*unraveled and tieing up loose ends

Quilting is in and out of my mind. I have been working feverishly on several projects somewhat alongside each other. This is what my current projects consist of: One that is a birthday gift (an August birthday.. sigh), the "chicken quilt" that has sort of been in the planning for three or four years with the due date quickly approaching as well as a little picnic quilt that I just finished up last week.

Quilting is not something I normally do by following a pattern, now come to think about it, not much I do is done by following a pattern or directions. I am an artist and sometimes getting stuck in the guidelines of "directions and patterns" and find it stifling to me. Then there is the rare occasion where I find myself wishing I had chosen some type of pattern because all of the creativity has been drained out and nothing seems to remain when I am most in need! That is the case with several of the quilts I am have worked on most recently.

Here is a sneak peek on the works that are in progress. I have been wanting to share these with you for sometime now, but other things have been battling for my attention.  The August birthday quilt that I am currently working on, is made using a pattern named "Let Sleeping Cats Lie"  It is a darling quilt pattern, I also have the "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" as well.  I can hardly wait to get started on one of those in the coming months, but for now I need to stay focused and finish what is at hand!

 WAIT!  Wasn't this the "Let Sleeping Cats Lie" quilt? Silly Frayja!

 I still have a few cat heads to applique on, then some hand work, then set it in. This quilt is made mostly from batiks that I had on hand, only buying a few fats to finish it out. The border was just bought a few weeks ago, but it could not have been matched any better if I had bought all the fabric at one time.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am with the border, the design, the colors in that fabric.. the whole thing is just puuurrrfect!  Perhaps I will finish it before Christmas so I can hand it over to my precious mother in love!

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I started out just playing with they black and white fabrics with the yellow and white fabric. I ended up making a whole mess of flying geese blocks, and here you see me laying them out trying to make a decision on how I would stitch them together.

 This is what I decided on. I like.  I thought I was going to LOVE this quilt as I worked on it, but I am just OK with it.  It is sort of like one of those I just need to get finished and be done with. I am sure if you are a quilter, that you too have worked on such projects in the past.

This is the picnic quilt that I just finished last week.  These blocks are huge, a whopping 14 (I think) inches each.  I am sorry in advance for the poor quality of this picture. I will show it again when I am finished binding it, and I will make sure to get a clear image for you to marvel at. *wink

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 And last but not least on this quilting update, the "Chicken Quilt".  There is a story behind the "Chicken Quilt" but I will not share all those details today. I started trying to create this masterpiece a month or more ago, maybe even two months now. I started doing some of the stitching for the scrappy border that would be part of the quilt and found myself at a stand still. I was not able to pull it all together in my head, or on paper for that matter.  Due to time restraints, I have sort of been forced to get myself in gear and start to proceed forward.  So forward I have been going. Forward, standstill, back a few steps  (literally.. removing fabric from the core design), then forward again.



This is a sneak peek of what is going on thus far with this project. I will be sure to bring it to you again when I am putting the last stitches in it.  This quilt top has sort of been a deep labor of love. For me it holds a value of many things past and present.  The whole idea of this quilt was birth out of friendship on a trip to Paducah Kentucky one year.