Advancing a Low Energy Project

Isn't it frustrating when life gets in the way of quilting, especially when it's... the work part of your life? At those time, I have to remind myself that:

• quilting is not a competition or a race; 
• if I don't have the energy to quilt, it's best not to (cause then I spend my  time "unsewing"!); and
• sometimes work can even be creative and rewarding! 

Anyone who knows me will probably think that I'm being sarcastic in the last point, but I'm not! In my other life, I occasionally get to be creative and this week was the launch of an elearning tool I developed. It's still in "pilot" mode, but it's my baby out there - as much as all the quilts I create are my babies!

New E-Learning Tool

This project has a lot of similarities to many of my quilting projects: I started it over a year ago; it's evolved in so many ways; at times I didn't think I would ever work through the challenges, or would ever get it "right or good enough"; but it's finally out there!

Just for the heck of it, here's a picture of the tool, even if I've removed our organisational identifiers. If anyone is interested in learning more about the design part of the project (and what I learned), I'll be writing a post about it in my Learning & Design blog.When it's done, I'll link to it.

So, all of this intro to say that I did get a little bit of quilting done, but not as much as I would have liked. Here's a WIP (work in progress) that I want to post for Needle and Thread Thursday at Kelly's My Quilt Infatuation. Check out the lovely quilts linked to her blog.

When my energy is low, I can sew simple things together. This is what I did!

How I cut the stips

I started this project about 2 years ago. It was the other half of my Scrap Happy Quilt project. When I started it, the only way my mind could get around creating the triangles required for this quilt was to create a square of strip fabrics and then cut the square into 4 triangles (just like you do to make half or quarter triangles - see picture). I now realise that I could have made strip rectangles  and then used a triangle-ruler to cut the strips. I just wasn't getting the concept at the time, so I made enough squares for two quilts!

The first quilt I made with these blocks were for my brother and his family. It's now in Denmark, on my niece's bed. As I re-read my post on that quilt, I could feel the frantic pace of getting the quilt finished before they left. Am I an amazing writer or was it just re-feeling the stress of trying to get it finished on time? (rhetorical question)

First Scrap Happy Quilt 

Latest Scrap Happy Quilt

So, a year after the first quilt made it to Denmark, I went back to the second quilt. You'll notice that the pattern is very different from the first one because in the first quilt, I used the vertical strips to make the blocks while in this quilt, the horizontal strips form the pattern for the block.

The second quilt is also a little bigger. I wanted it to fit on our double bed in the spare bedroom. After adding the three strips for the border, I tried it on the bed. Too bad it's not quilted, because it's the perfect size and it would have stayed there! 

Eventually a Lovely Warm Bed Quilt

I've decided to quilt this project using heavier batting. Generally I prefer very light weight batting - mostly because most of my quilts are lap quilts and they don't really need a lot of added weight or warmth. This quilt will be in the basement bedroom, where it's always a little cooler, perfect for a warmer and slightly heavier quilt to snuggle under.

What I learned:

• I'm glad that I made two quilts out of these blocks, but it's not necessary and now that I know how to use a triangle ruler, it'll make creating these blocks much simpler.

• The first quilt had a lovely backing, but it look a while longer to make. Since I would like to have this quilt on the bed before winter, I'm going to keep the backing and quilting simple so that I can quilt it quickly, without needing a huge amount of energy to tackle it!

• Projects requiring low energy are fun and can also be lovely!

Linking party

I am linking this post to Sarah Goer Quilts' Show Me Something with Stripes. It would seem that this is the only striped quilt or piece that I've made!