“What’s for Breakfast?”-The Improv Quilt

My camera finally returned  much later than I expected.  I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago but was waiting to take the photos that go with it. Here they are:

Once again, I spent almost an entire Sunday quilting!! We had just returned from a few days of camping, so the girls were quite happy to be back home with their toys as was I (i.e., sewing machine, fabric, etc,). They were on a roll and so was I.

Before we left, I started into these super intense circles- what was I thinking I ask you?!?!- I was so happy to have a break from it!   Halfway in I was realizing that I wasn’t really loving them, no in fact, I was hating them.   I had never actually considered tearing out 1/4 of my quilting lines to start over, until this.

But fortunately, I reconsidered!!  I continued to quilt my circles, spirals to be more descriptive.   This repetitive motion began to feel very soothing.  The spirals were growing on me!

Quilting these lines became this very fluid process that was only interrupted by the large amount of bobbin changing I was forced to do.  I stopped counting at 12 or 13.

I became aware of the reason I chose to do spirals in the first place.  For one I am very simply, drawn to them- any time I’m doodling on a random paper or drawing with the girls I end up creating spiral, circle designs.  Secondly, the piecing in this quilt felt very linear to me, I felt like the softer curves in the quilting would be a good complement.  BTW, that is also why I chose not to piece the back and was thrilled to find the circle design fabric from Valori Wells’ new Wrenly collection here.

Thirdly, I find the spiral pattern to be interesting in all of it’s applications in our natural world.  It’s fascinating to me how many places in nature we witness this beautifully rhythmic design.  Things like  shells, fern leaves, pine cones, a squash vine, whirlpools, even our own fingerprints.  In fact, the day I started writing this post, the girls and I took a little walk to the mailbox and found two lovely examples of spirals in nature.  

This concept became my sort of, quilting meditation, my own little labyrinth you could say. In the end, as labor intensive as this was, I actually was not as glad to be done as I thought I would be. This quilt and I had formed some kind of little relationship. I spent so much time with each little section, methodically spiraling around and around. I got to know it, it got to know me, if you’ll let me go out on that limb Ha!

I decided once again, to bind this entirely with my machine; a choice I find myself making a lot lately.

I love the machine binding look.  I have never loved the look of my hand binding; I just have never been very good at it, so to have discovered this alternative, has been liberating for me.

I feel really happy about the way this quilt turned out.  To think that I hesitated to commit to even putting this quilt top together, is funny to me now.

I really just had to go with my gut on this one and I’m so glad I did.  It was a very intuitive process from beginning to end!!

This was definitely a labor of love and a time-consuming one.  But well worth it for me. I’m considering putting in my little shop…..

but may need to sit with that idea for a bit.  Not sure if I’ll be able to part with this one…