Well, I’m mildly ashamed that this is my first post for the month of July, but not only is my computer still unformatted, but I’ve had to take some time to deal with the conclusion of my grandmother’s fight with ALS.
I’ve come by my crafting skills from Grammie. In her later years, she made over 500 quilts that she donated to people in need, this despite arthritis, and later, ALS.
She finally passed away on the 5th, and I figured the least I could do in her honor is get off my ass and finish up some of the quilts I’ve been compiling fabric for for the last eon or so.
The candidates:
1. Several thousand pieces of fabric I’ve collected for a landscape quilt idea I have that involves a cliff and a stream. Very loosely inspired by Route 302 as it winds through the White Mountains. Current status: I’ve cut out the muslin canvas.
![](\"https://northwindandthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/8c555-img_1026.jpg\"){kind=link}
2. A sunset. I got this idea after reading Joen Wolfrom’s Landscapes & Illusions. Her landscape quilting method of choice uses strips to form the desired landscape. Not long after this, the picture of the week in the Parade magazine in the Sunday paper featured a picture someone had taken of a stick silhouetted in front of a brilliantly orange and red sunset sky. I’ve been searching for oranges and reds ever since. Current status: I realized I need some purple. As you can see from the one purple I’ve found that seemed remotely suitable, I need to keep looking.
3. A fat quarter six-pack I picked up at the quilting store in Cape Neddick. Current status: I’ve cut out strips to turn this into a split rail quilt. Now, if the thunder storm currently overhead decides to go away and make it look a little less like dusk out there, I’ll be able to take my machine out and put something together. Crossing my fingers now.
4. A (large) postage stamp quilt I started a very long ago to showcase the celestial themed fabric I’ve collecting forever (I could probably move onto quilt #2 at this point, but that’s a side issue). This was my first attempt to cut fabric a) without a rotary cutter and b) with a very pathetic template. I really needed the lesson on why proper cutting is the only thing that’s going to let you get the quilt to fit together.
I started at least a year ago to pick apart the part of the quilt I’d done before I realized exactly how badly I’d cut things, and recut the squares more squarely. About half of the squares remain to be redone, on a throw-sized quilt.