Thursday, October 31, 2019

Has it really been over two years since I've blogged?

Wow!  Yes, yes it has.

What happened?  Well, I got majorly burnt out.  Two years ago, I was preparing to be the featured quilter in our local quilt show and I was quilting, quilting, quilting to have enough to showcase.  Some of the projects I finished were intense!  Like this Aviatrix quilt:

Aviatrix quilting, nearly done


I burned the midnight oil, the candles at both ends, burned rubber, etc., and completely burned myself out.  I could barely look at my studio and sewing machine afterward.  Taking a break turned into a year-long hiatus before I made a few feeble attempts at getting back into things.  At that point, I took a couple of classes to try to jump-start my inspiration and motivation, but only managed to finish one of the projects from one of the classes and almost completed another.

Painted Quilt - food still life

Then I thought, "Hey!  Maybe making a quilt for someone else will get back my mojo."  So, I took on this quilt:

Untitled

I enjoyed making it, but I still didn't feel like I wanted to quilt regularly again - until now.

What fabulous project has woken me from my motivational hibernation, you ask?  Would you believe it is a One Block Wonder?  Yep, I'm going back to one of the first quilt design techniques I tried as a newish quilter.  My quilt guild formed a One Block Wonder group last month and I couldn't resist.  I went out and bought enough fabric to make 4 quilts and I've already cut up my first one!

By the way, can you imagine not even buying fabric for 2 years?  My husband probably thought he got an unexpected raise from all the extra money in our accounts.

This time around, I'm experimenting with using a panel for my OBW.  I got some fabulous tips and inspiration from Jackie O'Brien's website If These Threads Could Talk - gallery   OH My!  If you have time, please do check out her gallery.  She is an instructor of the technique and is very generous with her tips, some of which I wish I read before I started cutting my first panel.  There is also a new book out by the original author that shows how to do the technique, One-Block Wonder Panel Quilts

Here is a pic of my initial progress.  I am so excited to see how it turns out! 

OBW in process

Thanks for stopping by!

Jen