Quilting Approach / Avoidance

I have finished one quilt, a 40x40 New York Beauty. It turned out well -- C for execution and B for design. I titled it Georgia On My Mind because the sunflowers reminded me of South Carolina, where I live half the year. "South Carolina On My Mind" sounded ridiculous so...

I did finish a second quilt, Rain of Jewels,  but I don't count it because I didn't accomplish what I set out to do. This was supposed to be much less structured. Also, the technique I developed for doing the jewels didn't work the way I wanted it to. I need to rethink this one. Let's call it an experiment, not a quilt.



I did learn a lot from these two.  I learned paper piecing, a technique I'll use again. I am working on the design for a black and white quilt based on New York Beauty. 


I learned about quilting technique. 'Georgia' is not properly quilted. The density if too variable and some quilting opportunities for embellishment were missed. And I learned to miter edges and binding corners.


I learned about applique. 'Rain' is not properly appliqued, that's for sure. I used up every decorative stitch on my machine and lots of satin stitching. I also learned I do not like applique so I won't be attempting another in the foreseeable future.


I learned about choosing fabric. Cheap is cheap. The white in 'Rain' and the pale yellow in 'Georgia' are both C H E A P and look it. From now on, I buy only the good stuff.


Now I am working on a pieced quilt, a Storm at Sea pattern for a queen-sized bed. I was supposed to show it at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show but I've had to substitute 'Georgia'. Somewhere along the way I missed taking Home Ec. sewing. It seems a lot harder to sew a straight 1/4" seam than I had thought it would be.

I should be cutting fabric but instead I'm writing this blog, airing my frustrations. My problem is loving the fabric patterns and the design problems and being totally unequipped for the execution phase. I have a huge amount of fabric and maybe 100 or more quilts I want to make but... I had about four months to finish 'Storm' but accomplished very little because my elements were not coming together well. Points don't match. Blocks don't conform to the pattern precisely. So...I stopped work. Now I am restarting the process but it's really hard work to get going on it. I need 81 completed 12" blocks and I have...three...and a half. I do have enough for one more block and I have 35 diamonds (19 are noted as 'Be Careful with Measurements') and 38 small triple-squares, all of which are suspiciously wrong compared to pattern. 


I'll get back later. Stop blogging. Start cutting. Good advice.