In Search of a Finish

 

When I saw this on Instagram, I nodded my head in agreement. Since diving into quilting, I've often had more than one quilt project going at a time, pretty much for the reason she states. But on second thought, I decided I agreed only up to a point. While I've not had multiple knitting or embroidery projects going at one time, the ones in progress do add to list of things I could work on, and at some point I think the overall number of choices can become overwhelming, frustrating, and even depressing. That's kind of the point I'm at, I think, especially after unearthing so much during my search through bins. Over the weekend I could feel it building until it became clear: I needed a finish to feel better.

And so I chose the Joy Banner. You know, the one draped over my sewing chair waiting for threads to be buried and a label. I'd been viewing it as a daunting task, one I didn't want to do but couldn't escape. But there was a bookbinding video I wanted to watch which was an hour long, and because it was the last in a 4-part series, I was pretty sure I could follow along while burying threads, looking up when I knew there was something to see. The burying went more quickly than I anticipated with it nearly done by the end of the video. It only took ten or so minutes on another day to complete the task.

Now for the label. For years, I meticulously printed out my labels and hand stitched them to the back of quilts. Then there were some that really didn't need the printed label and I was fine with inking the info on cloth by hand. Next step was deciding some labels didn't need to be hand stitched in place but could be fused there. And that is what this banner would get. I didn't get the spacing quite right but the banner is going no place except up on my wall. Trimmed and fused in place, I now had that much needed finish and feeling better about myself.

I also spent some time over the weekend, rooting around in those bins again. I'd opened up that Stack-n-Whack quilt top to be dazzled by it, and wanted to find that possible border fabric I'd bought that now I wanted to use as a backing. You can see it at the top of the quilt, and that it would not work as a border. But it will be great as the backing. There's no question; this will be the next project to finish.

I'd searched my blog for posts about making it but could find none. How could that be? Fortunately, I'd pinned a note onto the top that explained everything and made me wonder how I could have so little memory of where I was living and the studio I was working in when I completed it. I only remembered working on it at the same time and with the same fabrics as the blocks for St. Hilary's Star which I finished after moving to Idaho in 2006. This note tells me I finished the top in 2003 (!), the star blocks at least partially done and set aside too, two years before I started my blog. The note also tells me the name which I'd forgotten: Venetian Tiles which is the name of the pattern in the book Stack-n-Whackier Quilts by Bethany S. Reynolds. My version uses only 4 blocks rather than the nine in the original - probably because of the fabric I had on hand. Finding the book took scanning my bookshelf then having another look through the closet where I found it resting flat on a shelf. I think I had plans to make at least one more quilt from it as I looked at fabric in the big bin and rolled onto a cardboard tube. I surely must have purchased her first book where I would have learned her technique and made my first Stack-n-Whack quilts but at this point, I can't find it. Anyway, I'm very excited to see things coming together for a finish of this quilt.

As long as I was lifting flat folds of fabric used in those two quilts out of the big bins, I thought one of them might work to finish out two of the Mariner Compass sample blocks I'd unearthed. I think pillows will be the best bet for these and I like this leafy print in the right teal blue for it. The other compass has already been set into a square using the same fabric as the background fabric but I think using this fabric for the back of the pillow will work well.

The yellow in the compass is actually more golden like the print in the batik on the left

Finally, I felt it time to take that last Mariner Compass and find a fabric to set it into. This one I plan to finish as something to hang on the wall, maybe even stretch over a canvas frame, and give to that great niece and her new husband as a wedding gift. That dark fabric on the right is a very mottled batik that should fit the bill nicely. I think it will be more interesting than a solid black (lord knows where the black fabric used in the compass might be by now). But you know, you have to try a lot of things, even outrageous things, to find the right fit. A lot of prints and batiks got auditioned before the mottled one stepped in and said, "Hey - don't you think I'm the one?" Be honest, doesn't your fabric talk to you too?

I've certainly got my work cut out for me during my daytime slot for creative endeavors. In the meantime, the evening knitting of the socks is coming along, be it slowly. One more section of increases on this one before the run to the top, at which point I'll switch back to the other sock to knit its increases. Each round begins at center back, and that orange marker reminds me when I've gotten there.