block was a quick reminder. Sometimes I need that--like "in your face" reminder!
This set of decisions is more definite than the other set. Scaling back is actually giving me more freedom-if that makes sense.
I guess scaling back limits the options, but provides more choices within the parameters?
Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Like Connie said "I am glad you found your happy place".
I wasn't any help to you with answers to your previous post about your projects, and I can tell you why now..... I was totally confused about what you were doing and which project you were doing it to.
Sorry I just couldn't keep up with your train of thought and processes. I just really hoped that you knew what you were doing and not headed for a burn-out, lol.
Yea, sometimes I even get confused! LOL!
Very nice herringbone... her's to a much better week for all concerned. Can't wait to see.
Glad to see you're back on track and happy with what you're doing! It looks like you've used both purle cotton and regular embroidery thread on these two stitches. Do you have a preference?
It's easy to tell you are feeling focused now. Other projects are finding their place, and your neat stitching shows a calm stitcher did it. =)
No kidding! Wes asked if he should check into a hotel until the storm had blown over!
I would do everything in perle cotton, if I could! It is bold, doesn't separate & has a nice texture. But, it has a limited color palette and I have boxes of DMC that need attention. Since I am going for a bigger look here, I am using all 6 strands of DMC together.
Maybe I'll get out of the basic and strand some other colors together for the next round.
Having feedback last week was very helpful. It stopped me in my tracks--in a good way!
I like perle cotton too, for the same reasons. But like you I have a ton of DMC in lots of colors from my cross stitch days.
A few years ago my mother gifted me with one skein of every color in the DMC lineup. It was a greaat gift except that I had just stocked up myself. So, now I have lots of DMC!
We should try some colorblending in some of the blocks. It makes a pretty combination. I could definitely see it working for your blocks.
Deborah, If you were a cross stitcher, then you can fall back to some cross stitches as really good stitches for your seam treatments. Try combining the Xs with some of the featured stitches. It's surprising how far the X can go to add depth to a stitch.
Glad that you have found more satisfaction in your stitching!
I love the look of this. I love checks -
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