"Slow And Steady Wins The Race"

Many people wonder how I work on the QOV quilt tops. Where do the ideas come from? Why make that choice? 

So, today I'm going to explain my process of working on a quilt for QOV. It is also a process I sometimes take on my own projects - even though I haven't done that in awhile. 

When I decide (we all know how long that takes) to do a quilt top, the first thing I do is look to see what I have. QOV fabric is here and we have a lot of it. Why buy anything I need when it's here? Yet, there are times I need to buy some yellow or something. 

Then the questions need to be answered - "Which blocks have been here awhile?," "Will the blocks go with a panel or is there enough for one quilt?," "Will the colors work with each other?," "Will I offend someone by not using the blocks?" "Do I have enough (red, white, blue) for finishing the piece?," "How will I put this together?," "Where should I start?," "Is anyone asking what I've done with their blocks?," and "Can this be done in a short amount of time?"

Box full of blocks.

If I can answer a few of those questions, then I have a quilt to start with. If I can't answer any of those, then I "fly from the seat of my pants." What is appealing to me? Can I do this without making it look busy or too crowded? Am I biting off more than I can chew? Yes, probably. I am constantly asked about pictures of the blocks that were made into a quilt. If I don't get moving, those questions will drive me up the wall. 

My stash is panels, blocks made by other quilters, and fabric. I pull out the blocks, because I know quilters are wondering if I'm using the blocks. I try to give blocks out for the others to work with, but in the long run, I have them. This can be easy or complicated. Most of the time it's easy, till a quilter drops off 8 quilt blocks of one kind that don't match. Then what? Put them aside till I can figure it out. Which at times has been a good year. In this case, I had blocks made by quilters. Or I get blocks that don't go with anything. Then what? I have taken these blocks I'm using and divided them into 2 quilts so far. I still have 5 more blocks I have NO CLUE what to do with. I don't like them and I don't want to deal with them, but I have to. I can't say to a volunteer that does blocks - "Oh by the way, I hated those blocks you gave me, take them back." NOT HAPPENING. I can suggest what I would like to get, but in the long run, they are up to the person making them. Which brings me back to the current quilt. 

These are not all the same. Different. Not a block I'm crazy about. 

These are 6" unfinished and 12 of them. As one who follows my blog knows, I had this on the floor for a bit trying to figure out the process. I liked the corner blocks with these. Next was what next. 

I had the flag panel that is small, and needed to use it up as well. These are blocks and panels that were shuffled from one place to another. No one wanted to see what they could do with them. No one wanted to even try. So, I needed to figure something out to get them out of my block box and out of my mind. Seeing blocks that I don't have a clue what to do with is hard. So, this was the start - 2 months ago - and that's where my "slow and steady" came in. Every time I walked downstairs, I saw this. Every time I wondered "what next." Then when the other quilt top was put together and gone, this moved to the design wall. There it hung for another month. Finally, my dyslexia came into focus and decided what I needed to do. 

I added the red to the flag panel, worked on the block in the left corner. Wanted to get advice on the strip going down the left and right side. Originally I was going to have the flag move down with a white strip the size of the white in the corner blocks. Patrick said no, try this. So, he moved the flag up, said to do a wider strip of blue on the sides with a smaller white strip on both sides. Okay, I can do that. 

Trouble is I didn't have any off white - or at least enough to put where the white is going. I'm hoping it won't look too bad. This isn't easy when the panel is off white and there isn't any off white to be seen. 

Four corner blocks are done. I measured from top to bottom, and I need 6". Which mean, I will have to move the panel pieces down, add the white (originally thought about) across the top. Then it should be the right length. I'm hoping the sides will be 60" as well. Now, this is were I stop and think. My dyslexia will work on how I'm going to put it together. Right now the thought is to put the white on top of the panel, add the blue to the bottom. Then go to the sides and measure the length needed between blocks. Sew the strips together, cut the length needed, and sew the blocks to that. Then when all that is done, sew the 3 strips together. The more I think about it, the more I will do that. I don't think I can sew from left to right, so it will be up and down instead. 

It takes a lot of thought to go into a quilt. Some, like I stated earlier are really easy. But when I get one like this one, I'm baffled. I wish I could have done the star in the middle, but it wouldn't work. I could have put it in the bottom, but I didn't. I'm not crazy about this quilt, but I think it will work for a veteran. Once it's done, I may like it a little better. Maybe by this weekend I will finish this. Break time again. As my parents always told me, "Slow and steady wins the race," and they usually were right. Slow it is. Thinking about this takes time. But, hey, I'm Happy Quilting/Happy Stitching!