Sunday, March 6, 2016

Sunday Pondering

I've just been visiting Esther over at ipatchandquilt. She has been working with donated blocks (and fabric) for charity quilts. Some of the prints that were donated date from the 1990's. They are high quality fabrics but not what Esther would choose for herself or her home. She's doing wonderful things with them. However, her comments and another group effort called Bee, myself and I, have me thinking about what I'm currently working on versus what I enjoy looking at or living with.

I have not yet felt the need to participate in the selfish sewing bee. I pretty much get to do what I want here in The Magpie's Nest, which feels selfish to begin with. It also pleases me to be able to make and donate quilts to people in need or worthy causes. So what need have I for selfish sewing?

Events yesterday have given me cause to ponder. The way things do in this life, one thing led to another and I am currently building another donation quilt. It began with blocks from my Parts Department, and since the intended recipient is a man I chose those blocks I thought were more manly in appearance.


The problem is that they are, for the most part, brown. And because this will be what I refer to as a puzzle quilt I need to make more blocks in brown to fill in the gaps.


Brown is not my favorite color. In fact, it is probably one of my least favorite colors. I prefer a more tropical palette, like these friendship blocks from my local quilt guild:


What made it so bad yesterday is that it's suddenly spring here. I worked on building this brown quilt, then had to run an errand out in the sunshine where I could see the flowering trees and the daffodils in beds and boxes around town. All that wonderful color and I had to come back to my little barren yard and deck and back to that brown project. {sigh}

If I had another design wall I could put those friendship blocks back up and play with them some more; take a break from the browns. But I don't, so I believe I will have to content myself with some needlepoint in happy colors. In other words, selfish sewing. ;- )

And just in case you haven't had a response from me to a comment you may have left on a previous post please know that I've read them and appreciate your kind words. Toxins and migraines have kept me from being more social again. (They've also kept me from putting even a few flowering annuals in the pots lining my back deck. Maybe I can do that tomorrow.)

7 comments:

  1. I'm not madly keen on brown either Sue but you have some nice reds mixed in there and I'm sure it will look great when you've finished.
    I hope you start to feel better soon and manage to get your plants in to cheer you up.

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  2. I'm so sorry you haven't been well, and I hope you're on the mend. Given your love of colour I can see why the brown quilt is a bit trying. Would it help to introduce a couple of other colours, say, amber, gold, burnt orange, for example? None of them is especially girly, but they would warm up and make the quilt happier? And given your amazing Parts Department, chances are you've already got something in the right colours! Good luck with it, and be kind to yourself with plenty of happy needlepoint!

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  3. It's tough to slog along when your heart is not in it. I agree with TT that a spark of warmththe and light would add to it, even a lime green. Also, why not photo your present design wall and put up something else for a change, then go back later. I hope your condition will allow you to get some cheerful plants out soon and let them bless you.

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  4. Good evening Sue!
    Yes indeed, I am having fun with other people blocks and fabrics, but... I also do a lot of selfish sewing! HA HA! For me it is all about balance. I can indulge in a dense FMQ project (not show yet on the blog) And then I need much simpler project to "reset". I like that I can just grab a project and get it a bit further along. I like to work on quilts, but if I kept everything I would have burst out of my home last year already! ;-) The charity quilts are fabulous for me to reset and let my brain come up with a new creative idea for something els.

    I agree with Lynn and Kate, maybe the brown need another color to get some life into it! I like the idea of reds or oranges.

    Hugs
    Esther

    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com

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  5. I'm a big fan of red-blue-brown as a color scheme - my 365 Challenge quilt is using these colors. It's not a 'girly' look at all, and there's lots of range in the reds and blues.
    Or maybe you just need some nice plaids... 8)
    Hope you feel better soon! Good luck with the flowers.

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  6. I find that brown is a necessity. It's calming, it's everywhere in nature, and it makes such a good background in lights and a contrast in the dark shades. I made a brown and pink quilt, light tan backgrounds, not all civil war fabrics, but many of them, and it's one of my favorite quilts. The colors just look so pretty together. The blocks you are making ARE perfect for a man's quilt, (and very lovey it's looking, too!) but there's no reason you can't throw in a peek of blue or yellow or green!

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