Nothing but quilt talk

Star in a Star block from Jodi Godfrey's Red Sky at Night quilt.

The last few days since beginning another Kawandi-inspired quilt, I have been in THE ZONE. Not only with that project, but Alexandria, which has been a mild relief as well as a joy. Stitching blocks for that EPP behemoth, I wasn't sure if my colour choices were apt. I think they'll do nicely. 

But let's gab about my Red Sky at Night hand-sewn I don't know what else to call it quilt. It's Kawandi only in starting from the back and going inwards. It was strange, but liberating, to first make the back, not worry about a binding, then finding a mostly appropriate batting scrap to wedge under the back's pressed perimeter. A few bare spaces were filled in with less than an inch wide (but several inches long depending where I needed filler) strips of batting, some of which were displaced as my husband helped move the back and batting onto my office work table. Carefully I measured where the center Churn Dash block would fit, as squarely in the center as I could get. It was safety-pinned onto the batting/back, for which I need to find/make up a name because batting/back is kinda long, although not obnoxious. I affixed the Churn Dash block there with a quick perimeter sew-around to avoid Batting Shift Syndrome, a term I coined in the previous entry. Don't read it if you're looking for only quilt talk.

Bridal Bouquet block, bottom left of quilt.

Maybe that was two days ago. Well, three to make the back, lay down the batting, so Saturday. On Sunday I began sewing, starting with the lower right RSAN block. Stitching along the outer perimeter, I was careful to tuck under any raw edges, which I didn't do with the small Kawandi-inspired piece. This larger quilt will get put through regular quilt paces, and I want it to be hardy. I don't mind taking extra time to tuck under raw edges; time is not of the essence with this project.

Time slips away as I stitch, listening to music, not wearing earplugs or noise cancelling headphones (to ease my tinnitus) as I do when seated at my machine. That's part of the thrill, being unfettered from such sound-eliminating devices. Another is how much I LOVE using needle and thread. I feel in control as well as adrift, very liberating. Hand sewing is VITAL in my crafty realm, and I'd forgotten that aspect, as English Paper Piecing isn't as open to interpretation when it comes to the actual stitching. Small stitches keep basted papers together, although basting those papers is less futzy than stitching them together.

First large scrap sewn onto the batting/back. I truly need another term for that! Meanwhile at the bottom of the quilt are HST blocks sewn together, hehehe.

What else I love is being lost in sewing. Not needing to worry about this, that, or another method, but merely finding pretty scraps, cutting them to size, or adding another if the size was too small. Just stitching and stitching and.... Suddenly it's pushing four o'clock in the afternoon, time for stretches. To be so absorbed in something beautiful, peaceful, artsy, craftsy.... Me and the music (I LOVE MUSIC!!) and thread and needle. A total balm on my soul.

It also feels good to put the Red Sky at Night blocks to use, adapting a machine-based project into my interpretation of it by hand. To stitch random small scraps onto the batting/back (still need a term for that) to avoid Batting Shift Syndrome (BSS), to incorporate a marvelous quilt-making method into my life that fits my needs and enhances my joy. How rare is that in our world? I kept thinking that despite not writing anything, I am writing through making this quilt, pantsing a novel via cottons and slender metal needles. I'm still wanting to write something new, but this is certainly sufficing in the interim.

More random scraps. To say I'm enamored with this process is feeble. I LOVE IT!

Maybe it's the music; yesterday I listened to B artists: The B-52s, Beachbuggy, Big Star, Belle and Sebastian. Sometimes I get up and change the song, but mostly I sit and stitch. When I sew in the evenings, my husband and I are listening to sports, well, I'm listening to sports. And that's fine, I'm not grousing. Yet afternoon stitching in the office sessions are all in my wheelhouse, from what I'm doing to what softly drifts into my ears, tunes of my choice not muted by earplugs and headphones.

Perhaps that counts for more than I realized.

Today I'd like to attach the RSAN blocks that go on the top corners, again to avoid BSS, as well as, well, do something different. Kawandi begins from one edge, going around the perimeter, then moving inwards. What I'm doing now isn't that, and maybe I'll never make another quilt in this exact manner again, tacking down the corners first, securing the center and interior. I did love the circular nature of traditional Kawandi, but right now I need something else.

Something vaguely familiar yet experimental. Something grounded but aflight. Something that isn't new or old but fresh to me as well as comforting. Hand-stitching has been in my life over twenty-five years, starting with embroidery. Kawandi-inspired quilting is another extension of that, and where it will lead makes me smile in anticipation! Is it afternoon yet? Soon, I grin. I wonder what I'll listen to then.