Trying to Catch Up

I forgot to post a pic of the final result from the Hourglass Prompt. Using the hourglass units for the sashing turned out to be a fun play on connections. So interesting to see the unit totally change in looks and effect simply by placing them side by side. 

Hourglass prompt

I got very distracted, obviously, by the applique tulips and almost lost sense of what the prompt was all about in the first place! So happy that I was able to find a good place for these units though and not let them just languish untouched in the orphan totes. There's something niggling away at the back of my brain with the idea {or two} of another hourglass try, so don't be surprised if they come up again in the future. There's something very intriguing about the almost deceptive simplicity of this particular unit that makes me think it's a little under-appreciated!

Positive Thinking prompt

This other challenge has been tough to get focused on. I'm starting to think the reason was because I ended up going in a different direction for the background of the middle three words. Then I couldn't get a handle on how to bring it all together in a good way. The other day I brought the parts and pieces out and just MADE myself finish up the letters. Just said, 'That's it! Not going to work on anything else until something on this project is resolved!' Finished sewing the word 'willingly' together and then decided to use the original cream shirting print for sewing the last three words. It was touch and go, with barely enough left to get them made. Did you notice they are mostly skinny letters? 

For now, the goal is to get the words sewn into a background fabric and have one solid piece to work with. There's simply not enough of any shirting fabrics to use for that purpose, so I brought in a bit of yardage from the stash totes that I thought might work. Ta da! It's stripes! So complicated and yet, not at all. All in perspective, right? I'm cutting it all on the vertical stripe and letting it match up {or not} where the pieces join together. Then, and only then will I figure out the possible addition of applique, borders etc. 

Two Prompts Behind!

So this is where I am on the Hourglass prompt. Hey, only a year late! It's taken me forever to find time for this new project after I ditched the hourglass units on a previous effort. With all the little units joining up right next to each other, naturally it's going to be obvious when they don't meet up perfectly at the seams.

Adhoc. Improv. Hourglass

This is something that I considered and then decided to leave be {not trim to an equal, exact size} so as to emphasize the fact that they are in fact, separate units. This should result in a more 'human touch', utilitarian look which of course is something I adore. Knowing the limits of my sewing accuracy, I normally would never even attempt this hourglass unit method for this sort of design effect! I'd much rather cut out the squares and then add quarter triangles in order to have a much, much better chance of getting things to look sharp. That being said, if I'm going to be coming at it from this particular angle {Adhoc Improv.}, then I'm not going to stress over the sashing unit 'squares' not being square. Does that make sense? We'll see how it ends up. I'm hoping for a nice, cozy looking quilt!

After this quilt top is finished, then I will deliberately turn to the Positive Thinking prompt once again. Lots to love about that project and I feel about ready to try once again. For the past several months {year?}, it's been hard to focus on the positive and this was unfortunately an easy project to blissfully ignore.*sigh  As I am two prompts behind now, I've made the executive decision to delay starting the brand new strings QAL until I'm more caught up. Will be watching and enjoying everyone else's growing string quilts with envy!

Copacetic - an Hourglass Quilt

This time my challenge quilt is done 

BEFORE the challenge time period expires.

Introducing Copacetic . . .

47" wide x 60" long

All of the fabrics in the top came from the stash.

I purchased the backing fabric

specifically for this quilt.

* * *

You can see lots more photos

and read more of the story on my blog.

That post is HERE.

* * *

Thanks to Ann and Kaja for this challenge.

I love my quilt.

Quiltdivajulie

Hourglass challenge update

 I started this quilt in a Sherry Lynn Wood workshop back in November. Since it was a two day workshop, I brought home only the beginnings of something. 

See me pondering what that something was? Let's just say I was not impressed. And things didn't look better when I got home. All I could think was that I had the bare bones of something.

In January I challenged the Cotton Quilters' Guild to bring a difficult unfinished project to the next meeting. At that time we would each present the project and tell the group what our challenge was. 

In March we were to bring the project to show. The beauty of the idea was that everyone got to choose her own piece and decide for herself what she would try to accomplish. 

At some point I combined that challenge with the AHIQ hourglass challenge. It really began morphing at that point, and I decided to try a Chinese Coins setting. AHIQ might save me a second time, right?

