I didn't spend much time online over the weekend but I did see the Process Pledge button on Julie's blog and had to go check that out. After reading Rossie's post (and the ones she links to) I immediately added my name to her list and added the button to my sidebar. Since most of my posts have to do with my personal creative process anyway it didn't feel like much of a stretch for me. But I've been thinking about it and I do believe I can go deeper or share more of what goes into the creation of my quilts and things. At least, on those days when I'm not suffering from brain fog due to chemical exposure. ;- )
To that end I will tell you now that I put my scrappy Trip Around the World top away, out of sight, while I worked on the top for the BASICS Quilt Gather. As the Memorial Day sales ramped up I found myself with two fairly good size quilt tops needing backing and nothing in my stash that was quite right or anywhere near big enough. I mentioned in the previous post that I found something to use on the back of the BASICS quilt at my LQS Friday. The other top was lurking in the back of my brain though, still wanting attention.
During the course of learning about how the Process Pledge came to be I read Naptime Quilter Cheryl's post about how modern quilting isn't really so modern in her eyes. Well, it may be modern but it isn't particularly new. Anyway, her comments got me thinking again about my scrappy top.
It felt like I had to go way back to remember how and why I ever started that project. It was all about frugality and not wanting some of those prints to be lost from my sight. Mostly it was about frugality and turning something not obviously useful (scraps and bits leftover from other projects) to the casual observer into something useful if not exactly beautiful. (I seem to have this perverse obsession with making quilts that I know full well no-one will ever pin a blue ribbon on. But they'll keep a body warm!) And then I took apart that disintegrating flannel Four Patch quilt and figured I needed to have something to take its' place.
So today I went back out to look for something appropriate for the back of this quilt. I believe I found the perfect fabric in a large scale Jacobean print. It doesn't show well in the photo but the colors in the print pretty much encompass the colors that predominate in the top. I intend to split the 2.5 yard cut down the middle and insert a pieced panel of some of my other favorite prints that have been around too long. I expect to bind it in something dark but will leave a more precise choice for later.