Another One Bites the Dust

Another WIP bites the dust!  This one is the Round One sampler from Modify Tradition.  I finished the top near the end of last year and it sat neglected until now.

I generally don't like samplers, and I'm still not crazy about this one.

I do find, however, that once it's been quilted, bound and washed, even a ho-hum project gains a mysterious aura that makes it attractive.


I had originally intended this quilt to go to the lab so that Lindsay could stretch out on the sofa and rest her weary head in comfort, to facilitate the thinking of brilliant thoughts.  But a secretary in our department has been quite ill and is starting a long recovery process at home.  I thought a cheery quilt like this might be nice for her.  So I'll have to make another one for the lab.

I realized that the last three quilts I have completed have gone out to others, and in the meantime, I don't have a quilt that's big enough to cover my bed properly.  The next quilt I finish is staying home!

When I was editing my WIP list on the sidebar, I started thinking about the difference between WIPs (works in progress) and UFOs (unfinished objects).  I first heard them differentiated by Jennifer.  I had always lumped them together in my mind, but classifying them separately does make better sense.  A UFO is at a stage where it is sitting around and just needs a little push to be complete.  Perhaps it's a quilt top, or a quilted piece that needs binding, but it's languishing in a limbo of neglect.  A WIP is a project that is being worked on, perhaps blocks are still being constructed, it's on the design wall, but it the quilter is actively engaged with it.

By classifying WIPs and UFOs together, I added to my sense of guilt whenever I started a new project before finishing the old one.  I don't think anything is sadder than the prospect of having stacks of uncompleted quilt tops in the closet.  But this way I only have one UFO -  the gorgeous Paprika.  I have several WIPs, and I am making progress on all of them, bit by bit.  I like having several projects on the go at once, because they are all at different stages.  Some require careful piecing and thinking at each stage, others can run through the machine chain piecing like a house a-fire.  I can always find a quilt that needs exactly what I feel like doing at any given moment.  I'm not sure if this is reasonable, or merely a way for me to justify starting new projects!

What about you?  Do you feel differently about WIPs and UFOs?  Do you worry about justifying new projects when others are still in the works?

Updated to add to this week's Sew and Tell over at Amy's!

How could I forget?

Modified Tradition sampler in progress, originally uploaded by Shadrach Meshach & Abednego.

Yesterday I wrote about my productive weekend, and I forgot to say that I had also pin-basted this quilt. It's the sampler from the Modify Tradition first quiltalong, and I finished the quilt top in January. I bought the backing (Posh, I think it's called) when my LQS had a Boxing Day sale, but it's been languishing ever since. I promised Lindsay, my lab manager, that I would bring it into the lab when it's finished. Sometimes when you've been working hard thinking scholarly thoughts you need to stretch out on the sofa and rest your eyes a little. At any rate, that's her story.

Tradition Modified

Modify Tradition sampler, originally uploaded by Shadrach Meshach & Abednego.

Here is the flimsy for the Modified Tradition quiltalong.  It was on my list for the Joy in the New Year challenge, but it didn't quite make it. And even now it isn't finished finished, but the quilt top is pieced. I do have the backing and batting for it, so I'll be quilting it one of these days soon. The dilemma will be how to quilt it.

It's destined for the lab, where we have a godawful brown Naugahyde sofa. It will be nice to have a quilt to wrap up in to read journal articles or mark student papers.

I like it more than I thought I was going to. I like the narrow sashing and the small, plain setting blocks, and, while I'm still not sure that blue was the right choice over the red that was also in contention for the sashing, I think it works okay.  Thanks, Jennifer and Crystal, for starting this quiltalong!

Getting close

sampler blocks, originally uploaded by Shadrach Meshach & Abednego.

I am done with the blocks for the Modify Tradition quiltalong. Here are the 12" blocks that I've made. Two blocks, bow tie and nine-patch, I made in 6" versions, because I like the idea of having blocks of different sizes. I also plan to add a few plain setting blocks in the 6" size to give the eye a place to rest in this busy quilt.  I did not make Courthouse Steps, because, while I like that block, I don't like it alone, as it would be in a sampler.  I am considering making four of them in the 6" size, but so far have resisted the overpowering urge to sit down and figure out the math (joke, right?).  A few posts ago, I showed some of the blocks I had made to that point.  Here are some of the later ones.