And this, dear friends is where we are now. So onto the longarm it goes. Hopefully this week.

Hour-glasses: a modest start.

These hour-glass blocks were cut freehand, and then machine stitched with a quarter inch seam. The original squares which I cut into quarters were 2.5", 3.5" and 5.5". I didn't plan them that way, that's just how they came out of my green scrap bag. At the moment they aren't much, but I'm planning on making many more in these sizes, and making them fit!

As far as the colour goes at the moment I plan to stay with greens, and add blue, aqua and yellow in limited amounts, taking my cue from the small block lower left.. Of course this will probably change! It's improv after all!

Happy sewing
Marly.

Copacetic Begins

This inspiration photo was saved years ago.

Maker unknown (NOT my work)

Combining that inspiration with 

the current Ad Hoc Improv Quilters 

hourglass block challenge . . .

Here is my fabric pull --

fabrics to the left for 6.5" squares

and fabrics to the right for hourglass units.

My goal is to cut one square from each fabric

to achieve an eclectic scrappy vibe.

(that bicycle print from the stash

will be used for the back)

Here's a closer look at the 

pairs of fabrics for hourglass blocks.

After trimming the hourglass blocks to 6.5"

this is what was left behind.

(I started with 8.5" squares)

Somehow, I messed up on the math and ended up

with half  as many hourglasses as were needed.

Back to the stash for fabric pull part two.

Leftover trimmings from the second 20 hourglasses.

First layout - to get them all up on the design wall.

(the colors are so much prettier in real life -

the mix of indoor and window light was not cooperating)

I'll do some tweaking

and maybe a bit of substituting

before I sew this together.

Target size 48" x 60"

And I've named this one Copacetic,

which means "completely satisfactory."

Quiltdivajulie

AHIQ Hourglass Finish

The free-hand hourglass quilt is quilted and bound although it took longer than expected. I plan on baby quilts taking about a week... That's the plan and we always know it can go sideways at any time.

Improv Hourglass quilt 

The hourglasses were cut using Sujata's instructions from Cultural Fusion Quilts - basically cutting small stacks of fabric with scissors. Windmills taught me cut mindfully; curves really decrease the size of the finished block. So these were cut as straight as I could eyeball them. Now I wish they had a bit more arc. {Some people are never satisfied.}

Sometimes improvisation leads us to new combinations. When the aqua and pink fabrics were chosen they seemed to have enough contrast; however, there was none by the time the hourglasses were sewn. It was a mess. Figuring out how to remedy the problem took the rest of my time but white and especially the black added the contrast and grounding.

Personally I like that the blocks are the last thing you see while the border makes the quilt. By adding sashing and the border this quilt did not need all the blocks so there is another in the works. {I wouldn't bother with a repeat except that baby quilts are the perfect place to use leftovers.}

My previous hourglasses used the blocks all over or just in the border but I've never sashed them. And for a change I've completed a prompt in the first month.

Ann

I Guess This Will Be a 'Practice' Quilt For the New Prompt!

How funny that I was already in the middle of completing an hourglass quilt when the new prompt came out! It's a very simple throw quilt that was made to be used for the Christmas season, so already well in the works. Ann said that I should post it here, so why not! Hopefully there will be time to get it quilted and ready for use by next December.

A simple hourglass throw quilt

The colors were chosen based on some of these lighter greens that I've been attempting to use up and get out of the way. At first I thought to use a darker cream fabric, but together with some of these muddy looking greens, started looking very mushy together, even if only in a stack together. So glad that I found enough of these lighter white creams to use as they were probably the only color that would have made sense with these odd greens. 

Just a little bit of value change in the greens

As I said in the long, rambling blog post, it's probably good that the red border was added as well. Definitely helps make everything look a little more interesting! For this particular quilt, I just wanted a very, very easy way to use up a lot of the green and not be too cheesy holiday looking. Very happy with the overall simplicity and look to this quilt. Lots of ideas running through my brain for a good response to this latest challenge. I think it will take a while to narrow down and settle on one! Very simple block, but potentially, dozens and dozens of ways to implement this design into a quilt.....

Crumby Hourglasses

The Hourglass prompt prompted me to try out some Crumby Hourglass blocks. 

