Sunday, April 2, 2017

Fall into Spring

It's always obvious here when a landscape quilt has been pieced on the design wall...

Tracking all around the room (and down the stairs)














...and this was after all the larger scraps were picked up and thrown in the can! You can't worry about the fallout when you're in the middle of fussy-cutting and piecing, but the larger pieces do drive me crazy.

This project (see old post about it) has been a struggle from the get-go. Notice how long it's been since the start! I think that's because for the first time I'm making something that came from a self-imposed sense of obligation, instead of inspiration.

I knew better. And now I really know better. The entire project, every step of the way, has been like pulling teeth, with one obstacle after another, and has taken far longer to piece than it should have. But as has been mentioned before, I'm nothing if not stubborn, so finally it's basted and ready to go under the machine.


What turned me loose to make actual progress? Well, I gave myself permission to experiment with many different threads and some decorative machine stitches, and to leave knots on the back instead of burying them (there are sometimes several hundred knots to bury on a mid-to-large size landscape---which can be difficult at best due to very dense stitching, and extremely time-consuming).

Something tells me this quilt is destined for my own wall, over the twin bed (which used to have a cool poster hanging over it, but is now blank). The colors are perfect, and fall is my favorite season.

Happy spring!

Linda

6 comments:

  1. Wow, I love this landscape and how you grounded the trees! Great idea on the decorative threads:-)
    LauraT

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  2. Old projects are, as you say, sometimes hard from the get-go! It looks good from here. Can't wait to see what stitches you use.

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  3. Gorgeous! It may have been a struggle, yet your creative genius shows.

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  4. Don't we all have one of "those" projects. Mine was that horrid Cathedral Window that I finally finished a few years ago. This one is going to be lovely though...unlike my CW which is really just another CW.

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  5. So unless you are stitching thru a backing, why would you bury your knots?

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    1. Christine, what I meant but didn't make clear was, I decided during the piecing that I was going to leave knots exposed on the quilt back. That decision went a long way toward getting me going again! Obviously, though, that would not work for a quilt that was going to be entered into competition. Judges still dislike exposed knots on landscapes, even though no one is going to see the back. :(

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