Maybe procrastination was what it took, or maybe writing about procrastination made me feel guilty enough to do something about it. Whichever was true, last night I made some decisions about a new quilt and also worked on novel planning for a piece of work that I started ages ago and got stuck with. In the end it took less than an hour and I felt that I had taken a step forward, which gave me a huge boost in the happiness stakes!

The quilt:

June Bug by Thimble Blossoms (Camille Roskelley)

using Fandango by Kate Spain for Moda

Why?

I love the pattern and have wanted to make it for a while. It’s so fresh and so completely different from the type of quilts I would normally make – much simpler and more modern and it has applique. I can’t remember the last time I did applique. It calls for fusible web too, which I have never used and have had to order – which may slow the process down just a tad. It’s different. Being brave in a dipping the tip of one toe in the cold water type of way.

The original in the pattern is made with Bliss, one of my very,very favourite fabric lines. I have the fat quarters and a couple of jelly rolls plus some yardage. I cannot, however, bring myself to cut into it. It is just too delicious, too precious and what if I screw it up? I will probably never be able to get my hands on this fabric again.

Now Fandango on the other hand is different. I actually bought some for myself and some for my quilting sister-in-law in Canada for Christmas. It’s quite her and maybe not so much me. Actually if I’m honest I though it wasn’t me at all – I looked at it and thought ‘oh my word, what am I going to do with this?’. Which of course meant that I had no trouble at all in pulling it out for this project and cutting into it with gusto. I know I’m a contrary fairy and it hasn’t passed my attention that the divine fabric is not getting made and the oh my goodness fabric is….

Anyway, I’ve been whizzing along making the 8 1/2 inch blocks, which is rather satisfying and I’m coming to the conclusion that actually Fandango is rather cool. I’m a little outside my comfort zone on this one, but somehow that’s had the effect of taking off the pressure. I don’t have to make a masterpiece. I’m just walking the walk, trying something new, seeing where it gets me. And I think it’s going to be different. And I may even like it. I’m certainly enjoying venturing outside of the normal little rut I live in. And between you and me, the fabric looks so much better now that I’ve started piecing it together. I think this could be really nice!

Which is a good thing.

Helen

PS By the way, has anyone out there ever used anything approximating to a buttonhole stitch on their machine? Or should I zigzag round the applique pieces once I’ve sussed the fusible web part? I could do buttonhole stitch by hand, but don’t want to unless there’s no alternative! All help greatly appreciated!!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 4th, 2011 at 11:37 am and is filed under Quilting, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.