How I empty my quilting bucket list…

Quilty Life

Jun 15

Whether it’s a formal list or just a mental grouping, almost every quilter has a bucket list of quilts they want to make. My list is a combination of pieces I’ve seen or admired online (or at shows), quilts that I have started but not finished, and quilts that I haven’t yet started. I’m not a quilter who yearns to make the next Judy Niemeyer pattern, or even work with the latest Kim Diehl quilt. I get ‘psyched’ to make a quilt when it’s not something you see coming and going.

This week, however - one of the quilts which has been a true bucket list quilt since I saw the book has moved from a UFO status to a full fledged flimsy. I’ve already got an idea in my head how I will quilt it, so I’m optimistic that this will move through the quilting process fairly quickly.

From Sew Kind of Wonderful, this is Color Love

There is nothing about this quilt I do not love - from the beautiful low-volume background, to the vibrant colors of the central motif, this is something that will live in my sewing room. I’ve also longed for a quilt like this to serve as a background (or a prop) when I speak with guilds on my color lecture - Why do All my quilts look the same?

This book literally jumped into my bag at a show when I saw it. Talk about inspiration!

I actually began working on it at the last retreat I attended - and that was before the Covid lockdown struck. Creatively, it took me some time to sort my projects out, and this one stayed in it’s bin, waiting patiently. I also put it on my APQ UFO list for this year (and I should say that I look at the number assignments as suggestions, not hard and fast rules) - which is what caused me to take a new look at it once Flying Abstract was done.

I wanted to do something NEW, something fresh - and I remembered thinking of that when I did Spring Morn too. Little by little, one row at a time…I began to pull the color blocks together. I hit a wall, and it sat, and sat. The longer it sat, the more intimidated I became - which isn’t a good thing. The other part of this is I needed the design wall space for other new projects which are deadline driven. It was either tame the beast now, or put it away and see it in 2023.

It’s a perfect scrap pattern - and I think I had many of the scraps out this weekend as I began to seriously tackle the color wheel part of the process. On a positive note, the workspace is clean for the summer! Once I had tackled the fabric pull, it came together quickly - the curved piecing really is a dream.