Sunday Best

At long last, my Southern Album is a full-fledged flimsy, and has a proper name. The seemingly never ending project formerly known as GBY* has been officially christened  "Sunday Best" and is a tangible object lesson in perseverance.  It's been a journey, one that began in January 2008. The name was natural combination: Southern Album classes taught on Sunday afternoons and my best efforts at precision piecing and appliqué. There are special blocks to commemorate milestones celebrated and observed along the way.

Sunday Best

65" X 82"

* Great Big Yawn

A red leaf on the Tree Of Life represents the birth of our first grandchild, Mason, in 2008.
Hannes makes an appearance in this block too!

 2010 saw the arrival of two more grandchildren, Lucy Ann and Gregory, 

and the addition of two more celebratory red leaves.

And, of course, strawberries! Just for me,

because strawberries are always a reason for celebrating and giving thanks.

I would also like to express sincere and deep gratitude to my friend, 

and ever-encouraging teacher, Kathleen; thanks for never giving up on me!

Now, onto Sunday Best quilting. 

Sundance... start your engine!

Life is Good!

Cleaning Out, Finishing Up

This book contains a philosophy that is my new goal~ (decluttering, organizing, simplifying). It seems counterproductive to be reading about living with less during the Christmas season when I am overwhelmed by an excess of absolutely everything... but, perhaps, this makes it the absolute perfect time! Notice I said "goal" and not "resolution". This will be a process and I refuse to set myself up to fail. The first thing to go? UFO's. They're either leaving the premises as they are or they are on the road to becoming something else... namely, finished quilts!

I'm starting off the year on a roll. I am working long and hard on my Southern Album quilt, applying the "Dave Ramsey" approach to my UFO's as if I were attacking debt. Dave counsels (I listen to him on the radio when I'm in the car) that when paying off debt one should attack those accounts that are the most paid off first; providing a reward system that will spur the debtor toward taking on larger challenges next. Adhering to that line of thinking I am committing to the UFO's that are already the most completed. I have many to choose from; hopefully, one mark in the "done" column will prove contagious. It's worth a shot.

Life is Good!  

A Mighty Fortress...

... soon to be surrounded by vines and berries!

All the pieces (minus the outer borders) are pinned in place on the design wall. The Fortress Star is the center block and the newest addition to my Southern Album. I decided to use a lighter, brighter background fabric for this section (translation: I ran out of what I had!) and have replaced the outside setting triangles to match and reflect this change... the good news from my unfortunate lack of planning is this: I like it! The vine (r) is the first of four sections that will gently wrap around the bold and graphic center block, (you can see where it will go!), I have spent today prepping all the pieces, my idea for beating the heat; however, hours spent over the very hot iron may have been counter-intuitive! Each of these sections will contain eleven berries... (44 total!) I can't wait to see this come together now. Like a book that's too good to put down, now that I am on the homestretch it's just too much fun to stop myself; I'm already planning out how I'm going to quilt this one! It only took me a few years to get here, but who's counting?

Life is Good!

One Step Forward...

... and another in reverse.

I'm stitching as fast as I can to keep up with the block-a-month assignments for this, the Hop To It! class; while also working with an eye to the past, attempting to catch up and complete my Southern Album. I'll look back on Summer 2011 as the season of appliqué; it's all I've done, and I have the finger callous to prove it!

__________

A Southern Album, begun in 2008, has been shelved for a while. I

placed the thirteen completed blocks on the design wall months ago and vowed not to take them down until it became a full-fledged flimsy.

One of the last blocks finished, three years ago, was this Tree Of Life with the year embroidered (and Hannes!) has one red leaf, to commemorate Mason's birth:

Before this past week, I had two pieced blocks remaining, the Carolina Lily and Fortress Star. I knew I had to personalize my Carolina Lily block in a similar fashion to honor Lucy Ann's and Gregory's arrivals; it received the year (2010), plus two more red leaves:

As of today I have only one more block (the countdown continues) and then on to the appliqué inner border! A step forward, and another in reverse... the momentum is there, regardless of the direction! I'm stitching as fast as I can.

