Friday, July 7, 2017

Dangerous Roads Quilting


"Dangerous Roads"


First things first, folks. I've been on 'blogcation', meaning I took a break from blogging. Unplanned, but it happened naturally. The rhythm of summer took over with holidays, friends, home projects, and keeping up with acres and acres of mowing. The heat and rain just keep coming here in the Midwest, with no end in sight. My current projects have been full marathons as opposed to when I could say, "Look at the pot holder I whipped up!" 



Quilters Have a Special Bond!

Our only picture from a long & lovely weekend: 

You may remember we Midwestern Quilter Bloggers are all good friends, and my family was lucky to host some quilty, blogging friends over the Fourth of July. It was a fabulous, low-key weekend! We ate, watched fireworks from the driveway, and talked virtually non-stop. (Okay. I slept through the fireworks, folks.) And while company usually wipes out us introverts, this visit was just good energy! 


Second Quilt Underway for PNQE 

I had my current project on hold waiting for their visit. One thing I was eager to ask another creative mind or two was, "Does this quilting work? The first quilt accepted for the exhibit, "Moda Modern in Print", was very different from this piece. While that was based entirely on straight lines, this was improvisational curved piecing and Y-seams. This quilt represents my travel back and forth on country roads to reach the little, local quilt shops in neighboring Holmes county. Most back roads are winding, hilly, and fraught with Amish buggies, bicycles, and people on foot. Your mind must be on the road at all times, and I often find this journey is purely meditative. 



I marked the quilt top with my dandy, new markers while flat on the table. The setting triangles along all four sides would be a freehand design, and made perfect sense to me as what I see while traveling through the countryside. But would they to someone else, or just look out of place? 



I put the quilt in the frame, quilted one leaf and froze. I texted Tish. She said, "I like it. Keep quilting." I quilted two more, and thought how long that kind of quilting would take to rip out. 


I added pebbling for filler to one. It was a little better.


I started with the ruler work in the Grunge areas, and sighed a bit of relief. You know, I had no back up ideas for the quilting so I don't know what I thought I would do. I heard Tish in my head. I kept going.


Dave and Tish saw it in person, and weighed in on it while looking at both the front and back of the quilt. We rolled and unrolled, and hashed it out. In the end, we all thought it worked, and the scale, too. 

I needed to hear that from peers. And the longer it goes now, the surer I am. Isn't it funny how much we stress over details in quilting? In my favor, I've used #50 So Fine in a soft grey for my thread. It blends well, and is as its name--so fine. Someone from across the room won't see the individual motifs until they are up close. My feathered leaves might make sense if they've seen a lot of Amish quilts handquilted with feathers. I hope so. In my mind, I just keep hearing...

"I like it. Keep quilting."

Thank you, Tish and Dave.

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

Linking up with~
Crazy Mom Quilts
Off the Wall Friday

10 comments:

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

What better way to spend a holiday than with friends ? That is a rhetorical question. There is no better way . Your meandering quilting paths will be wonderful in this

Stitchin At Home said...

Love the quilting design Julie, the curves flow and frame the blocks nicely. Sounds like you had a great weekend with lovely quilty friends.

Linda Swanekamp said...

Beautiful quilting. Great colors and composition on the quilt. I think the right people always take us farther than we can go ourselves and build creative bridges.

Tish Stemple said...

Julie, it was amazing spending time with you and your family and of course the Doxie girls. I miss my best friend dog, Minnie very much, and you too of course :) I can't thank the universe enough for allowing me to find your friendship. Spending time with you this weekend gave my batteries a recharge that was definitely needed.

Norma Schlager said...

These colors are knock your socks off gorgeous! And your quilting is just making it better. Keep it up for sure!

Angie in SoCal said...

Love this quilt of bright solids. And the quilting is just right. How fun that you got to get together with fellow quilters this past weekend.

KaHolly said...

I'm envious of your midwestern bond, but lucky to be gathering with some Atlantic Maritimes Quilter's today. Your quilting is lovely! Glad you kept gong! ~karen

Kate said...

The quilting definitely works. Glad you had a blast on the 4th. Don't feel bad for sleeping through the fireworks, we didn't even try to watch this year. Bed sounded so much better!

Anja @ Anja Quilts said...

Glad you had a little break. We need to do that for ourselves more. Happy sewing.

Julie Bagamary said...

I really like the curved piecing.