Trying Something New

Excuse the late afternoon light and the mess...clearly an indication of intense work!

I recently rearranged my entire studio in an effort to make the space a bit more fluid and useful. The added bonus is that I now have a design wall! Well, if you consider an old piece of batting hung with thumb tacks a design wall...

It's been somewhat of a revelation to have a place to lay out ongoing work in a way that it is clearly visible and yet not taking up more surface space. A place where I can consider as much or as little of any particular challenge at once. As you can see in the photo...I'm a bit of a piler and tend to have several different projects going at once so the immediate nature of it does help me focus and contend with different arrangements and possibilities for each item. I still see myself as planning a lot of quilts out with paper and pencil (especially before cutting into particularly precious stacks of fabric), but I felt it was high time to add this tool to my arsenal and em enjoying experimenting with it.

The blocks in progress are for a Valentine's quilt I've got in the works. I know, just in time for...June? I had the best of intentions and at least started thinking about it back in February—though I'm not a big fan of the holiday it occurred to me that having a lap quilt to display on the back of the couch according to season/holiday would be an excellent excuse for more fabric shopping and quilts. Also, I found 3 yards of Anna Maria Horner velveteen for a cold weather quilt backing on major clearance so clearly the universe was trying to tell me something, duh! I didn't want to do anything too literal but have embraced a whole lot more pink than usual and contrasted it with greys. Each block features a very loose theme of fabric featuring things I love (photography, sewing, hiking, cats, etc.) and either start with or extend out towards saturation of pink or grey. I'm not sure each one I've done is completely successful as it requires a whole breadth of fabrics I don't keep on hand, but am finding it an enjoyable challenge to find the right gradation of shades and how to work in low volume prints to my satisfaction. This is one of my favorite blocks so far:

note the scrap of little red scissors I hoarded for years and finally cut into—can anyone tell me the name/designer of it?

This summer brings with it a bit more free time for me to sew and I'm looking forward to sharing a few of the quilts I've finished these past few months here soon. Until then!