Otsego Revisited - the Quilt

Otsego Revisited is finally a finished quilt.

 

48" x 60" 

You can read the back story 

for the quilt and its name HERE.

Otsego Revisited actually counts for two different challenges

from Ann and Kaja over at the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters blog --

Flowers from mid-2019 and Positive Thinking from mid-2020.

Quilted using another of my unmarked free motion designs 

named Liberated Swirls and Eddies.

(inspired by a mashup of the Pajama Quilter's Dwirling,

 Leah Day's Ocean Currents, and 

my own love of wide open curved stitching)

Since these photos were taken, the quilt has been laundered.

It's all soft and cuddly now - ready for spring to arrive.

And since today is Winter Solstice,

the days will now get incrementally longer

which makes me very happy.

* * *

I'll be back with a new post after Christmas weekend.

Wishing you and yours a safe and healthy holiday!

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------

“A good listener is very nearly as attractive as a good talker. You cannot have a beautiful mind if you do not know how to listen.”

Edward de Bono

Otsego Revisited - the Flimsy

The second of my three tops to be webbed is done.

This is Otsego Revisited. 

48" x 60"

Otsego is a small town in Michigan

where my mother attended high school.

My favorite grandpa lived there when I was young

and his back yard was bordered with

the most fragrant sweet peas I've ever smelled.

When I saw Robin Picken's Sweet Pea and Lily line

at a local quilt shop, that layer cake

simply HAD to come home with me.

Scrappy greens from my stash

plus strips cut from that layer cake 

were combined with other fabrics from the stash

resulting in this saturated scrappy goodness.

And it looks just as good when rotated 180 degrees.

I'm not sure which way I like it best.

 Backing and binding strips . . . 

I'm so glad I gave these fabrics a second chance

after giving up on the first blocks I made.

Now Otsego Revisited is off to the

'waiting to be quilted closet.'

(more on that closet next week)

* * *

There's one last set of clipped blocks

to be webbed into a quilt top (Jingle Bells).

But then, instead of diving into Hello July's

scrappy red, blue, and cream tumblers as planned

I'm going to do something that was totally unplanned.

(spontaneity is seriously missing from our lives these days)

Bonnie Hunter has been sharing sneak peeks

of a design she's calling Appalachian Autumn.

I'm going to use these long stashed fabrics 

to create my own version.

I'm naming my impromptu project Resplendent 

which means

"brightly colored in an impressive way"

Time will tell if my results are impressive or not

but this quilt top will definitely be brightly colored.

* * *

And I finally figured out

why I was so unhappy with Sukoon.

It wasn't the quilt top at all.

It was the top paired with 

that hot pink elephant print.

When I put it alongside this Art Gallery owl fabric

I realized I just needed to change the backing.

Dilemma resolved.

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------

“Listen to your heart.  It knows everything.”

Paul Coehlo

Short Term Goals and More

First - I want to finish webbing the top for Sukoon.

Second - I want to web the top for Otsego Revisited.

Third - I want to web the top for Jingle Bells.

THEN I can start playing with another project

that has been cut out and waiting for a while now.

A tumbler quilt I've named Hello July that was

seeded with the fabrics from this layer cake.

With the movement of items back to the bonus room

aka Younger Son's new living space

it was time to clean and freshen up the design studio.

DH helped me add this small design wall

in place of the quilt hanging rod

on the entry wall of the room.

Flexible display space . . . I like it.

And I inherited a leftover 2-drawer filing cabinet

that fit perfectly into the opening between

two of the existing drawer pedestals.

It is perfect for printed/bound tutorials, 

patterns with acrylic templates,

information on speciality rulers,

and patterns of all sorts.

And there was even enough space on top

to add a splash of color with four of my quilts.

Progress comes in many forms.

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------

“Don’t listen to criticism from someone you wouldn’t see advice from.”

Melissa Bolton

Incremental Progress

In addition to the two quilts-in-progress

on the design studio wall

there are three more in my sewing studio.

Left side - the first few Otsego Revisited blocks

Right side and quilt rack -

Dumpster Diving 9 - Blue Springs Road

partially sewn together

Table top - Heliophilia HRTs paired ready to sew together.

(and yes, that's also the way my brain feels these days;

scattered between too many thoughts, worries, and ideas)

A few days later, the HRTs were sewn and pressed.

105 yellow and gray

44 yellow and green

(I won't need all of them but with a scrappy project

I like to have extras for layout options)

Also on my short list are these two pillowcases.

A very special young man 

will be turning 4 all too soon.

Shifting gears a bit, back in 2013

Cherie (one of my book's SSOBB barn builders)

gave me these scrappy leftovers when

Lynne and I visited her guild in St. Louis.

I was in the midst of making Open Ended

as part of Vicki's Fractured QAL

so I used that technique

along with some of my greens and yellows

and Cherie's scrappy squares

to make this happy scrappy quilt top.

Cherie recently posted about this project's

new forever home - click HERE

to read a feel good story.

* * *

The move-out from younger son's apartment

and the renovation of our bonus room 

into his new living quarters are also progressing.

All but a few tiny bits of carpet are gone

and the staples have been removed 

from the OSB flooring boards.

The ceiling is freshly painted

and new lighting has been installed.

Both of the closets have been emptied and painted

with new LED lighting has been added.

The walls are about fifty percent painted.

New wood laminate flooring is on order

and expected by early next week.

Inch by inch we're getting things done.

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------

“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time.  ALWAYS listen to the art.”

Junot Diaz

Status Update

One of our giant coleus plants in the back yard

Quick update on the state of things in my world.

Half of the carpet has been removed

from the room under renovation and

we've decided on the new flooring.

The paint color has also been decided upon

and one end wall/part of the ceiling have been painted.

All of the many shelves and table tops have been emptied 

and the small forest of decorated Christmas trees

that spend most of the year in one corner of that room 

are temporarily on Max's table top in my studio.

Elder son's closet is empty and the contents 

are downstairs on one side of our garage

with plans in place to deal with all of it so that

none of it returns to the upstairs room.

The non-furniture items being moved here from

younger son's apartment are boxed and stored 

on the opposite side of the garage.

(the larger items will be moved here later this month)

* * *

In our county, there are now well over 12,500

confirmed cases of COVID-19 and masks

are now mandatory for the entire county.

Sadly there are far too many who are not willing

to respect the health of others by wearing masks

and/or observing any kind of social distancing.

Needless to say, 

we continue to stay at home as much as possible

aside from PT (me) and early morning trips to

the big box home improvement stores (DH).

* * *

My old computer has been retired

and will remain in storage for one year

before being wiped and discarded.

The new computer has been moved into position

and I absolutely love my new 27" monitor.

(it should also help reduce future neck strain issues)

The online backup program I use

 is creating a new backup profile for this computer

and then, once that is complete, the only other big task 

will be to set up my local bootable backup drive.

* * *

And in between all of the other activity around here,

I managed to spend a little time with Otsego Revisited.

(see this post shared on the AHIQ blog 

for an update/refresher on this project

for the current "positive thinking" challenge)

Random width strips to piece forty 8-ish inch slabs

(which will then be die cut into 80  six-inch HSTs) 

have been sorted and are ready to sew

whenever life's other demands allow.

A few minutes here and another few there

will hopefully add up to a happy-scrappy quilt top.

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch.  Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

e.e. cummings