Sunday Quilt Inspiration: neutrals

I've been working on a couple of projects. All of them use neutrals so I've been had neutrals on my mind for the past week. Well, neutrals and Christmas--there's a conflicting proposition. I suppose one sort of offset the other because I wasn't all antsy and worried about getting everything ready. In fact, we have a wedding in Houston tomorrow and other than to clean house, shop, and finish up gift wrapping, I haven't been worried at all.

Neutral quilts

There was another SQI on neutrals back in 2014. I hope you enjoy!

More on those neutral projects after the gift-giving on Christmas. Shhh, don't say a word.

Bipolar 3: Balance {an art quilt series} Quilt Festival version

Number three in my series of art quilts exploring strategies for dealing with Bipolar Disorder is my favorite thus far, so I decided to write another post explaining the art piece.

Finding balance in life is especially important to a patient with BD because we tend to express emotion in extremes. Mania is the euphoria that we feel when everything is good. Depression is the polar opposite, so it's those hurtful, negative feelings that occur when life hands us a few hard knocks. 

People with BD tend to feel their emotions on a grand, out-of-proportion scale. What is a difficult situation to most people may become a disastrous situation in the emotions of a BD patient. 

Finding balance helps to keep those overly emotional states in check. Note I said "helps." BD requires a doctor's care and, most often, medicine and therapy. But balancing work, family time, and relaxation can help to alleviate the feelings of urgency that BD brings on. Eating well, exercising, and getting enough sleep are other ways of creating balance. 

This piece, like all of the works, has a dark and light side, each representing depression and mania, respectively. On the dark side is a small, almost black circle which represents that place in depression that is almost impossible to return from. Notice that the quilting runs right through this darkness as though it isn't there.

On the mania side are organic, wavy pieces of depression, showing that both can occur at the same time and at any time. The red circles are like balancing rocks, always about to tumble but somehow carefully balanced. Those circles are the things in life that we can balance, however difficult. 

I've carried the motifs of light/dark throughout the series. Always depression and mania are touching along a vertical, wavy line, never the same. That's because the two are impossible to predict. 

Another motif is that one darker area of depression which is in the same general area, but always changing. A third motif is the quilting--vertical lines that sway and wave and go around some objects, through some objects and are changed by other objects. 

Unpredictable. That's what BD is. Unpredictable and not easy to follow or track. Always moving and keeping just a step ahead--science, medicine, therapy, help. 

Visit the Bloggers Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side to post your own quilt finish--but hurry because it ends tomorrow. Want some inspiration? See the 150 blogs posted so far! 

Bipolar 3: Balanced {an art quilt series} finished!

The third in the series is complete, well—maybe. I haven't decided exactly how I want to add the final touches and the label. Otherwise, it's done. 

Here's the problem, as I work on the series, things come to me and, because I want all of the pieces to have some of the same elements, I can't seem to finish any of them. 

But I'm stopping on this one for now. At least until I decide on those things that have come and I don't know what to do with them.

On this quilt I wanted to give a sense that recovery is ongoing and left the raw selvage on the left and right edges. On the top and bottom, though I finished the quilt with binding. I tried to use a pillowcase fold but that didn't work because the edges were messy because of the quilting, so I cut and applied a bias binding, meant to follow the shape of the edges, which are sunken in toward the middle. 

The whole back of the work was a mess. In fact, all of them have messy backs even before I finish the work on the front. So to give this one a cleaner look, I added a backing. Then a sleeve and corner pockets. 

A good pressing and a label will put this one on the growing pile of art quilts that I've finished in the last year or two. Well, unless those nagging things force me to pull it out again.

Cleaning Rewards~~a fast finish

Have I told you I've been cleaning in the studio? I have mentioned it, I'm sure. Truthfully, I think I'm mostly moving things around. And not necessarily advancing toward a cleaner studio. I don't know what to do with this stuff! Really, I don't. 

Here's the problem: I unearth stuff--fabric, patterns, UFOs, etc.--and look it over. It's almost always too good to toss out. I mean, I don't keep trash. But I also don't intend to use it. Ever. For example, I have over 50 Butterick patterns. Over, I tell you. And that's the smallest box of the "The Big Three"--Butterick, McCalls and Simplicity. 

Now there are some used patterns. Perhaps a little over half are used. Surely some are missing a piece or two. But nothing in that box is just pure trash. Well, not if you fit into a size 8-12. I don't. But even if I did, I don't have much need for the dresses and suits I wore when I was a young, energetic teacher. (Who just happened to be able to sew really well.)

So, the patterns. What am I to do with them? Really. Burn four boxes of patterns? And what about that 1964 pattern I discovered in my mom's box? It's getting kind of old and vintage-y. As is the 1973 and the Vogue Oscar de la Renta specialty pattern...still unopened. I'll make some kind of attempt to sell them. We'll see how that goes.

There has been one great find and this one I know exactly what to do with! This quilt block was another item found in one of mom's boxes. She had already quilted it so all I had to do was bind it and offer it to my sisters. Three of them wanted the small red block quilt from last month.

I added corners so it can be hung on the wall. If all goes well, I'll find another and each of the three who asked will get one. 

In the meantime, I continue to move things around. 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: pun'kin

Pumpkins are the gourd of the day at this time of year. I saw a family at Walmart pushing a buggy with five or six huge pumpkins and a net-bag with lots of small fake ones. But with Thanksgiving and Halloween coming along very rapidly, it's time to find a few. 

Curious about why I wrote pun'kin rather than pumpkin? My daddy said the word that way, and he sometimes called us girls pun'kin. With eight daughters, he said it fairly often, so when I hear the word, I think of his pet name for us. Even when it's prounced correctly I hear him saying it his way.

I found many pumpkin themed quilts, but all are small table toppers or wall quilts with the exception of this first one. 

It makes sense, though, that most of the quilts are small. A large pumpkin quilt wouldn't be displayed except for a few months a year. October and November, perhaps. Of course, Christmas quilts have only one year and there are many of those. 

Of course, there are many people who own pumpkin farms, and a large quilt would make a welcome display either inside or outside the home. No matter the size or the season, pun'kin quilts can be especially cute. If you've a mind to make one, there are many patterns and even more inspiration pictures on Pinterest.