A Prairie Home Quilts

I needed some buttons for 2 projects I was working on the other day so I unearthed some jars of buttons that were hidden away in a tub in the closet. There were several jars of buttons with all the different styles & colors mixed together. I was looking for something in green or purple. The first jar had buttons still on cards so I started to put it back but the lavender buttons in the picture caught my eye. Can you believe 7 pearl buttons for 25¢?

Most of my buttons belonged to Barb, a dear friend who passed away about 20 years ago.  She had all sorts of patterns, fabric & (obviously) buttons stored away in an upstairs bedroom.  She used to tell me that when she retired she planned to take up sewing again.  Sadly she never made it to her retirement and the creative enjoyment she kept telling herself she’d get to “someday.”  After Barb’s husband, Bill, passed away a few years ago, my ex-husband gave me the jars of buttons that belonged to Barb.  I think Barb would be happy that I’m using her buttons.

Barb’s story is one of the main reasons that I started “creating” again.  When my children were younger, I put away my creative side for a time because there just didn’t seem to be enough of me left to be creative after caring for 4 children that are less than 5 years apart in age. [That and the fact that I was a single parent.]

I didn’t want to wait for a “someday” that might never come to find the creator in me that needs expression.  I’m glad I found quilting to express my creative side and be passionate about.

I took time out from my “creating” the other day to sort the buttons  by color  into separate jars & put them out in my sewing room.  I think Barb would have liked that too.

Well, not really.  I’m away from the computer again to house sit which is kind of like a retreat because I can sit and sew–except I’m the only one there.  I’ll be gone until the end of the month.

I have a few posts scheduled to publish while I’m gone.  Don’t be shy about leaving me a comment though!  I’ll reply when I return.

I fell behind on my goal of 10 hexagon flowers a week for Field of Flowers but am now caught up to where I should be.  I’ll have to make another goal for sewing so many flowers together every week or resign myself to the fact that this top will take more than a year to complete. I have 150 flowers done although only about 25 are sewn together.

Don’t they look fun?  Ludo thought so too!

I’m Not Martha is a quilt that I challenged myself to put together for as little money as possible.  I managed to pull together enough fabrics for the 42 full hexagon diamonds and 8 half diamonds from my meager stash & swap & purchase the rest on sale for about $37.  I’ll make the backing from some of the larger pieces I have in my stash.

Originally I wanted to coordinate the sets so that I could have 7 of each of 6 different colors, but when you’re “making do with what you’ve got,” things don’t always work out like you hoped.  There wasn’t any way to put the fabrics together without mixing & matching colors.  So some diamonds are made with 2 colors — blue & yellow, purple & pink, etc.  And some of the fabrics aren’t as perfectly coordinated as I’d like either, but that’s also part of the “making do” thing.  You actually find yourself being more creative.  I needed 50 sets of fabrics so I mixed & matched as best I could.  (I keep telling myself that it will be part of its charm.)

I fell behind in February in my goal of making one diamond a week but got caught up in March to where I should be.  I managed to stay current in April.  I now have 15 of the 42 full size diamonds done.  That’s 375- 1.25″ hexagons!

On the wall opposite my design wall is this:

My inspiration board looks a little bare, don’t you think? Not that I haven’t been inspired lately to be creative. . .  My goal for this though was to be filled with a bit more than family photos.  I want to fill it with notes and pictures that make me feel good & want to be more creative as I sit and ponder its contents.  Let’s see if I can add some stuff to it over the next 4 weeks to accomplish that!

Are you inspired visually?

Do you have an inspiration board?

What’s on it?

I thought that perhaps by posting a photo of my design wall once a month I could shame motivate myself to do something more with the projects that are currently hanging out there. . .

The cast of characters. . . The hexagon diamonds on the top left belong to I’m Not Martha.  The Drunkard’s Path design below that is a Butterfly in the Garden block for a pattern I put together called, Welcome Spring! Below that is the hexagons I have sewn together for Field of Flowers.  On the right are part of the apple cores I received from an Inklingo Yahoo Group swap. I’m trying to organize them in vertical rows by color using the Ives Color Wheel. I have the top row done. . . This next picture shows more of the apple cores.  On the far right are all the black & white apple cores (that I have so far) that will be the borders in the apple core quilt.  I think I need somewhere between 150 to 200 more apple cores for the quilt I have planned.  So now let’s see if I have these organized a month from now!

What’s on your design wall?

This is a photo of my contribution to the Inklingo Projects Blog Giveaway called Welcome Spring! Naturally my sample isn’t finished yet — I need to quilt & bind it.  I hand pieced mine, but this can easily be sewn by machine.  I’ve sewn some of the Inklingo Drunkard’s Path curves by machine for another DP project I’m working on & I can say with confidence that they sew up very nicely by machine.

The winner of my giveaway will receive fabrics printed with the Drunkard’s Path pieces to  cut & sew to complete this 18″ x 18″ block.  It can then be used as a wall hanging or table topper.  I’m including the binding & complete instructions.  My LQS was out of the purple batik, however, so I purchased some pink for the giveaway.  Head on over to the Inklingo Projects Blog to sign up for the giveaways!  There are some other great projects being given away also.