Sunday, February 25, 2024

Farm Quilt Progress and Rainbow Scrap Squares--Post 4

Beginning to quilt the churn dash sections
Goal number one on my February list was to make progress on the Farm Quilt. I was thinking that perhaps another month would have lapsed with the quilt in the same condition as it was at the beginning of the month. 

When I don't make progress or when it looks like I'm not going to make progress on a project the second time I've listed it on my monthly goal list, I ask myself if the project needs to come off of my list. I ask myself what is stopping me from working on the project. In this case, I have been studying for a class. With work and studying, I haven't had much concentrated time in the studio.

Quilted lines 
I decided that I would spend two hours working on the project last Wednesday after work. Since so much time had passed since I last worked on it, I needed to reacquaint myself with what I was doing and what I was doing it with!

First quilted block
At the end of the time, I had finished the ditch quilting and had started quilting the blocks. Friday evening and after spending a day training in the pool, I attended our standing Zoom sew day session. 

The makings of some blocks
Every Friday, our Clark County Quilters guild provides a Zoom link so any member can sew with other members from 10 in the morning until 11 in the evening. People come and go and some come back through the day. It is good to catch up with people. I treat these days like a mini retreat. 

Last Friday after the training day, my brain was too tired to think about putting selvages together for a square. I decided  I could make more progress quilting the block I had started on the Farm quilt.

I was stitching line after line using a ruler. The repetition of the movement helped my brain unwind from the challenges of the day. I hadn't planned to quilt this project this densely nor had I planned to customize each block. Sometimes, the quilt talks and the maker needs to listen. In this case, the quilt talked.  I ignored the quilt. Gertie, my inner squirrel, chirped at me to listen to the quilt. Gertie had a point. I listened. Now, I'm stitching. There are 20 blocks in this quilt. I'll be at this stage of the quilting for some time!

It took me about three hours to quilt this block. Some of the time I was talking to other pitchers on the Zoom call.. Some of the time, I was auditioning a line and sometimes, I was removing a line. Perhaps if I'm not visiting, I will quilt the next block a little faster. 

Yesterday, I pulled out my selvages and began to putting together squares for three blocks. Today, I'll stitch and trim the blocks. Goal number four on my February list was to make selvage squares in the color of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month, Angela chose red. Eventually, I will combine four squares into a block. This year, I'm concentrating on making the squares!

Linking to Angela at Scrap Happy and linking to Cynthia at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. After all, these selvages qualify as scrap!



4 comments:

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

I have a long-term unfinished quilt top that I keep pulling out to make some progress on, and keep asking myself the same question! What's stopping me from moving this forward? You're inspiring me to try to get something more done on that this week! Glad you made some progress on the farm quilt while also enjoying your virtual retreat!

Jenny said...

What a great idea to use selvedges to make monthly RSC blocks. Mmmm, I've still got a bag of selvedges hanging around (thinking while typing).

Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting said...

I'll be interested to see how your red selvage blocks come together!!! So fun!! As for the involved quilting, we've all been there!!! Just keep at it and you'll reach the finish line.

Melisa- pinkernpunkinquilting said...

Oh yum! Your quilting is so gorgeous on the Farm quilt and the red selvage blocks look fabulous. I have been trying to save my selvages for something special. Happy quilting. Hugs.