If you look at Pinterest like I do (a daily coffee time perusal) then you will have seen Marla Varner's prize winning cross quilt, At the Junction. I love love love that quilt and had to try my hand at making a bunch of cross blocks. First I bought fat quarters of every color Waverly cotton from my local Walmart and began cutting them into equal size squares. Stacking three pieces and cutting through and reassembling, was the process. I HATED THE PROCESS. I made a bunch and lost interest and put the whole collection in a bin.
Recently it dawned on me to square up a few blocks and then they wouldn't be so difficult to use. But I soon lost interest again. Back into the bin. Then the Thursday quilters found my bin and immediately began to put the trimmed blocks and leftover strips up on the design wall. INSTANTLY it was thrilling and whamo! We had our next project. With coordinating rectangles and scrap strips sewn together, it was ready to assemble. The session ended with most of the design ready to sew, and the following day I made a dozen more crosses to fill in the bare spots and voila!
None of this could have happened without the enthusiastic response of my fellow quilters, and the new design wall. When I began to make these crosses, I had only a tiny 48" square wall and was stuck on the idea of just using cross blocks for the finished work. Spacing them out with strips and rectangles made it all work beautifully. The unquilted top is 61x83". Good news: I have lots of squares leftover, plus some skinny edge strips which I began assembling today. Stay tuned for more work in solids.
A note on the scrap situation: It is still unresolved. We got distracted again by fun sewing, with fun shapes and fun colors. Most of our scraps are blah leftovers, so it is no wonder they sit in multiple bins. I did spend several hours cutting them into various size squares, and eventually those will be used, yawn.
But you know, one comment was so right on point.
...we hang onto far more things than we need and as a consequence instead of motivating us, they become talismans of guilt and shame... you hold onto things based on hope. But when you don't use the stuff, the items begin to control your freedom and you get stuck in the past instead of moving forward.
If nothing else, I think this really needs to be part of the internal work we are doing.
whamo! is right on this quilt....... but why can't this quilt be made with bla leftovers that are shaded and coordinated together? Sure the girly girl will not like it, BUT the man who does not like pink and who abhors flowers will think it wonderful. I say all this with tongue in check as I do not have the gift of design.... and what I am talking about would take a "design" person to pull it off.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing the story and the quilt.
Wonderful idea for the solid cross blocks! Really turned out fabulous.:)
ReplyDeleteOh this is inspiring me to dig into my box of solids. They are leftover yardage from making bindings and I hesitated just cutting them into my normal squares (and running through my Big Shot with triangle die) because I seem to have a hard time making a quilt that includes solids other than white...but I like this one and I have vowed to try and challenge myself-this would also be a double challenge-solids and wonky cuts-definitely outside my comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteWhat a splendiferous quilt! And it must feel so good to start to empty out the bin! Seeing the old failures in a new light is a stimulating process and results in outstanding work. (Sometimes). Congratulations on making them play nicely together!
ReplyDeleteoops my name is Judy Morningstar. Somehow that got turned into Unknown.
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