4x6 Lives

I've been wanting to do another 4" x 6" quilt so yesterday I wandered around the studio trying to find something that felt good to work on. Played in my silks a bit, considered the novelty prints (Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting is showing her Halloween quilts and had me thinking along those lines myself), and then dug into my bright scraps bag. Nothing really spoke to me until I happened upon some leftovers from a fabric challenge I participated in a few years ago. The theme was Jamaican Getaway. The quilt was auctioned off to raise funds for our local Hospice organization. I don't believe I have any pictures of it anywhere or I would show it to you. (I'm really bad about that. I don't have pictures of most of the things I've made.) I was quite pleased with that quilt.

Anyway, I found one pieced bit that was already 4" x 6" so I just slapped it on a piece of batting and basted them together. Then I found a couple more bits, sewed them together, and I had a second 4x6 top! The second one I made is the one on top in this picture:



It's also the one that spoke to me the loudest. I have a pair of whimsical fish earrings that I picked up at the thrift shop; one of those fits perfectly in the big blue shape in the middle of the quilt. But that will go on last because it's so dimensional. Last night I beaded the leaf/feather shape in the upper half of the quilt and then echo quilted in a single strand of rayon thread around it. I tried not to feak myself out by thinking of it as echo quilting though. In my mind I was just seed stitching in a pattern around the shape. If I'd been "quilting" it I would have been trying to have perfectly even stitches, blah blah blah. I'm working very hard to overcome those perfectionistic tendencies! (That's why I'm not even thinking of these as "postcard" quilts. If I thought there was any chance I'd be mailing them I would automatically restrict the embellishments I would allow myself to use. Honestly, Perfectionism is a disease.)

I would like very much to pick this back up and stitch some more on it but DH has a major garage-organizing project underway and requires my assistance...