Making adjustments...

As random as I was trying to make this look, the wavy lines still need to meet up from block to block so they run the length of the quilt. This takes some of the improvisation out of the process (no more swiping that rotary cutter willy-nilly across those batiks!) -- now I've had to lay it all out ahead of cutting and need to be much more careful and calculating in how I slice up the remaining curves and strips.

Chalk it all up to a mild case of OCD, I just can't let those waves run into nothing!

After stepping back from my wacky wavy sewing for a few days to figure out what I was going to do, the layout's pretty much set, though of course each time I walk by, I change a couple blocks out:

Sorry, bad kitchen lighting = washed out colors

It needs enough squares for one more row so it's long enough, and a few others to fill in the blanks and get the color balance right. Once those are chosen, I can start making waves again.

In the end, it's still going to look as organic as I knew it would -- just with a little more thought behind it than I intended!

Happy Easter!

The eggs are colored, the cookies decorated, the Easter baskets full...and to top it off, after snow last week, the weather has turned surprisingly sunny and warm(er).

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Catchin' a wave...

All those greens and blues and ones in between made me think of water, so I came up with this:

Creating the wavy, random-width lines has been fun! It's a someting I've never done before (intentionally, anyway), and after producing a couple really wacky blocks, I got the feel of this technique and I'm encouraged enough by the results to keep going...which is a good thing, because I'm only about a third of the way through all the squares I cut.

I think I may put on a little Beach Boys music and spend the afternoon surfing!

OK, so I got impatient...

At a time when I really should be doing about five other things, I couldn't wait. Those batiks were taunting me, and the only way to make them stop was to start slicing them up.

I went through my batik stash (which isn't very large, but as it turns out, is pretty focused on the blue-green-purple side of the color wheel) and found a few more to use. Here's the final pull:

I started cutting this morning. The mix is probably a little too heavy on aqua/turquoise right now (lots of leftovers from this quilt), but I'll work with the balance later.

I have a very cool idea for these, trying a new technique and working more improvisationally than I've been doing these past few months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it looks as good in execution as it does in my head!

Driven to distraction...

There's been a lot going on lately -- between drywalling and aruging with insurance adjustors and scheduling repairs and chasing down AWOL contractors, lots of freelance work and a whole bunch of other little take-care-of-this-NOW things, I haven't been quilting. At all. I've been sewing here and there, trying to rid my house of all the scarf samples draped over the furniture (and, in fact, am up to my ears in pillows and cat beds), but it's just not the same.

You know what I mean -- there's just something so satisfying about the whole process of picking fabrics and letting pattern ideas swim around in your head until one of them rises to the surface, and then slicing and piecing and arranging until it becomes a reality. I'm itching to get all this other stuff done and spend some quality time with my sewing machine -- but I'll have to wait just a little while longer, because there's one distraction I don't mind putting it off for:

My Monkey Girl, who's back in the country for Spring Break with her parents. We met up at the beach house for a cold, damp and drizzly visit, and she and I got to enjoy our one sunny afternoon playing among the mounds and trenches sculpted by Lake Michigan's winter winds.

Man, I miss this kid! I miss her bear hugs, her chatter, her sense of humor. She's getting taller and smarter and funnier half an ocean away. But they'll be back for two months this summer, and she already has a plan for our visit.

She apparently dragged her mother into a quilt shop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to look at fabric (I know! I couldn't be more proud!). She picked out a bundle of gorgeous batik fat quarters for me, and a kit with an easy pattern and more Sock Monkey fabric (as if two quilts from the same line weren't enough, I made her this one in 2007 for Christmas and this one the year after that -- "but this has different colors!") for us to make together. She kind of lost steam the last time we tried quilting, but two years makes a lot of difference, and she's pretty stoked that she got to pick everything out herself and will have a chance to show off her sewing skills.

So my agenda for July and August is set, it seems. Who am I to argue?

On the way back to Chicago, I stopped at my little hidden gem of a shop and found some green batiks to go with the new ones. I'd like to make a throw to match last year's pillows and the new(ish) sofa, and I think these will work just fine.

Archie seems to like them, too.

I have a couple more things that HAVE to get done, but then I get to dig in. The ideas are already swirling around in my head, and I can't wait to get started!

A quilty video for a Friday...

The spinning Dresden plates were making me a little dizzy, but this is kinda cool!

Happy Friday, all!