Old Maid's Puzzle

Mosaic

Card trick

Lady of the Lake
To tell the truth, I'm not 100% in love with this quilt so far.  I am battling a traditional dislike of samplers, and I'm not loving the colours so much anymore.  However, I know that I go through this honeymoon-is-over phase with all my quilts, so I'm reserving judgment.  I think I'm going to use a very thin sashing between the blocks. Initially my inclination was t have no sashing at all, but I think it will be too busy without some kind of separation.  But just the thinnest of sashing, maybe three-quarters of an inch.  I have two candidates in mind for the sashing: a deep red and a dark turquoise.  They both look good, but very different.

It was really cold this morning, and my fingers were like chunks of ice, pinning these blocks up on the line to take a photo.  I kept thinking how warm the quilt would be once they were all sewn together.  I may love it then.
P.S.  It's Friday - everyone's been sewing and now they're telling.  I'm counting this as a finish since I have completed all the blocks, so I'm logging this post on Amy's page.  Go check out the awesomeness here!

A Few Blocks and a Dog

I've had a friend/colleague over from the UK this past week, so things have been slow on the quilting front. However, I did manage to make two more blocks for the Modify Tradition quiltalong. And since I had three finished that I had not yet shown, I have a grand total of five blocks to show today. These are big blocks: 12" finished. Take a look:

Amish Diamond

Ohio Star

Antique Tile

Dutchman's Puzzle

Churn Dash
So the sampler proceeds apace. I'm not sure exactly how many blocks we're going to have at the end. I'm at that stage of quilting where nothing looks good and I wonder if it's worth finishing, but I go through this with each of my quilts. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best!
And, just for fun, I'll leave you with a little movie of my dog, Susie, who loves having her ears tickled.

Modify Tradition Sampler Blocks

DSC_0001, originally uploaded by Shadrach Meshach & Abednego.

Yesterday I began to make blocks for the Modify Tradition sampler quiltalong. I am shockingly late to the party, but that seems to be a theme in my life! It's always odd to start a sampler because until you make a good number of the blocks they don't seem to hang together. In fact, here's a secret: I hate samplers.  So the challenge for me in this is less melding traditional and modern, and more actually making a sampler that I fancy a wee bit.  I like my fabric choices, so I'll just have faith they will all come together.  I especially love that big floral in the block above and how it opens up the space.

This star turned out to be much lower contrast than I expected.  If I have extra fabric at the end, I'll make another one with higher contrast between the points of the star.  And I completely ignored the fact that those eggs in the background fabric were actually directional and now look kind of odd.  But this block is nice - with a couple of borders it could be a nice pillow, if it doesn't end up in the sampler.

The main blocks are 12.5 inches square.  Those are big blocks, especially when the block pattern is simple.  I've decided to use two sizes of blocks: 12.5 and 6.5 inches.  I like the look of quilts that have unequal block sizes.  The bow tie is one that I made small.  Here's another possibility of bow tie arrangements, if I decide to keep them all together in one block:

But the benefit to having unequal block sizes is that you can also have rows of unequal sizes.  I like the idea of using the smaller blocks between the larger blocks, like this.  Also, I plan to use simple, unpieced setting blocks in the smaller size to open up the visual space in the quilt and make it less busy - but I'll need to wait to cut those until I get more blocks finished, in order to husband my fabric appropriately.

And somehow, I forgot to snap a photo of the nine-patch blocks alone.  Here's as close as I managed to get.  Setting them out like this shows me what fabrics should get featured in the subsequent blocks.  For example, whatever comes next should pull in that turquoise in the lower nine-patch.

Well, I don't know if these are modern or traditional anymore.  I feel mind-boggled by that whole discussion.  What I do know is that by choosing to use large and small blocks together I think I can make a sampler that I'll like.  At any rate, it's going to be interesting to see it come together.  I think I'm caught up now; bring it on, Jennifer and Crystal!  In the meantime, I'll work on sewing together the blocks for the Values Quilt.