Trade you!

Some of you may remember my gushing over the Daiwabo fabrics, design, and ultimately, the finished quilt top.  Man -- I love this!

But, these are fabrics well out of my price range and quite frankly, out of my normal comfort zone when it comes to color and tone.  So -- how did I get so lucky?  I'm glad you asked.

A few years ago, I posted about falling out of love with this quilt block.  When I saw the original quilt (made from old kimonos) in a Quilters Newsletter, I fell madly in love with it and knew it was how I wanted to use up my scraps from the Wavy Log Cabin I had made.

I sort of believe that these beautiful Asian fabrics can't really go on your shelves by color -- like Kaffe fabrics (in my little world), they have to stay together.  So, I had a tote of every little scrap as I couldn't bear to throw them away. But I got tired of it.  I fell out of love.  I don't really like paper piecing and the process was taking the joy out of the design.  I thought the blocks were fabulous and the potential for the quilt was great -- but I was losing any mojo for finishing it.  And into a shoe box it went!

Wavy Log Cabin

At the same time, mom22smartchix was losing her mojo for the Daiwabo quilt.  These little blocks look so simple. Ha!  Lining up 1/2" strips after you have sub-cut is not easy and there is a lot of ripping involved.  Whether it was a pity swap or a joyous swap, I'll never know for sure -- but last year during a visit, we gladly gave each other our shoeboxes and walked away from our projects.

I am still doing the Snoopy Happy Dance that I don't have to paper piece all those strips -- and now the Daiwabo top is done and making me smile every time I walk by it.  It's in the living room -- never even made it upstairs to the quilt top closet.  I have chosen not to fret about how to quilt it or what color thread as those decisions are far far away -- instead, I am tickled it's done and happy to have it to look at and all the little snippets remain isolated (of course) in their shoebox!

Tired of something that you started -- find a friend to trade with -- it's a blast!

Jan

What's the diff?

I think I'm giving up -- and that goes against my grain!  The photo on the left is a project I started 2 years ago and I managed to get 8 of these made with various beautiful Asian prints.  But I've lost steam and can't even seem to be able to get myself focused to finish one more so I could at least use them in a 3 X 3 layout.

It's all paper piecing and intended to use up my leftover Asian fabrics.  It is based on an incredible quilt that was made by a Japanese quilter from old sari fabric and called "fireworks".  And it was aptly named if you've ever seen it -- it was beautiful and huge.  I would love to see it in person because I suspect it really glows.

I think the crux of the problem is that I don't really like paper piecing and maybe this is too much of the same thing over and over -- even though the fabrics were beautiful.  I contrast that with the New York Beauty which is more intricate piecing but every element was different fabric and challenging. I'm sure it's not the fabrics -- I love both types.  And it's not the process because I feel the same about it when I'm doing it.

So -- what is it?  Monotony?  Goodness knows that I've gotten bored with piecing a quilt where it was the same block (and even fabric) over and over.  But I usually persevere.  Not this time.  I've waited over a year for my "clean up" mode to kick in and re-motivate me to finish leftover projects.  Hasn't happened with this one.

I'm curious -- what do you do when you lose your mojo for a project?  I really do love these fabrics and I think it has the opportunity to be a striking quilt (wallhanging?  8 small pillows?).    I've kept the fabric in its own tote since I want to make sure to preserve the black I'm using so that I don't have a shade shift if I end up having to use a different black.  It's obvious, I haven't had the heart to mainstream the fabrics back into my stash which tells me I still have a little attachment to it.  But somehow, I'm not feeling it (of course, that's good since it's in storage with all our furniture somewhere!).  Any suggestions?

On a personal note, we close on a house today and leave for vacation tomorrow.  Timing is everything and this is a bit crazy.

Aloha!  Jan

Asian fabrics

 Don't you just love them?  There is something so wonderful about the saturation of color, intricacy of design, and the absolute beauty of most Asian fabrics.  I don't know about you but I find them hard to cut into and then I want to use every little piece to make sure there is no waste.

I saw this quilt at a LQS and fell in love with it.  I knew it was just a matter of time until I had to make one.  But it was hard to cut those beautiful florals into strips and the leftovers are still together in a small shoe box. I just can't mainstream them yet.

I do believe that I could start a buying frenzy all over again if I got in the right "mood". 

For this quilt, I tried something I had not done before and will not rush to do again.  The quilting thread is white for the "white" portion of the quilt and dark for the patterned portion.  That was a lot of changing as I rolled the quilt up and down the frame.  In the end, it was probably worth it because I wanted the "purity" of a white-white and I didn't want a light thread to take away from the deep rich colors of the florals.  But it was a pain!

I do like this pattern and am considering it again in scraps so that the lights and darks are not so controlled.  What do you think?  Will that take away from the pattern or just change the "feel".  I have made a lot of log cabin quilts (neutrals, Christmas, scrappy, and have another scrappy in the making).  I do love using those strips I've cut from leftover fabric!

I hope you're piecing and quilting to your heart's content, Jan