Lost in the Fabric

We have had a very rainy weekend here.I was content to spend the time in my sewing room playing with fabric. First I spent time on EQ7 designing a medallion quilt. I meticulously sized each border around the center so that I would know just how to proceed with the cutting. Then I sorted through my fabric carefully choosing each piece. I knew I wanted some cheddar in the center and so I added it to the star and corner points. Oh yeah, I liked that a lot!

As I began adding the next round I found that I was spending way too much time making these decisions. Just when I thought I had it figured out another fabric jumped in and I had to change my mind. Finally I pulled this star off the design wall and made a new one.  

I didn't plan on the inner border of blue, but as you can see, the blue got its way. After I added the hourglass blocks and another thin border strip I planned another pieced border. But before I knew what was happening, this striped fabric of blue and red jumped into the action. Seriously, this fabric was not in the equation, but I am merely a servant of the cloth, so in it went. The final border was a fabric that I had been wanting to add since the beginning, and in fact, the center of the star is from this fabric. There is just enough blue in this fabric, along with red, green, brown, tan, etc., for it to work--at least I hoped it would still work. Not being certain enough on that point, I ended up cutting borders of two other fabrics which, in the end, I rejected for my original choice. Do you care? Probably not, but I am hammering this our regardless because you have the choice to stop reading at any point.

I kept looking at that border fabric and telling myself that there was not enough fabric. Finally I got something right! There was not enough fabric! But at this point destiny had taken control and we (me and the fabric) decided it was a go, and so we added hourglass corners, because that would conserve several inches of fabric, and we pieced in other dark fabric on two border pieces because that is what Libby would have done. Right? And I do love that look of substitution. (Did you even notice?) 

So much for my idea with the cheddar. I may have to start this exercise all over again with the cheddar block!


Back to the topic of rain, did I ever tell the story of how our bedroom ceiling collapsed during Hurricane Irene? Well, thank heavens the leak that caused all the problem is finally fixed. Our bedroom has a covered deck above it, and somehow the water was so torrential and the wind was so strong that it blew the water sideways under the deck until there was enough water that the ceiling collapsed. Upon further investigation it was discovered that the leak was immediately below where a squirrel had built a nest under the floor of the deck. He/she ate through an inch of blacktop on the roof and then began chewing on the board below it. 

 The black pieces that you see are the blacktop roofing that was chewed up, and the straw looking stuff is shredded wood from the board beneath. There is also something that looks like quilt batting which, I promise you, I did not give him! The wire that is sticking out of the nest was pushed up from the bedroom ceiling where we could actually see daylight! Don't talk to me about cute little squirrels!

It is still raining and we are glad to be dry. Tomorrow I have an appointment with the eye doctor and will be reminded once again that I am not getting any younger. My solution is to follow Martin Short's advice from "The Three Amigos" and "sew old woman, sew like the wind"! Another great quote from this movie, taking place in Mexico, is, "Do you have anything here besides Mexican food"? I believe that one was Steve Martin.

 

MY MEDALLION QUILTS

I have been playing with scraps again this week. I decided that I wanted to see what Williamsburg Medallion, the quilt I showed a few posts ago, would look like in scraps. I replaced the toile center with a star that I felt complimented the design, and dragged out the fabrics for auditioning. You know what that does to a sewing space! I actually had just sorted through little mounds of fabric and put each in its own container according to color. I really whipped through it, so it wasn't exactly pristine, but that's why I have cabinets with doors on them! Anyway, suffice it to say that my room is back to "normal". This was lots of fun to make, by the way! I would love to see what Libby would do with this! She has such a flair for the primitive look!

Now I have a question for you. Do you think all medallion quilts look the same? I have had two people look at Williamsburg Medallion (#1) and comment that it looked like another quilt I made. One said it looks like Homeport (#2), and another said it looks like Chesapeake Star (#3). I do like medallion quilts, it's true! Am I just making the same quilt over and over again? I thought I was making different quilts with interesting borders that I can change each time around. I am finding that I really have to defend myself lately!