Stars and Dishes

Pretty soon I'm going to have to lay these stars blocks out on the bed and make a decision about what to do with them. I really hadn't planned to make a full sized quilt but I'm addicted to making these things! Maybe there will be more than one quilt coming out of this sewing marathon...


In addition to looking for and using my older prints I'm sewing half-square triangles together that I cut from scraps years ago. When I come across a set that are actually the same size and work together (more or less) I'm making Broken Dishes blocks. Now I'm thinking ahead and cutting half-square triangles from the scraps I'm using for the stars whenever I can.



Apparently we're in for some unusually high temperatures here this weekend. That may slow me down on my stars and dishes. It gets pretty toasty in here with the iron on, the windows closed, and it's 90 degrees outside!

More Fungly Stars

Wow. I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. Time flies when you're making fungly blocks!

I'm sorry this is such a poor picture. It looks like I used a wide angle lens!

It has helped to have the Olympic competitions going on in the background. I can listen while I cut and sew but then stop to watch the actual race or whatever. We've had mixed feelings in this household about supporting the Beijing Olympics, even by watching them, because of China's history in terms of human rights. I can't help myself though; I used to swim and dive and participate in track and field. I still don't condone the Chinese government's attitudes or policies but I do support the athletes who have chosen to dedicate themselves to their sport and have excelled as a result.

Anyway, as I've made more liberated stars for this fungly project my blocks have become less and less 'normal.' I've been going through my shelves, looking for the smallest and oldest pieces of yardage hiding between the newer ones. It's been especially fun to look for something surprising to pair with an old calico for example. :- )

Fun, But Not Ugly

It cooled off enough in these parts for me to be able to face turning the iron back on in the studio and do some sewing. (I have to keep the windows closed to maintain the air quality in my home and we do not have air conditioning. On top of that, my studio is on the west side of the house!) Naturally I had to have a go at the Fungly Challenge.

I'd discovered some larger scraps during the recent reorganization efforts so I figured I'd see what could be done with those to start with. It took me forever to even decide on a block pattern to use. I just didn't feel up to a bunch of triangles, even if we're not going for accuracy here. In the end I chose to make more liberated stars. This is what I came up with:

Not exactly fungly in my book. Fun, yes, but there's nothing I consider ugly in any of these prints! (Well, the one that reads as almost a solid black is uglier than the others in person.) Let's face it, the stuff in my stash is there - for the most part - because I like it or can see its' potential in a future quilt. Even if it's dated. I do still want to make a bed quilt of dark reds, indigo blues, and shirting reproductions someday. I may have to force myself to dig out the muted calicoes to mix with some novelty prints in order to make blocks that would really qualify for this challenge!

I also managed to finally bring the panda bear preemie quilt top up to size.

To recap, this top was built intuitively, starting with the fussy-cut panda patches. From that point on I simply added strips of varying widths to create blocks. Then it was jigsaw puzzle time, deciding on the placement of the blocks and adding strips as necessary to join the blocks together. I think the next preemie quilt I make will have to be something a little more straightforward. My brain is tired.

Now I have to find an appropriate flannel for the back. I'd better get on that while it's still cool...

A Fungly Quilt?

I may have found just the thing to snap me out of the post-exposure funk I've been in: a fungly quilt. Not that I need a new project mind you!

During the course of the studio journal class Sharon pointed out that everything in her stash is sorted according to color. I thought about my stash and realized that the one thing that is not sorted that way is my scrap collection. My yardage is, my beads are, my threads are, but my little scraps - the crumbs that I can't throw away for love nor money - were just jumbled together various bags and bins.

For the last week or so I've been sorting the bits into color families. I thought seriously about sorting them according to size but knew in my heart that I would get bogged down in that process very quickly. My hope is that I can use the leader/ender technique to piece the smallest bits into bigger units. Then one day I can sit down and sew the units onto strips to make 'mile-a-minute' type blocks.

In the meantime, I have shelves that are threatening to collapse under the weight of the yardage I have collected over the span of about 20 years. My recent preemie quilts were an effort to begin to use up some of those old prints. They're not even going to make a noticeable dent however!

I hadn't been around to read blogs for several days. Today when I checked out Tonya's Lazy Gal blog I learned about the Fungly Quilt Challenge she and Bonnie have cooked up. Ah ha! This may be just the ticket - something fun and loose to bring back my enthusiasm that has bee MIA lately and I can get another quilt top out of it! (You notice I said "quilt top" not "quilt." We have to be realistic here!)

I have plenty of fabric to choose from, that's for sure ;- )

Life is a Collage

We're in our sixth and final week of the studio journal class, and this week the focus is on collage.

Collage can be defined as "an assemblage of diverse elements" (per Dictionary.com). Of all the design techniques/exercises that Sharon has given us so far, this feels the most comfortable to me. I think that's probably because it most closely approximates the way I work: gathering and assembling an assortment materials into a cohesive whole (I hope!).

I've made a couple of collages in my journal but I don't think either of them will be taken any further into fiber. That's okay though. Practice is practice and all of it is valuable.

Speaking of taking it further, this is the challenge Sharon has posed for the month of August:

"In my chaotic and hectic life I often admire people who are able to maintain balance in their lives. What is balance to you? Do you maintain a balanced life? How do you balance aspects of your life? That is the challenge this month - balance."

The challenge of balancing our creative endeavors with the rest of the activities and demands in our lives came up often amongst the students in the studio journal class. It's an ongoing struggle, even here in the Magpie's Nest where life is pretty calm in comparison to the rest of the world!

I'm not sure there could be a better metaphor for life than collage. Don't we spend the bulk of every day trying to bring a collection of diverse elements into some kind of order? That order, whatever it looks like for an individual, creates balance in that person's life. And generally that's when we feel the calmest or most in control of our lives.

In spite of the fact that I'm trapped at home, where one could assume that my life would be very routine (ie: balanced) nearly every day brings something into my world that throws me off balance in one way or another. I don't feel that I have yet succeeded in creating a harmonious collage out of my daily life. At least, not on a consistent basis. Still working on it. In fact, I'm going to keep working on it every day I'm allowed.

Having said all that, I don't have a clue yet what I will do for my August Take It Further postcard quilt!