Brenda's three little quilts for November

I quilted my November challenge pieces

and now I have three little quilts for AAQI.

When they're all together, you can see the variations

of the theme of red bars.

Thanks for a fun challenge, Miki.

I'm on for December. Who feels up for a swap?

I'm Known Around These Parts . . .

For my inability to make a decision very quickly. It infuriates My Cowboy that I can never decide where I want to eat, what I want to cook, if I want to go ride my horse or not, what time I want to go to town, what I should wear, or if I want to go with him when he goes somewhere.

I can't explain it, but so much of the time, it's due to the fact that I have too many choices and I like them all. Such was the case with choosing a palette for this challenge! Whew!

I must have looked at every single one of those palettes 2 and 3 times each. I slaved over the decision, and killed SO much time staring at the computer screen, still never coming to a conclusion. I'd think I had it nailed down, walk away, come back, and nope! Start all over again . . .

But I finally just HAD to decide, even if I could still go on looking for many more hours. Just. Had. To. Decide.


I know Miki said to try to choose colors that you don't normally work with, but I have to admit right from the start that I did not do that. I chose reds. Red is my favorite color, and I work with it a lot. But if I had chosen colors I don't normally use, I'd have had to go fabric shopping, most likely. That's bad for me for two reasons:

1) I'm trying to reduce my stash and use up fabric I already have and not bring any more into my studio . . . for now.

2) The nearest quilt shop to me is over an hour away, and I don't have time to go there as often as I'd like.

So . . . I've picked a palette, and while I still haven't pulled any fabrics for the piece yet, I will soon. I'm going to Houston this week, and after that, I can come home and play in the studio again . . . with a fresh dose of inspiration, no doubt!

Spicing it up

I've been slow getting to my challenges with this group, but yesterday I got started on Miki's challenge.

I totally didn't get to the card trick challenge, so I decided to combine the two by using only solids and building one block from the previous one.

Here are my fabrics in the spice palette, with some curries and greys and browns.

I'm using Jean Wells as my inspiration.

I decided to make a quilt  9 by 12 inches so I could finish quickly

and then donate the end result to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

I also work best with scraps rather than yardage, so I made some scraps by

putting together this little Amish Bars quilt in the colour palette:

Then I took my leftovers and made a wavy bars with curved strip piecing (above)

They both measure around 9 by 12 inches.

Then I decided to go Gee's Bend and I took all the neutral bits left on my cutting table

(greys, browns, beige, gold)

and sewed them together to make a canvas like this:

I cut 1 inch bias strips of the maroon and started inserting bars in curved cuts

like this

Here's the completed third attempt

And here's all three together:

I've already quilted the first one with freehand feathers and

I'm contemplating quilting designs on the other two.

Thanks Miki for pushing me out of my comfort zone in colours and in process.

October Challenge

I know some of us are still working on our October challenge, and it is still early in October, but I thought I would throw this out for anyone who wants another challenge.

This will make more sense if you read it through before you do the first step.

First Step

Go to http://www.design-seeds.com/p/palette-search.html

Second Step

Click on Palette Search

Third Step

Choose a palette from one of the first category groups.  Try and find a palette you don't often work with, but you still like.

This is one example of thousands.

When you have selected a palette, post it here so we can all ooh and aah.

WARNING!

This may become addictive.  Allow enough time for this step.

Fourth Step

Select fabrics in solids, plaids, and/or reads as solids.

Fifth Step

Familiarize yourself, if you are not already familiar, with the styles of the Gees Bend Quilters and with Jean Wells in this book:

Her website is

http://www.jeanwellsquilts.com/gallery.html

 Examples of Gees Bend Style Quilts:

http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/

Sixth Step

Start building your quilt.  Decisions on size are up to you and your fabric and your process.  Please post photos along the way and write about your process from picking a palette and fabric to design choices.  That is part of this challenge.

Have a creative time with this challenge.  I am looking forward to what all of you create and reading about your process.