Change of Direction
Lately I've been quilting up a storm. The best part has been the chance to teach two other people how to quilt. The not so best part has been forgetting to take pictures of the quilts in question before I give them to my mom for quilting. So I'm hoping to post several quilt pictures in a few weeks before school begins again.
For those of you who don't know me, which may be everyone who reads this blog, I am currently working on a masters in information science (librarianship). This summer is my halfway point, only eighteen more credits to go after next Tuesday. When the school year begins again in September I'll be back to taking a full course load and working full time, so this blog will be silent except for a few holiday breaks until next May. The good news is that after May, I'll be free to have a life again. In the mean time though I have an almost five week period between classes, and I'm hoping to get lots of quilting done! =D
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
And now I have a sad story to tell...
Once upon a time their was quilter, me, who had a vision of a quilt in her mind. The fabrics in this quilt would be blues and greens that went from light to dark. The fabrics would be used in Northwind Quilt blocks, each block subtly different, so that the colors would seem to bleed into each other. Unfortunately for this quilter, me, after she put sixteen blocks together, she realized that she had made a busy mess of blue and green.
The vision in her mind was strong though, so rather than giving up, she decided to try again. She unpicked all of the blocks and found a beautiful pale blue fabric that all of the fabrics would go well with (A Fairy Frost fabric designed by Michael Miller). She made new blocks matching each of her carefully chosen fabrics with the blue fabric. Still she wasn't satisfied, and the quilter, that's me, knew there was something wrong with this new design. She would get the unfinished quilt out, but then eventually put it away untouched.
Years past, and the quilter, me again, stayed busy with other projects. Then one day, the unimaginable happened: a magazine printed her design*! But worst of all? THEY MADE IT BETTER!!
Image from Summer 2006 issue of Quilts and More
They had the wisdom to repeat the fabrics between blocks so that they formed pleasant rows of color, and then added super cute borders.
The quilter was very sad about this first. At first she tried and pass it off a joke. Then a friend pointed out that maybe this was an opportunity for change. The quilter dismissed the friend's comment at first but the idea wouldn't go away. Eventually, the quilter began asking herself what else she might do with those unfinished blocks. The quilter fortunately had lots of fabric to work with since she'd been saving fabric for the borders. Now the quilter found herself imagining a design that will show her progress as a quilter. Rather than an all over design that might have been cold and boring, the quilter began thinking of ways to assemble the blocks: bringing four blocks together to make a diamond in a square, having a short row of three blocks going the same direction, adding a large rectangle with an appliqued design.
The quilter realized that this was an opportunity for a change. She began looking toward the horizon with new hope knowing the future would bring new fabrics, new designs, and someday a new quilt that would be so original and interesting, no one else but the quilter could think it up!
*The magazine did not REALLY steal my design. Great minds think alike.
For those of you who don't know me, which may be everyone who reads this blog, I am currently working on a masters in information science (librarianship). This summer is my halfway point, only eighteen more credits to go after next Tuesday. When the school year begins again in September I'll be back to taking a full course load and working full time, so this blog will be silent except for a few holiday breaks until next May. The good news is that after May, I'll be free to have a life again. In the mean time though I have an almost five week period between classes, and I'm hoping to get lots of quilting done! =D
And now I have a sad story to tell...
Once upon a time their was quilter, me, who had a vision of a quilt in her mind. The fabrics in this quilt would be blues and greens that went from light to dark. The fabrics would be used in Northwind Quilt blocks, each block subtly different, so that the colors would seem to bleed into each other. Unfortunately for this quilter, me, after she put sixteen blocks together, she realized that she had made a busy mess of blue and green.
The vision in her mind was strong though, so rather than giving up, she decided to try again. She unpicked all of the blocks and found a beautiful pale blue fabric that all of the fabrics would go well with (A Fairy Frost fabric designed by Michael Miller). She made new blocks matching each of her carefully chosen fabrics with the blue fabric. Still she wasn't satisfied, and the quilter, that's me, knew there was something wrong with this new design. She would get the unfinished quilt out, but then eventually put it away untouched.
Years past, and the quilter, me again, stayed busy with other projects. Then one day, the unimaginable happened: a magazine printed her design*! But worst of all? THEY MADE IT BETTER!!
Image from Summer 2006 issue of Quilts and More
They had the wisdom to repeat the fabrics between blocks so that they formed pleasant rows of color, and then added super cute borders.
The quilter was very sad about this first. At first she tried and pass it off a joke. Then a friend pointed out that maybe this was an opportunity for change. The quilter dismissed the friend's comment at first but the idea wouldn't go away. Eventually, the quilter began asking herself what else she might do with those unfinished blocks. The quilter fortunately had lots of fabric to work with since she'd been saving fabric for the borders. Now the quilter found herself imagining a design that will show her progress as a quilter. Rather than an all over design that might have been cold and boring, the quilter began thinking of ways to assemble the blocks: bringing four blocks together to make a diamond in a square, having a short row of three blocks going the same direction, adding a large rectangle with an appliqued design.
The quilter realized that this was an opportunity for a change. She began looking toward the horizon with new hope knowing the future would bring new fabrics, new designs, and someday a new quilt that would be so original and interesting, no one else but the quilter could think it up!
*The magazine did not REALLY steal my design. Great minds think alike.
posted by LNLisa at 3:06 PM
1 Comments:
Just been reading some of your past posts. Really great site and I'll be back. I know how it is to go to school - not much time to quilt but I hope you can do a little. Maybe you could take pics of things you have done and then just take a minute later to share and tell us about them.
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