This has been a disappointing autumn so far, for a variety of reasons-- one being that it's taken a while to get cool enough (around here). It's finally cooled off a little more, but for the longest time, the mosquitoes and humidity just wouldn't budge (and there are still mosquitoes, in reduced numbers).
But whatever, world! I reject your reality, etc. Time to build my defenses ever higher and wander even farther into fantasyland, for a while. In other words, I'm avoiding news and other irritants and trying to make my own autumn inside with a seasonal quilt. 😉
The latest quilt-in-progress had me digging through my stash looking for a rusty red or two, and it was hard going. This project has reminded me that the red-and-white hunter's star quilt decimated my stash of reds. There's a lack of dark reds and rusty reds, particularly, and it's also time to build a better collection of creamy neutrals. Next time I get a chance to fabric shop, those need to be my focus-- rust, maroon, burgundy and blenders/neutrals in cream/ecru. And I should choose the color palette for my next quilt to use some of what I do have (greens, pinks, etc.).
Back to the current WIP, it included some string-piecing-- always a treat!
And there were also some HSTs and... whatever you call it when you put a diagonal stripe in the center of a square.
I opted for 8-at-a-time HSTs. I don't love sliver-trimming, but I'd rather sliver-trim than come up short, so this is my preferred method, for now. The pattern calls for a ton of HSTs, because they're used in a border. Going the 8-at-a-time route makes that feel more manageable for me.
This is how far I've gotten so far. Putting together the leaves on the design wall. Next will be joining them into blocks. Then there are another eight leaves on creamy backgrounds.
Meanwhile, the red-and-white bonus HSTs (from the Hunter's String Stars quilt) are slowly accumulating. Mine won't all be the same size (imprecise cutting and stitching), but they're still worth doing. I'm not sure yet what I'll make with them. Maybe a sham for a throw pillow on the couch. Or maybe they'll go into a crumb quilt.
The first of the "Tall Tales" quilts is finally on the quilting frame. My stitching isn't perfect, but I'd worked out the worst kinks and was pretty happy with how it was going... UNTIL... I advanced the quilt and found a place where the stitching on the back was loopy and messy. Not sure what happened. It's only a small section (I think! I HOPE!!), so I can only guess that a piece of lint/fluff got pulled into the thread and made the tension go haywire for a brief time.
😭 This kind of thing makes quilting so frustrating!
I've firmly ignored the whole mess for a couple of days, now, but eventually I'll have to get back on the horse that threw me. I believe I'll just do the best I can on the rest of the quilt, then go back and rip out the worst of the stitching. I don't think there's much that's so bad, but I've never really ripped out a section of quilting before and gone back to re-stitch it. This is not a sign that I'm usually flawless! Rather, it's an indication that I usually leave in small (or at least not staggeringly large) mistakes instead of dealing with them! 😆 This is a gift, though, so I'll at least give it a try...
Here it was on the frame before disaster struck I found the loopy stitches on the back.
The autumn-themed quilt will not be done before Thanksgiving. It might not be done before Christmas. I don't care. After all, it's almost always autumn in my heart. 😉
The only real "deadline" I have looming is getting that "Tall Tales" quilt ready to give before Christmas. That should be do-able, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!