Friday, March 10, 2017

a winter *break*

My mom used to say I was like the energizer bunny. It was straight go go go until I was spent and then nothing. Where others taper off as they exhaust themselves I go and then nothing.

That is still true. And evidently, it spills over to my favorite hobby.

I quilted my tail off last year and it all caught up to me at the beginning of the year, and I took an unplanned, rather long, break from making. 

So many things went into this, but a huge factor was the fact that I stopped making what felt good and made what I thought people wanted to see. And in doing that, I lost my joy. I think I have already mentioned this, so I won't bore you again, just to say that getting to that point was a wonderful thing because I feel like my focus is now sharpened and my time is dedicated to really making what feels good for me and what is a true creative expression of me. That sounded much deeper than I intended, but hopefully you get my point.

Some of the things I thought about as I moved forward, that are goals of some sort:

  • Play with color. Negative space doesn't need to be white. Go bolder. Saturate!
  • Don't dismiss a pattern at first glance. Find a way to make more traditional patterns modern and whimsical
  • Create more from my own original ideas. Trust my own intuition. And accept that failure is an inevitable part of creating and making something new and beautiful.
  • and on that note, let go of the need to make something brand new. Too much pressure to create a completely unique design. Just find a way to put my own spin on something. Stop limiting myself for fear of redundancy.
With all that in mind, here are some of the things I have made lately!

The one below is not in colors I would EVER gravitate towards. But I love how it turned out. The center fabric is divine!!



I loved the center fabric so much that I ordered it for the quilt backing!


This whole quilt was derived from a block I made for the Sewcial Bee Sampler.  I simply enlarged the block and based the whole quilt on 6 large blocks. I love making big blocks. I feel like it really gives the fabrics a chance to shine!


Also, that honeycomb fabric!!! I love it!



Above I mentioned making patterns that I was not particularly drawn to. This is a prime example. The pattern is from Camille Roskelley's book Simply Retro. Her blocks were really big, so with this quilt, I downsized them to make a baby quilt. Again, the center of the stars is a great opportunity to showcase fabric!! And instead of using my traditional white border, I grabbed a really soft pale aqua. I wasn't sure about it as I was quilting. Now-- I am really happy with how it turned out!




xoxo



4 comments:

Unknown said...

That rose fabric is fabulous - what is it called and what line is it from.

Celtic Thistle said...

You definitely seem to have your quilting mojo back, these are all lovely quilts.

shannon said...

Thank you Fiona! It's a good day when the quilting mojo returns. I was just admiring your sweet birds on a wire!

shannon said...

Hi Terri! The fabric is by Bari J and is called Paradis Sweet - JOIE DE VIVRE. It really is so lovely!

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