Molly thinking about what she can make from these fabric strings

Took a few days off from sewing.  I could say it was spring break, but it was more like a bad case of spring fever!

The weather here in the Upper Peninsula has been unseasonably spring-like, with temperatures reaching into the 50’s nearly every day this past week.  The snow is melting fast, leaving behind icky-looking piles of dirt and leaves on the sidewalks and streets.  I’m almost ready for it to snow again to cover up the mess.

I found myself at loose ends for a few days.  With all the warm weather, what I really wanted to do was to go out and start working in the yard, cutting brush and  cleaning up for spring.  But since there’s still over a foot of snow on the ground,  it’s just not possible yet.

I wanted to start a new project, but couldn’t seem to settle on what to do.  Somebody on the Heartstrings Yahoo Group had suggested looking at these Project Improv quilts on Flickr.  Project Improv is a charity quilt project started by Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio over a year ago.

These strip quilts are bright and snappy, as well as being inspiring.  In fact, they’ve inspired me to sort out my fabric strips by color, and also by value–lights, mediums, and darks.  So far I’ve done the 2″ and the 2-1/2″ strips.  Tomorrow I need to continue with the 1-1/2″ strips and also the five or six bags of crumbs that have been lurking in the closet for years.  The picture shows Molly surrounded by fabric strips.  Actually she curled up in a box and went to sleep while I was sorting strips, which was probably a good thing.

This sorting project has been very enlightening.  I thought I didn’t have very many lights, but I discovered that I had a lot more than I had thought!  A lot of the mediums could go either light or dark, too, depending on whether I pair them with lights or darks.

So I’m starting to get jazzed about my next project.  Instead of a scrappy look, my focus will be on just two or three colors at a time.

I’m also considering donating finished tops, and letting someone with a long-arm do the quilting.  Machine quilting is hard on my wrists, so I’d rather avoid it when I can.

It’s been said that a messy studio is a sign of a creative mind.  Think I qualify?  Ah well, things will be tidied up tomorrow.

My latest strip quilt

Time for another change in direction!  Making strip quilts to donate is fun, and I’m really enjoying it.  It’s been a challenge to come up with a way to make them quickly, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.

Here’s a picture of the strip quilt I finished yesterday.  It went together very quickly, even though I got a little arty with piecing the back.  That was fun to do, though.

There’s no binding either.  I layered the quilt, backing, and batting and sewed them together, leaving an opening to turn the quilt along one edge.  I whipstitched the opening closed after turning it, and then pin-basted to keep the layers from shifting while it was machine quilted.

Pieced back of strip quilt

The quilting is long wavy lines along the long axis of the quilt. The quilting only took about an hour. Not bad!

This kind of strip quilt is very easy to do, and it’s fast.  By varying the width of the long pieced strips, getting a slightly different look is easy, too.

This quilt is about 39″ by 47″.  Haven’t washed it yet, but it will probably shrink up a couple of inches.  I’ll have to remember to measure it once it comes out of the dryer.

OK, so one challenge down.  Looks like I’ll be able to do some serious stashbusting this year, especially if I can make two or three strip quilts a month!

So what’s next? One of my other goals for the year was to develop my own style as a quilt artist. I got off to a pretty good start with “Winter Journey,” shown here.

"Winter Journey," my first AAQI Priority Quilt!

This quilt definitely was a stretch for me.  I had never done anything like this before.  Maybe that’s why I haven’t done another.  It did take a lot of time and effort.

But good stuff doesn’t come easy, does it?

So my new goal is to spend two or three mornings a week working on art quilts.  This includes dyeing fabric and playing around with new techniques.  I have some ideas that I want to explore.

I’ve also decided to join the Studio Art Quilt Associates.  According to their webpage, “SAQA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development and documentation.”

I’d been tossing around the idea of joining, but kept putting it off because I didn’t think I was enough of an artist yet.  But Leni Weiner had a great post on her blog about why people should join SAQA, and she convinced me.  So I signed up earlier this evening.

I’m also thinking of entering Fabrications 2, a show open to quilt artists in the Upper Peninsula.  It’s being run in conjunction with a SAQA show, Points Of View, which will be on display this summer down in Escanaba.  Having never had the nerve to enter a show before, this is a big step for me!  So first, I need to make some quilts to enter, and second, we’ll see if I get through the jurying process!  Whatever happens, this is bound to be a learning experience.

Strip quilt made in quilt-as-you-go style

Here are the quilt pictures I promised yesterday. The first picture is the front of the quilt-as-you-go strip quilt I finished on Saturday. It came out pretty well, I think. It seemed like it took forever to make it though. I think I’ll save the quilt-as-you-go technique to join wider and longer strips together, instead of to join individual blocks.

Back of strip quilt

The back does look cute, though.  It could almost stand alone on its own as a quilt.  So this probably makes this quilt reversible, which is a handy thing for a baby quilt. This one will be donated to the local women’s shelter.

Diagonal strip quilt

The next quilt is a long over-due picture of the diagonal strip quilt I made for the ALS Hopes and Dreams Challenge. I really like the back of it. I saw some quilts for sale online that remind me of this quilt backing design.  They were going for an amazing price.  Maybe I should be focusing on quilt backing designs instead! 

Back of diagonal strip quilt

Now that this quilt is finally washed and dried, I’ll be packing it up tomorrow with my other two ALS quilts, and getting them mailed off.  About time, huh?

I finally got my two AAQI Priority Challenge Quilts in the mail today.  Now I can think about doing some more.

It got above freezing today, but it was still pretty cold outside.  My poor little hands got cold taking pictures of my quilts.  Just think, someday the snow will melt, and I won’t have to wear snowshoes for my quilt photography!

Spent most of the day sewing today.  I finished the long strips for my next quilt.  Tomorrow I’ll join them with sashing.  This time I’m going to dispense with binding by sewing the top, batting, and backing together as a sandwich.  Then I’ll turn it right side out, sew the opening closed, and machine quilt it after it’s turned.  I’ve done this in the past, and it works well.  Don’t know why I didn’t remember it til now.

So if all goes well, I may finish up another baby quilt for the women’s shelter tomorrow.

By the way, my city of Marquette, MI, WON the 2010 Dozen Distinctive Destination Contest!  This is really great news, and everyone here is pretty jazzed up about it.  Hopefully it will mean an increase in tourism for the area in the coming year.  There’s always something going on around here, even in the middle of winter!