Making Progress - Project Update

I've made some progress on both of my quilting projects. Enough so I've got pictures.

When I posted about the bed scarf, it looked like this. I had some small units made and one block. 

Now it looks like this. Not finished yet, but there are 5 blocks and all of the sashing and the first border are on.

I'm really happy with how it looks so far, and it will fit nicely with the rest of what is going on with the bed.

This is a closer look at what the blocks look like. It is one of many blocks that are called Cactus Flower, but I know that this block also has other names. And the units can be arranged differently and have still more names.  One more look at how the blocks look.

And here I'm beginning to audition the last border. I've got a problem with cutting into this fabric. I know that if I cut into the fabric the long way, the pattern of the flowers will show and I have to be careful about exactly where I cut. That is also true if I cut across the fabric. There I will have to put two pieces of fabric together and I need to make some decisions about how I do that.

I need to choose where I cut the fabric carefully because this is a large scale print, and it is going to matter.


So I've put it aside while I think about what to do next.

I've started working on the unnamed art quilt again. Here is what it looked like the last time I posted about it. I've always intended to put some "flowers on the piece, but wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do that.

Last night I cut fabric that already had fusible web on it.  I cut it freehand. There are two different fabrics, one red and one yellow. I waited until this morning to fuse them down.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to add more fabric and more petals. But after looking at it carefully this morning, I knew that any more would be too much.

My next step is to start practicing free motion stitching and quilting. I'll need that for both projects. The petals will need stitching to hold them down permanently. Both projects will need to be quilted and I think this time I need to do most of it using free motion.

These projects are very different even though both belong to the quilting world. This is my third time around inside this world, and just as with the last round I find the technology has changed and what people want to work on has changed. There are still people doing a lot of historical and traditional blocks, but HOW they do it is different from what was going on 20 years ago. There is a huge art quilting community, and I'm enjoying my baby steps into that community. There is a third group that I'm already aware of called Modern Quilting. Much more improvisational, and clean lined than the traditional patterns. But more sewing and less painting and fusing. They end up with rather traditional projects, like bed quilts and pillows, using very nontraditional methods and patterns. I just might dip my toe into that area as well.

It is easy to see from these two projects that I don't have a style of my own yet. I seem to want to do stuff from a lot of different styles. That was true when I did digital scrapbooking too.

Take care all.