Design Wall Dilemmas . . .

Woke up this morning to no internet. . . wha what??? Said I didn't pay the bill. . . double wha what?? Now that makes for a very bad morning. . . coffee with no internet? That's like peanut butter with no jelly, Mike without Ike, chocolate sauce and no ice cream, gasp! I get up very early. . . very early. I didn't think customer service would be answering the phone so I did my blog reading on my phone (not my favorite thing to do because then I'm not able to comment when I see something for which I just can't keep my mouth shut about lol), drank my coffee and biked up a mountain (don't worry, it's not that big of a mountain but I can tell you it feels like Mt Everest at 4:50 am!). Got the hubbin's lunch packed and sat down to get the number to start making phone calls. . . and the internet was magically back on!! YAY but wha what?? Apparently this new paperless system they have going is not working so well. Yes, I will be switching back to paper. There are many things that can go awry and make a morning go all wonky when I get up at 2 a.m. (yes, it's crazy, I know!). Not having internet should not be one of them! 

OK, I'm done with my little rant, on to quilty stuff! I've been planning, designing, scratching my head, stepping away and getting sucked back into the rose linen. I auditioned three different stencils for the center:

Really like this one. . . When the stencil is bigger than the space, quilt right up to the rose (in this case). When it is finished, it will look like the roses are laying on top of the quilting. Very cool!

I like this one. . . I don't love it. BUT those flowers could very easily be quilted to look like rose buds. . . it would keep with the rose theme. . . AND although this linen is pretty square, the placement of the flowers is as Cindy would say "squarish". . . so a circular center would hide this a little better.

Isn't it purty?? Really love this one! But not completely sold.

I would set all three on the linen and look at it. Walk away. Go back repeat process. Walk away. I was not doing well with this decision. . . and this is the one that has to be made to get moving on this project. . . So I sent an email to a couple of people and asked, what would you do? Two different answers. . . and I keep hearing Cindy's voice in my head "Your quilting should enhance the piece, show it off, not take it over. The linen is the star, not your quilting." But then I really started looking at the stencil in the third picture. . . it has leaves, these are scrollie vines! Yes. I'm going with option number three! 

I tested the marker. I'm using a Mark B Gone marker. Cindy recommends them. I had tried Frixion with the silk whole cloth. I'm not sold on them. The marks only came out with a LOT of steam. And a major "Oh shit, it isn't going to come out" moment. They came out but I'm going to tell you there were moments I did not think those marks were coming out. OK, back to marking. I folded the linen in half, ironed the fold then folded it in half the other way and ironed it. Now I have my center and my half way marks ironed into the linen and I don't have to guess. This makes life much easier when using stencils.

And then I started marking. I decided I was only going to use the portion of the stencil that fit down the center in both directions. There was too much overlap to use the other portions of the design. When I finished it looked like this.

I like it. . I'm not convinced it is the way to go. . . I need to think about this. . .

I liked it. I'm just not sure it is the way to go. . . I'm having a major issue with making decisions with this piece. And then I figured out why. . . This linen has sentimental value (and it is beautiful, I don't think the pictures do it justice). My mom gave it to me and told me to do whatever I wanted. But it is a gift she received for her wedding shower. . . just over 60 years ago. It is likely one of the very few tangible items left from that time. What if I ruin it?? I was stuck. I wrote this out in an email to Carol (check out her blog, always something new and exciting going on and she is a fabulous quilter!!) and asked her if she ever got stuck. In a nut shell, she said sit on it, let it simmer. OR "if pushing through the fear is what you need to do, then do it, girl!!!" . . . so I stared at it all day Saturday. I really liked it by the end of the day and started playing with what to do with the rest of the gray space. Yesterday I got busy again and came up with this:

I am liking where this is going :)

And here is where it stands as of right now.

I think I am unstuck :) Now I just need to repeat this in the space that is left to mark. . . no, I didn't take notes. . . that might would have been a good idea.

I'll finish marking it today. Then I will have to wait until the backing fabric arrives. I decided I did not want to piece the back and I don't have anything appropriate in wide backing (too bad all of the Widescreen I had has been used. . . every.last.scrap). I ordered a cotton sateen that is 62" width. It was on sale. I hope I don't regret using this fabric as a back. . . as long as it isn't too stretchy, I think I can deal with it. . . yeah, famous last words ;)

What to do in the mean time? I'm going to start a new quilt. . . I'm going to play with a couple of different blocks today. Or I might just do the block I used for Shattered Star (and yes, I mailed it and yes, my niece loves it!) and do it in solids. . . decisions. . . I'll share later this week what I decided :)

Linking up with Patchwork Times for DWM. Check out all of the amazing projects!

Until next time, keep on quilting!!