Life is Good!

Another One Bites The Dust

The Southern Album re-do continues, my original Pineapple block is history and has been replaced with an improved version. Ignore the vast lighting variable, the background fabric is exactly the same; in real life the actual color is somewhere in between these two photos! I'm pleased that I persevered as I believe these changes will make a big difference (hopefully for the better) in the finished product. The redone block and it's place in the grander scheme:What's next? A Carolina Lily block will occupy the upper left corner, in shades of blue with two little unexpected surprises... stay tuned. Now that I'm back at it I am as energized as I was in the beginning; and sew it goes...

I received this quote by Harry Truman in an e-mail this morning, it sums up my feelings about this quilt that has languished as a unfinished project for much too long:

"Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction."

Life is Good!

Full Speed Ahead, Again!

It all began innocently enough. I contacted a friend about purchasing an appliqué roll-up to store my blocks in while under construction. I already have one, it contains all the blocks from my three year old Southern Album. I wanted a second roll; for my current project, "Hop To It". The more I thought about my own request the more ridiculous it sounded, even to me! Why would I need yet another roll-up, to store yet another set of blocks? How about finishing up that quilt with the blocks from the first set; thus, freeing up the block keeper for the current project? Brilliant! I pulled out the thirteen blocks I had done, there are only two more to go, plus the borders. That's it. So, what was the obstacle? When I took a good, careful, objective look I knew why I had abandoned this task back in the waning months of 2008. Two of my blocks made me very unhappy. I was displeased with the color placement and the workmanship. I took one of them apart, it just plain made me feel good to do that! It has now been redone. I'm reconstructing the second one and am very happy with my progress on that one too. It's full steam ahead, all over again. I posted about "slow and steady" a few days ago. I might be long on the slow part and short on the steady, but I still feel a kinship to the tortoise on this one. I'm on a "roll"; it feels good, and better yet, I'm only using one of those for my blocks!

Life is Good!

From The Outside In

I had my last Southern Album class on Sunday, now I'm working from the outside in. Here are the blocks, to date, pinned on the design wall. I have a 'Carolina Lily' in the works, it will fill the hole on the top left, it is predominantly blue. The center section is due to receive a 'Fortress Star' block which will sit on point, like all the others, to be bordered by appliqued 'Southern Vines' with berries... forty four of them (but who's counting?)! My plan is to use a similar background fabric for this entire section, but lighter; this will be bordered, yet again, by a two inch strip of the same fabric as the inner border (pictured here hanging beside the dark floral outer border). To give you an idea of what I'm talking about look at this finished example (r) from a student in last year's class, here is the 'Fortress Star' surrounded by 'Southern Vines', take a look at the way this one is quilted, too! Wowie!! I am so very happy that I took this class, my quilt never would have come into being at all without the support and encouragement of my wonderful instructor and fellow classmates. Stay tuned for the finish, I'm revved up to get this one done now! I may have to re-title it; 'Great Big Yawn' doesn't fit the mood of the piece anymore, it looks more like 'Awakening' to me now.

Life is Good!

Just Under The Wire

I don't think of myself as a procrastinator, but I am when it comes to the homework assignments of the Southern Album class. I finished these, just under the wire, as class is scheduled for 2 PM today! Blue Pineapples and Persistent Kudzu are the latest additions to my GBY* quilt. I had a terrible time with the gap spacing of the tips of these Pineapple leaves. Two of the tips are almost touching where the other three pairs have have their own unique space in-between. Arrggh. I took painstaking steps to prevent this from happening but finally, after ripping and re-ripping decided to leave (pun?) them alone before I was left with shaggy, thread-bare tips where the leaves had once been. The Persistent Kudzu block was an easy-breezy one, although I did devote way too much time to my color choices and realized, finally, I needed to commit to something and move forward. That's exactly what I did; sometimes the last minute is the best minute after all. Below are all the blocks, to date. The border, focus fabric, is pictured on the right; photos are "clickable".

*Great Big Yawn
Life is Good!