Stitching Randomly

No, this isn't the same picture as last time. All the wool strips have been tacked down so the project is now portable.

I'll be filling it in with stitches, beads and sequins. I don't know exactly how and I don't care. I'll figure it all out as I'm stitching. When I'm not following a pattern that's how I work. I sometimes think that if I had started the project a day or an hour earlier the end result would be completely different.

I call this random stitching - this is one I did a while ago. It is actually work to be random. It's easy to fall into a pattern and then start repeating it again and again. I had some lessons in randomness early on and I can now easily stitch randomly.

Back when I was a teenager, my sister and I read the Dune series by Frank Herbert. Briefly, it is science fiction and takes place a planet made up entirely of sand dunes. Outside of the main city on Dune it is dangerous. The main predator is a gigantic sand worm that can easily eat people whole. It is attracted by regular sounds. So, the natives have perfected a method of walking without rhythm.

About the same time we found ourselves at the Sand Dunes National Monument (now Park) in Southern Colorado which is a mini version of Dune. It even had the same wildlife (except for the evil sand worms) like kangaroo rats. As soon as we got into the sand one of the first things we tried (besides running down the dunes and pretending to be stranded in the desert without water) was the "dune walk".

The "dune walk" is not easy. After a few steps you either freeze up unsure of what to do next or trip and fall. We gave up and went back to normal walking and playing.

A few years later I got another lesson on randomness that really helped. More on that later ...

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It's about time - the big reveal

My bright quilt was finished in June but I wanted to wait until both were done before sharing the pictures. Quilting the blue quilt didn't take long but finishing the binding sure did. I did procrastinate a bit as it was too warm to have a huge quilt on my lap for most of the summer. After this, I'll probably do all the binding on my sewing machine (and stick to smaller quilts). Notice the cut-out corners? That was a challenge. I found instructions here and it looked easy enough but I wished I had practiced some. After a lot of finessing I finally got good miters but I could have done much better. The cut-out corners allow the quilt to hang nicely over the edges of the mattress and it's a perfect match for a full sized mattress. But, the top edge isn't even close to the pillows. I wonder how the quilt fit on the bed it was made for. Here, at last, is the original quilt that I was copying. I just noticed - all of the baskets are

Basted

A few weeks ago I was at the Local Quilt store basting my bright sampler. It's been ready to go for a while. I've been working on a baby quilt and it's now done. It's been a while since I've quilted so I'm glad I had a quilt to warm up on. Next I need to pull a folding table out of the garage and re-arrange my quilting space. This quilt will have a lot more drag than the baby quilt. I've also been looking at pictures of similar quilts looking for quilting pattern inspiration. I'm thinking of taking the easy way out and u se wavy lines like this quilt . I should start quilting next weekend!

The last 2 blocks and the tops are done!

I needed 2 more blocks to finish the gray version of the quilt. I ended up making simple 9 patch/half square triangle blocks. One is the yellow block in the lower left. Here it is closer up. When I made the half square triangles I had the red fabric going the wrong way so you are seeing the backside of the fabric. So the red in the triangles is a little lighter than the red in the center. It wasn't worth redoing. The other corner has a blue block and I managed to get the front of all the fabrics showing. So, here's what it looks like almost complete. And here's the blue version of the quilt. I've got the backing and the batting for the gray quilt (the backing is in the washer now) and I'm working on the thread to use for quilting and how to quilt it. They are too big for me to free-motion quilt. I don't have the space. As it is, quilting with the walking foot will be a challenge. These tops deserve so

Erica's Stitches

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