August 09, 2016

Thinking about Quilting and a Linky Party to Come

Now that my Just the Basics Mystery Quilt has been revealed, I can finally share pictures of it as I'm working on it!! Keeping a secret is really hard when I'm so used to sharing progress pictures as I go.

I have my quilt all basted, so now I'm planning out how I want to quilt it. I know I want to do dense custom quilting. The last quilt I quilted (which I can't fully share until October) was for our bed, so it was really big and I didn't want a lot of quilting because I wanted it to stay soft and drapey. That meant I quilted on a much larger scale than I usually do and all those empty spaces kept calling out to me. "Quilt me! Quilt me!" they said. I stayed strong and resisted though ;)
Larger scale fmq | DevotedQuilter.blogspot.com

With this quilt, I plan on quilting every possible inch of it. Good think it's only a 48" square!

Yesterday I was too tired to do much of anything productive, but I did start playing around with possibilities for what to quilt in the various squares of the quilt. There are three different squares, two of which are on point.
Just the Basics Quilt Detail | DevotedQuilter.blogspot.com

It's great to have these books to browse through for ideas!

Free motion quilting books | DevotedQuilter.blogspot.com
I'm thinking there will be a couple of different types of flowers, something to soften up the lines of the piecing, so that was what I started with.
 Free motion quilting doodles | DevotedQuilter.blogspot.com
 More free motion quilting doodles | DevotedQuilter.blogspot.com

Still nothing definite, but it was fun to play around with ideas, especially when I felt like my brain was mush.

In other news, I've been thinking about how we quilters (and makers in general) can be very critical of our own work and tend to focus on the imperfections and the things we aren't good at yet. We also tend to ignore or take for granted the things we have learned to do well. I think it's time to change our focus!

Let's take a look back, really look at some of our earlier quilts and then at our more recent quilts. Let's celebrate all the things we've learned to do, or to do better, whether that's free motion quilting, cutting more accurately, trimming units so points match up better, foundation paper piecing, hand applique...There are so many skills we may have learned, so let's celebrate them all!

To help us celebrate together, I'll be hosting a linky party called Then...and Now here on my blog starting on Tuesday, August 16th (that's next Tuesday) and it will stay open until August 31st. Feel free to spread the word!
 
You're invited to write up a blog post sharing where your skills used to be and where they are now, then link it up with the party so we can all celebrate your progress. I can't wait to see what you all share :)

Now I'm off to plan some more quilting and write up my own Then...and Now post!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and NTT.

6 comments:

  1. I think this is a wonderful idea for a linky party. You are right we are so quick to be negative with ourselves and our work and should be celebrating what we have accomplished.

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  2. I'm working on my blocks still, so I'll be watching to see how you quilt yours!

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  3. Great idea! I have an something in mind for a post so will try and get some photos over the weekend!

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  4. Great idea for helping us remember how far we've come. Have to put my mind to it.

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  5. You are so right in what you say about us being our own worst critic. When I took the class with Angela, she showed us many many slides of her work, and as you well know, her work takes your breath away. Yet she pointed out many "oops" that none of us spotted and said that very thing. She also said the eye looks for symmetry so if you make a mistake think about making it a second time and then it's symmetrical! Love your doodling ideas and love all three of those books and own them! I go back to them time and time again

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  6. I like your quilting ideas for these blocks Leanne, I am looking forward to seeing them in practice. What a good idea for a link party too!

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