Positive Thinking, Otsego Revisited, and My Plan

I impulsively purchased this layer cake in early 2019.

I shared my plan in this July 2019 post

for the AHIQ Flowers Challenge.

I followed up with this post in December 2019.

Earlier this year, I finally pieced 42 blocks.

When I put them on the design wall,

they did absolutely NOTHING for me.

I took them down in frustration

without taking a single photo for the file.

They were packed in a box 

(with the unused strips)

to be shipped off to Covered in Love

and their future life as a hospice quilt.

But then the pandemic and stay-at-home happened

and I haven't been to the post office since.

* * *

Yesterday I emptied that box 

after making a decision NOT to allow 

those layer cake fabrics to defeat me.

(enter my love-hate affair with pre-cuts . . . 

their hopeful possibilities inspire, frustrate,

 and paralyze me all at the same time

as witnessed by this project)

I quickly sliced the blocks apart,

cut the larger pieces into smaller strips,

sorted them into 'yes' and 'not-now' piles,

added the 'yes' group to my project box and

filed the 'not-now' strips into their crumb boxes.

That was the easy part.

Making a choice and coming up with a new plan 

on how best to use the 8" long strips 

was a much greater challenge.

(insert hours of contemplation)

I have long admired this quilt named Nancy

made by Lynn Carson Harris.

(her process posts are linked 

at the end of the linked post above)

* * *

Kaja's challenge includes this suggestion:

 "what about working with a block 

that makes you feel happy, 

for whatever reason, or in a way 

that is comfortable and familiar?  

Hmmm . . . .   

I love strip/string quilts . . .

I love HSTs . . . 

 I now have a box of strips/strings 

in colors that make me happy . . . 

And, just like that,

my decision for this challenge was made.

Aside from the overall impact,

my favorite element of Nancy (the quilt)

 is Lynn's bold choice of chartreuse for the HSTs.

I could do that with my project,

but I only if I could do it my way. 

What about using these scrappy greens from the stash?

Oh, yes . . .

To flesh out the rest of my plan,

I pulled 2 yards of blue-violet and 

several shorter lengths of red-violet

for the quilt-to-be's scrappy backing.

The possibilities in this combination have me excited,

something the other approaches never accomplished.

* * *

I'm thinking LOTS of positive thoughts 

for this project which I've named Otsego Revisited.

(in honor of the number of times Otsego's design

has changed during this long and winding journey)

* * *

And maybe, just maybe, by the time 

this new challenge period ends,

I'll have quilted/finished London Fields,

the fourth quilt from our AHIQ Flowers challenge.

The other three finishes are linked below:

Flower Garden

Comfortable

Reciprocity

Quiltdivajulie