Yoyo Flimsy

I'm not even sure how long this top has been sitting half assembled. Wayyy too long! The problem really was that it was too challenging to keep taking it out and packing it away every day. Now I have a dedicated sewing space and I can leave it laid out. It went together quickly and easily in the end.

The pattern is Yo-Yo Rows by Terry Atkinson, from the June 2011 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. So that is probably eleven years to get this far. 😂 it's probably ironic that the hand sewing went fast, and it was the machine sewing that bogged down. I used the extra large (60mm) yoyo maker from Clover, and that was a lot of fun to do.

The pictures do not do this one justice, it is quite rich.

I want to use a bright floral for the back. I'll have to dig through my stash and see what I can find.

Now I have to decide now if I want to switch my machine over to quilting, or finish another flimsy first. I think I probably have one or two more here that are also very close to done.

It's quite ludicrous that some of these projects have taken so long to complete! But I never doubted that they would be, and I have to say it is very satisfying to wrap them up even after all this time!

I was showing some flimsies to family earlier this summer, and they commented that they don't want to try quilting themselves because I am "so good" at it. I laughed and said there was 10 years of failure on my blog before I got to this point! To be honest that was probably even more discouraging. 🤣

But I'm finding the long learning curve and breadth of things there are to learn in quilting are what make it so rewarding. And I know I'm still just getting started, there's so much to explore. I'm feeling very blessed that I have the time and space to do that now! Happy quilting! ❤

Rose Boll Flimsy

I'm still slowly excavating my WIP storage drawers. There are SO many projects in there! I almost wish Ikea storage was less efficient, then I would be closer to the bottom by now! 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway as I mentioned last time I finally made a decision on the border for Rose Boll, my "red and white" version of Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll. Bonnie has a triple row of squares set on point for her border, which certainly looks great. I sketched a few colour variations, or maybe a single row of squares:

But I really didn't want to fiddle around with that, and I felt like the quilt was already very busy with all those floral fabrics. When I put it away I was thinking just some chunks of the reds would be best. But I guess I didn't exactly love that either or I would have done it at the time. 

Then while I was finishing the String Tulips top I realized that random string piano keys could work. I like how they have the same visual weight as the centre of the quilt. And they have the right balance between formal and improv piecing. 

Sorry that is a very blurry picture! I pieced the floater from some of the florals with the whitest backgrounds. Because the piano key strings were randomly cut, and not perfect strips, I pieced them on paper foundations using pages from a phone book. The piecing went quickly and I think it is a low stress way to keep everything going in the same direction! It's fun to compose as you sew, too, you don't have to preplan every detail.

I didn't want to do the mitered corner but that diagonal line just felt necessary, to echo all the diagonals in the center. I had to hand sew the inner corners to make them lie flat, but it was worth it.

So here's the whole thing, 89.5" square at the moment! 

I've noticed that I go through a similar emotional range on all my projects. I get the idea and do some sketches and I think, that'll be awesome and I'm all excited. Then starting the project is fun and I like sewing all the early units. Then you have to assemble the blocks and it starts to drag, and then you have to join the blocks and it's even worse, lol. And then the centre is done and I should be happy but I'm usually not. Somehow it doesn't live up to my expectations at that point.

It's not until I come up with the right border, get it sewn and lay out the finished top that i think, well, that's actually pretty good! One could easily say, piano keys, what is the big deal about that? And I think the answer is that if the border is right it flows and it's not a big deal. And if it was wrong you would see it right away!

Anyway, I'm still enjoying working with strings so I'm planning more projects with those. And I'm still really enjoying putting my own spin on Bonnie Hunter's patterns, so there will likely be more of those to come as well! I have a dark background version of Grassy Creek planned that I think will be gorgeous, but I think I still want to finish at least one more UFO before I start anything new.

I'm not ruling out the next mystery, though! Just as I'm writing this I'm thinking a Halloween colour scheme could be fun to try! Black, purple, brown, it could be really lush! I guess we'll see! 🤣

Thanks for reading and happy quilting everyone! 

String Tulips Flimsy

My queen sized version of the AHIQ String Tulip QAL is a finished top! I love it and I'm so glad Ann shared her instructions for this fun project. 

It turned out a lot more green than I expected, lol. The background fabric is green and yellow on white, so I thought it would read more white than it does. It's good, though, I'm so over that low volume phase from a few years ago. I look at some of those UFOs and I have no motivation to finish them.

The red diamond shape around the center was not strictly pre-planned. While I was assembling the string blocks I thought a diagonal line would be useful in the outer border. But as soon as I started laying it out the diamond in the inner border was obviously the way to go.

It's quite large, about 224 cm (88") square. I'm going to do another wide binding since I really like how the binding on Picnic turned out. This one will be scrappy reds using the fabrics in the tulips. For the quilting I'm thinking a leafy panto will look good. 

So yay, another one assembled! These large quilts are definitely what i enjoy the most. I started a wall quilt after finishing Picnic and I had to cut it short because I really wasn't enjoying it. I need a bigger sandbox to play in. 😁

Next up will be the border for Rose Boll. I had to pull it out to make sure my red binding fabrics for the tulips weren't needed on that (they weren't), and I finally decided what to do there. More strings! 🤣

Happy quilting everyone ❤