First Finish for November

I got that first intention out of the way, with a day to spare. 

I'm calling this one done! I thought I wanted more quilting on it, but have decided to leave things alone. This was a paper pieced Impatiens, Judy Niemeyer pattern,  that I appliquéd onto an improvisationally pieced background.   

And here it is with a flower sitting on top for added interest. 

This was going to be my entry into a President's challenge with my quilt guild. We drew envelopes that contained three color chips. 80% of your finished piece was to be those colors. You could add up to 3 other colors. It had to be a minimum of 30" on each side. 

My color chips were represented by the yellows in the flower, mottled jade in the background, and the pale green in smallest inner border. I added brown and fuschia. I think I hit the 80% criteria. 

Then it was time to quilt and bind it. Something went wrong, very wrong! I have learned my lesson, I need to stabilize the quilt top to maintain the dimensions. It doesn't meet the minimum of 30" on each side. I could add something to make it larger, like giant rick-rack or prairie points. But, to tell the truth, I'm ready to be done with it. I really liked what I did, but it took so long that I've lost my enthusiasm for it. It is time to send it off into the world. Giving it away gives me the most pleasure anyway. 

Hope your projects get finished before they become boring. Luann

Paper Piecing Workshop and Nomination #2

Today is the second post for the blog challenge that Terry nominated me for. You can catch all of her interesting project news over at www.terryknott.blogspot.com

The rules:

1) Thank the person that nominated you. Thanks Terry!

2) Post a quote each day.  "Fall in love with the process, and the results will come." Eric Thomas, smokewithmirrors.tumblr

3) Nominate a different blogger each day to participate. 

I'm nominating Diane, an online friend. She can be found at www.yarngoddess.wordpress.com

We both participated in a surface design group for a few years. I've been very interested in so many of her adventures, especially when she has done eco dyeing. Do check her site out, it is so interesting. 

Back to my quote. Falling in love with the process isn't always so easy. Recently I took a paper piecing class with Carol Ann Jaynes, a Judy Niemeyer Certified Instructor. I struggled a bit in the first steps, but her patience and thoroughness got me through two intense days. We all worked on the Desert Sky pattern, each with our own fabric choices. Here's a picture of the pattern and my stack of fabrics. 

Here are units on my design wall in the first layout that I tried. 

I liked it, but,, something just didn't click for me. Ahhhh, it's those gold and royal blue units! They are just hogging the camera's eye. So out they came, and I started to play with the remaining units. This is the final layout I came up with. I want a border on it, just haven't made my final decisions yet. 

I'm pondering on the name for this quilt, but that needs to wait until the binding is done. 

My next post will be my third quote and nomination day. It will also tell you about this quilt's backing and how it is taking on a life of its own! 

Until then, let's create today! -Luann