Showing posts with label amh little folks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amh little folks. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Tempo

I check out so many blogs every week let's face it, daily, and I'm always mystified by the prolific nature of some quilters. Granted, many folks are at home all day, or even make a living by crafting. But even when I have the time, I get tangled up in how "big" and "important" and "permanent" each decision is, which causes me to continually pump the brakes.


In grade school, I had a lucky little friend who somehow came into possession of a power scooter. I think it was being stored in her garage after her grandfather got a newer model. Naturally, we sneaked it out at the first opportunity and took it joy-riding around the neighborhood. The thrill! The glory! The ridiculousness!

The power scooter had two speeds: a picture of a tortoise and a picture of a rabbit. (To give you an indication of mph, on the rabbit setting my friend's older sister could easily jog by us, with enough breath for mocking as she went.) After a cautious beginning (after all, we'd never driven anything before), we set that sucker to rabbit and terrorized the neighborhood until we were caught by my friend's dad, who sensibly put the kibosh on our little adventures. Drat.

When I stand at the cutting table, I give a cursory glance around for the rabbit switch. My quilter speed seems to be stuck on tortoise all. the. time. These scrappy blocks for the back of Mumu took three days. I put in at least 30 minutes of staring for every couple of seams. It sometimes feels rather pathetic.


My goal on this project was to make decisions quickly and not be so fussy. It's tough to push myself to just act without doubt and debate, but it's definitely a worthwhile practice. I love the results. This is so beautiful to me.


Perhaps achieving a random or scrappy look can only be attained with a slightly reckless attitude. This one doesn't feel done yet. Plus I have a few more scraps that need using up. But maybe I should just get on with it already! :o)

Luckily I have the hand-quilting on Paisley Sunrise to soothe me. No other progress, I'm afraid. Still mighty tempted by Swoon...

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Cure for Stress

...is clearly to start more projects.














Example of shock

Lately I've been stressing a bit over my WIPs. My friends will be shocked by this confession, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

So I had this awesome idea.






Maybe if I have more works in progress, I won't be compelled to obsess my way into artistic paralysis over each tiny design decision. Because I'll be distracted. Right?

Right???

To the Stash Cave! What am I hoarding it for? Let's cut into the prized pieces!

Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks in voile on Kona Snow


As I'm fondling this supersoft voile, Mr Awesome glances over (unperturbed by the weird quilting behavior) and says, "What are you making with those? A mumu?"


Quilt friends, my next project had a name.




The grand plan for Mumu

Cut, cut, cut...












...sew, sew, sew...  with the help of my 1/4 inch foot (now that I finally figured out what it was)...


 ...and voila! Or should I say, voile!

I love it!

The blocks are huge! Which means I only have to make 9 of them!


Unfortunately, no staging was required for this photo.
Maybe the next WIP should be a new storage system (unlikely).