Around The World Blog Hop!

Hey all! Today is my day to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop! I was invited to participate by Marianne over at The Adventurous Quilter, you can read her blog post here. What's the purpose of this blog hop you might ask? Well, it is for the person currently participating (me) to tell you about my process and work and when I am done, I will tag three other wonderful bloggers from around the world for you to go visit! They will post next Monday about their process and work and each of them will tag three more bloggers. I might be dating myself here. . . it's like the Faberge Organics shampoo commercial. . . and I told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on. . . Check out the video if you want to see a very young Heather Locklear with big ol' 80's hair. . . and oh yes I did! LOL OK, I digress. But how fun right? I just love reading about other people's process, how do they come up with such wonderful creations? Read on and I will tell you about me :) I'm throwing in a random picture or two of some of my quilts just to keep it interesting :) Grab a cuppa of something, this might take awhile!

What am I working on currently?

Those who have been around my blog for any time know this about me: I do not work on a ton of projects at once. Two maybe three. I have no UFOs. They make me break out in a very itchy rash! No really, they do! When I start a quilt, I have to finish it. I usually have two pieced and ready to quilt, quilt both and start the next one, get it pieced, finish the second flimsy and then quilt both, you get the picture :)

So right now. . .  Well, I'm supposed to be quilting this quilt top:

Off Course

I have it in time out at the moment. . . I am stumped. I had a quilting plan all plotted out. I love FMQing and the designing process. This quilt is not speaking to me. It is being a little defiant so I put it in time out. Not for long, just for now. It is basted and ready to go, hanging on my design wall. . . just staring at me. If you have any suggestions for quilting, I'm listening! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated :) 

I am also working on a top secret project. . . one I can't share, not even a glimpse of it! OHHH, how exciting, maybe I have been asked by a major fabric manufacturer to make a quilt out of ALL of their fabrics. . . maybe, but umm no, not that exciting LOL I honestly never thought I would say this about a project on this blog, but I am. And it makes me crazy cuz I get great ideas and inspiration from all my bloggy friends! It is a special gift and I know that the intended recipient reads my blog. . . No, Sandra, it is not you! HAHA Anyway, I am taking LOTS of pictures along the way and I will definitely be sharing it when I can!

You see this a lot as a background for fabric and blocks. I had a blast FMQing this one :)

I have also devised a plan for these:

Actually, I devised several plans and I am quite certain this is where I am going with this one. . . Nothing is cut yet so I'm not 100% committed but I am rather excited. . . it is to make blocks like these (the post has several things on it but it's the diamond blocks... are they to die for??? AND there is a tutorial. It's fabric  to quilt fate!). The best part? I can use my Sidekick ruler to make those diamonds. Heck, that little ruler will help me to skip half of the tutorial!! LOL And we all know, I am not a pattern follower. :) Options for layout will be endless, just endless! OK, no, the layout is not completely cemented in my brain yet but it will be. . . soon!

I did just finish this quilt:

The final thing I am working on is this:

Spin

I put the binding on and it rippled. . . BAD. The binding got taken off. I then spayed the binding with water until it was soaked. Set it outside to dry (it was 115 degrees that day - it took all of about 5 minutes), ironed pressed it flat again (thank you, Carole for that suggestion, I think it worked!) sewed it back on the quilt and now am in the process of hand sewing the binding. I'm not a hand sewer. This is the first quilt I have done that I did not machine sew down the binding. . . I rather like the look. I might get used to it (hand sewing, not the look) but I'm not sure yet that I'm going to love it :)

How does my work differ from others? How is my work unique?

Gotta love me some Kaffe Fassett :)

I have to tell ya, I kinda struggled with this question! What I have come up with is that all of my quilts are pretty much one of a kind. Honestly, I'm not sure I could recreate them myself! LOL I try to pour a little bit of me into every quilt. I know that is not unique - we all pour a little bit of ourselves into our quilts - but I am unique (just ask anyone that knows me well! HA) and you are unique. That makes my quilts uniquely mine and yours uniquely yours. How's that for a totally ambiguous, lofty non answer? grin NEXT! 

This one was 'supposed' to be a scrappy bargello, ala Bonnie Hunter. . . Doesn't look like Bonnie's but I love it!