They are about 11 inches unfinished. 

They will be made with crumbs of one color and a complementary solid. 

Will make 24 for a small donation quilt. 

More on a blog post at: 

Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting

I have some other Hourglass quilts in the works. 

Starting the Timer

There have been more comments than expected about AHIQ and the latest prompt. Several have mourned the drop off of activity on this new blog. Yes, it was much easier to keep it moving when we had a linkup on our own blogs but... the linkups aren't very secure {and I resent being an easy mark for marketeers of porn, scams, and hackers. That's also why I quit using most social media sites.}

If you notice your traffic sources coming from unknown or odd sites, it's a good hint that someone has hacked your blog. The most common way is to substitute a link when you post one that is not https. Please don't include any active links unless they start with https - no matter how popular that quilter or photo is! Read my old post here.

Ok. A bit off track.

The beginning of the year abounds with QALs and we have a multitude of reasons to join: learning a skill, fulfilling a request, participating with a group of friends. Combining several challenges into one often leads to more creative results but the volume can easily overwhelm all our own ideas and plans. Photo-sharing apps actually seem to make it harder to find our own voice. At least they do for me.

Anyway, I'm thrilled so many of you are joining in the hourglass prompt. Janie already has some blocks finished and I do, too.

Despite my enthusiastic start on New Year's Day, these blocks are a mess. I had such high hopes for the original plan and feel like I cut up a lot of fabric that should have simply been a back. Time to  creatively dig out. It needs a huge shovel.

Improv hourglass blocks in pink and aqua

More discussion on my other blog but the current idea is to add some sashing.

Moving the blocks to add sashing

I moved the blocks apart and now am rooting through the stash for sashing possibilities.

This year I plan to write more frequently about whatever utility work I'm doing or have found in my reading. Hopefully this will encourage discussions. There are very few places for those of us who like to talk {or write} more than post photos so I need to put more effort into the reason for this blog.

Ann

First AHIQ Prompt, 2020

Improvisational quilting takes many forms. Some people think it means bright {or even gaudy} colors. Others think it means mismatched seams. This list of "rules" goes on and on until it robs us of all the joy of creativity. So stop and make a New Year's resolution to listen to your inner voice, to commit to making what you need, to expressing the inchoate ideas filling your heart.

Kaja and I take a very broad view. We believe improvisation means figuring out a way to use your resources - including but not limited to fabric, thread, dye, embellishments - in any ways that meet your ideas. Perfection is not the goal; completion is. Finishing one often leads to further visions as we meet the technical realities of creation. Everything is welcome but utility quilts delight our hearts - those that are made to be used rather than stored in a box to be taken out on special occasions only.

Our goals for this blog include encouraging recognition of the originality and creativity of every creator, to see the tangible evidence of love quilts represent. We invite new quilters to take up this craft. We hope to teach future generations to admire quilts and to love these gifts from their family.

So it could be a new block you are working out, or a fabric you've wanted to use, or the need to put warm covers on your family's beds. You might want to stretch yourself to sew scraps together more creatively or to test a new technique. All experimentation means improvising. Use of limited resources can also equate with improvisation.

Please share your work here and participate in the prompts as you feel inspired. They are designed broadly to encompass many definitions, to spark individual ideas and we hope this site is a general location to share with each other.

Kaja and I email each other regularly discussing future prompts and we both had the simple hourglass block in our lists. Hourglasses and the turn of the year both mark time so this seemed quite timely. {Pun intended.}

It's a very simple block made of four quarter square triangles {QSTs.} It can be cut with rotary tools or freehand. Sujata Shah made several quilts using this block in Cultural Fusion Quilts.  The traditional arrangement highlights the hourglass shape by using a light and a dark fabric on opposite sides but there is no reason to follow that suggestion unless it inspires you. It can be a center or a border; it can be an entire quilt or part of a larger block such as an Ohio Star. Scrappy or limited palette. Large or small.

Or you can take the idea and do something else with it. That's improvisation. What does it mean to you?

We invite you to join us in exploring Hourglass. Use the hashtag #AHIQhourglass so we can find your work and post your progress on the AHIQ blog here.

Happy New Year!
Ann