Parts is Parts

In the spring of 2010, just a few months after I retired, I took my first driving trip across the country. The purpose was to attend 3 weeks of classes at Empty Spools Seminars at the very beautiful Asilomar State Beach (in Pacific Grove, California). One of those classes was with Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston. If you ever get the chance to learn with either or both of these ladies, do whatever you must to do so; they're wonderful! (Also treat yourself to a class at Empty Spools: the location alone is worth it!)

Freddy and Gwen encouraged us to start our own Parts Department, where we make small pieces when the mood strikes us and keep them corralled until they're needed in a quilt. No specific quilt has to be in your mind: just the urge to sew and no idea what you're in the mood to work on. Make Parts. Yesterday was one of those days.

I unburied my Parts Department project bin, got out the Parts parts (hey, even Parts need parts!) and played.

The Parts Department discoveries. Yummy.

First I took a bunch of the strips (1 1/2") and made strip sets

Then I whacked these babies up into more 1 1/2" strips

Then sewed them all back together again into 16-patches

Aren't they cute? 18 of them (4", finished)

OK, those parts have now become Parts and are ready whenever inspiration hits. On to star parts.

I had already sewn on the wonky points, so I had all the star points made; just needed to put all the stars together.

OK, so ALL the stars didn't get put together. I was getting tired. These stars measure 4 1/2" (finished). Into the Parts to join their brethren (and sis-tren). Maybe I'll sew the rest of the star-parts today, or maybe not. That's what the Parts Department is all about!

Happy New Year to you and yours. I hope it's a great year! No goals or resolutions for me this year - I plan simply to enjoy each day to the fullest.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lots Done!

A good, productive day.

The backing and binding for the poppy quilt are done, so now the quilt is in RFQ status (ready for quilting).

(poppy backing)

I worked on more free-form blue blocks (see them in this post). I finished the ones with the too-drastic curve (yikes!) so now am having a much easier time of it.

This project is from some of the (many) bunches of blocks I made over the last month. It's half-together now so should be a top soon.

I also played around with some wonky star blocks. OK - ONE block

(the blocks on the top are from my Parts Department stash - see Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston's technique). This is just a test block, to see how the process went. I used the remains from trimming strip-sets that are used for the Scrapolator blocks (See Dianne Springer's Scrapolator book - I want to make most of the quilts in that book!!). After I wonkied the star points, I then "made" fabric for the center, still using Scrapolator strip-set remains. (see Victoria Findlay-Wolfe's 15 Minutes of Play technique. She has just returned from Africa, so you may want to spend some time reading through her blog. Great stuff!)

I'll do more of these blocks, but learned some lessons in making the test one (like - don't bring the star point out the top - see the red on the center-right.) I also think I'm going to use black-and-white for the backgrounds. Black and white is an easy fix to design challenges so is looked down on by some, but I think it works great so poo on the color snobs.

I also knitted a bit more on the scarf - a little at a time will get the project done!

About 2 months ago I made a huge pot of bolognese sauce from an Ann Burrell recipe. It's wonderful, but of course way too much, so I froze it into one-serving containers. That was dinner last night: I'd forgotten how delicious it was. A nice glass of Pinot Noir was the perfect accompaniment. Yum!

As I said - lots done! Thanks for stopping by.

Fun, and progress

I'm still playing with a number of different projects. Gosh it's fun to work this way! No boredom. Even the not-so-fun parts of quilting are easier to take when I know I only have to do a little of it before I can jump into the next thing. (Note: this doesn't work for people who get over-angst'ed by having more than one project going at a time.)

I finished the last of the "big" Safari blocks (4 shown here). Now I can put this top together. I'm still thinking it's going to need something else. Buttons? Some applique? I'll know more when I see the whole thing put together.

 More Scrap-o-lator blocks. I'm really enjoying these, even when they get wonkified. I have 11 so far. The pattern calls for 91, but I don't want to make a quilt that large so I'll need only 72. I see more than one of these quilts in my future. Such a fun way to use scraps!

 More blocks from the third design-your-own quilt. This one has a Halloween theme.

 I got more of Prisma put together. I still don't like that upper left corner. I think the purple shouldn't be broken up with that yellow; the purple should be a straight line. What do you think?

 The lower left corner got put together.

 I found these pieces while digging through more STUFF. (I have a lot of stuff). The first pic is of parts made in my class with Jean Wells at Empty Spools earlier this year. I think I'm ready to make a couple of small works from them.

 The triangles were made in Gwen Marston's class (also at Empty Spools earlier this year). They have potential ... I'm not sure what yet, but I like them.