How does my creative process work?

 Oh man, do you really want to get inside this brain??? haha I've given this a lot of thought. I honestly have not been doing this for very long. How can I have a process?? But then I started thinking about how I made quilts a year ago and how I make quilts now.  All I can say is that it has evolved (some would say devolved lol) from seeing a quilt (typically from a Jenny Doan video on Youtube, gotta love her), buying the fabric I wanted to use for it, making the quilt, quilting the quilt and giving it away. I had no stash. I had only the material needed to make that exact pattern. How has that changed?

I followed the directions on this one! It needs more quilting though don't you think? ;)

I rarely never use a pattern, if I do, you can bet something will be changed. I have an entire folder FULL of digital patterns. I have made two or three of them. I have 100s. . . I like to design and figure out how to make the quilt I see in my head come to life on my design board. I had no idea I had a creative thought in my head a little over a year ago! This change has been surprising, frustrating and SO much fun! I use EQ7 a lot initially just to get an idea of secondary patterns for blocks (played a LOT with the Dutchman's Puzzle block when creating Spin) and color schemes. I also spend a lot of time on Image search engines - Bing mostly. I love to look at quilts. It inspires me. Lately I have been admiring Medallion quilts. There is one in my future. I am gathering patterns. I know, I don't  follow patterns but considering my less than stellar mathematical abilities, I will follow a pattern if when I make one, no really, I will! 

Jenny Doan's Famous Square in a Square. Check out the back - totally mine :)

I also find inspiration in all of your blogs :) I have bookmarked so many pages of quilts that have me in awe. . . you ladies have some talent! :) 

The design is mine but inspired by The Quilting Edge.

 So that's how I make the flimsy, as for the quilting? Oh man, there are many places I go! Here are a few places I go and just click through the pictures :) Judi Madsen, Angela Walters, Leah Day, Kathleen (recent find and OMG!! So crushing on this blog and her amazing skill!) and a very new find, my new stalking focus, Jenny. I also do a lot of image searching on the web. SO much talent out there! If I am quilting flying geese for example, I put "quilted flying geese" in the search engine and just get lost :) haha

This is the first quilt that I quilted the snot out of and it has me HOOKED! More quilting good! haha

 And I of course get inspiration from many other blogs out there! As for what I am going to design? I figured out something pretty amazing while trying to figure out the quilting for the Modern Plus quilt pictured above. . . I can use Paint to draw on the pictures of my tops! Duh, right? No, really I had never thought about it before... Here are some pictures of what I had going on:

LOVE this! I have to admit, it's not helping me with off course. LOL And I can not stress enough the benefit of doodling on paper. Seriously, the difference this has made in my quilting is amazing! I rarely find myself 'stuck' in a corner or wondering for very long (which makes those jerky lines!) where to go next.

So I get my head full of ideas and go for it! Warning: this method might end up in ripping out stitches for days. . . ask me how I know.... but mostly it works!

I hope you are all still with me! Because now I am going to share three blogs that I did not list above that totally inspire me and I read every post. These ladies have loads more experience than I do and I am very grateful to each of them for all of the knowledge they share on their blogs. Here we go!

Sandra blogs at Musings of a Menopausal Melon.  I just lurve her blog name!!! Sandra tells it like it is and I love that about her blog! If she is working on a project that needs a time out, you are going to know it :) Check out the awesome Gears quilt she just finished for her husband! 

Helen blogs at Til we Quilt Again. Helen has MANY talents! I have gotten lost for hours in her blog looking at her quilting prowess and the amazing quilts she makes. Seriously jaw dropping! Check out this one!! 

Marly blogs at Marly's Quilts. Marly and I became kindred spirits while working on our triangle quilts during the Sassy Quilter's Triangle Quilt Along. You can see Marly's beautiful finished triangle quilt here.

OK, this post is long enough (probably too long)! Make sure you check out their posts on Monday next week and see who they tag! And I told three friends and they told three friends and so on and so on and so on. . . . 

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Anything Goes Monday, Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, and NTT. Yeah, I like to party :D Check out these amazing linky parties for some amazing inspiration!

Until next time, keep on quilting!!