Hopeful Homemaker

This morning on my way home from an appointment, the streets were covered in fallen leaves.  Our weather change has been swift, so most of them were still a vivid green.  We passed a trampoline covered in a thick blanket of dried leaves and joked about stopping to bounce them all off.  I thought of a favorite quote by Albert Camus, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”   This lovely art print captures that, I think.  It’s a season that draws me outdoors much like spring, especially for collecting leaves.  But this year, I’m collecting leaves made of fabric.

I now have a half dozen oak leaf applique blocks completed.   When I first started my project, I assumed I would use all the pink, red, and orange fabrics on the honey yellow background.  When I got started, however, I was drawn to a blue chambray background.  I used the chambray recently on my Beach Hut pillow, and liked the contrast.

While I love the chambray, I don’t have much of it, so at first I started shopping online for more.  I may regret it, but it didn’t feel right to buy fabric when I have plenty here at home.  If I were on a walk through the forest, collecting leaves from the forest floor in various shapes, sizes, and colors, I would just rejoice in whatever I found.  So, I decided to take that approach with my fabric.  I’ll use what’s on hand.  This led me to cut background blocks in another grayish blue and a dark gray.  The gray reminds me of my Modern Maples quilt from many years ago.

Matching threads for applique reminded me of the multi-colored matchstick quilting on that quilt.  It would be fun to do it again.  For now, I have a LOT of applique to do.  If I make a full quilt of these blocks, I only need at least…..90 more.  Something tells me this won’t be a quick finish.  No hand applique project is.  I do love the organic feeling of all the hand stitched blocks.  It will be worth it!

Time to cut and prep a few more!

I enjoyed making my Halloween eyes quilt block enough to keep playing with diamonds.  One of my favorite elements of quilting is creating and discovering secondary patterns in simple quilt blocks.  So of course I jumped right into that idea with these blocks.

Rather than stick with a limited color scheme, I selected 12 different solid fabrics for a colorful experiment.  Black and white were simple choices, and they provide good contrast for a first look at the idea.  These blocks are foundation paper pieced, but they came together VERY quickly.  Another fun element is their size.  Although thin, they are tall, so a dozen blocks make an 18″ quilt block.  It’s a good study, I think.

When I look at the blocks before sewing them together, I like their strong diagonal presence.  It would be interesting to pursue that element.  My favorite part is the center of this block.  I love the black and white diamonds that emerge when the blocks are sewn together.  While it’s more white than I often use, I do like the playful feel of bright colors, crisp lines, and black and white.  It reminds me a little of my Gleaned quilt pattern.

I feel like I’m learning a lot about myself this year.  One lesson is that if I stay engaged with creative sewing, the ideas flow freely and I stay motivated to finish projects.  But if I step away for a few days, it’s harder to break back in.  Isn’t it interesting how many parts of life are like that?  Consistent practices are powerful.  In these little studies, I like to test ideas with no pressure to create anything special.  Just sewing for sewing’s sake.

Will anything come of this?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  There’s another idea tickling in the back of my mind, and I hope it surfaces soon.  For now, I’ll jump back into a new quilt design, grateful for the chance to play with diamonds.  Life is good.