Hammering Out the Kinks

Crazy diamonds from the stash!  Colorful - no measuring!

Started two new quilts this week.  One won't be any sort of problem - it's as much a way to relax from my own designs (particularly when those designs fight back!)  It's a Crazy Diamonds quilt - simple and easy.  No measuring required once I got the base squares cut out.  100 muslin 12.5" squares.  Yay for stash of muslin!

Only 96 more to go!  It's a great way of using up the smaller scraps in our scrap bin.  We have so many scraps, I needed a way to clear some out.  Now I can make smaller scraps (in some cases).  For those really small pieces, I shred them and stick them in a mesh bag outside for the birds to make nests from.  I can only assume that we have some of the most colorful bird's nests in the area, based on the fabrics that go in that bag!

The other quilt I started is the one that's fighting back.  I shouldn't be surprised (and I'm not.  Not really).  It's an applique quilt - part of a series of Texas-themed quilts I've got planned.  At any rate, it SHOULD have been simple.  Except that it's applique, and my fusible stuff didn't want to fuse, and pieces fell everywhere... which is why I started on the Crazy Diamonds.  But.  I figure a picture of the quilt in progress - or at least a small section of it - is nevertheless called for.  So here it is.

Moo?

This one is an unfinished applique - he still needs horns and his tail, and a little detail work.  Then he will need details to the field he stands in.  The quilt itself is to be called "Texas Daycare" (as a working title).  This little guy will be a longhorn baby hanging out in a field in Texas with prickly pear and mesquite, just like a lot of the cattle in the area I was born in.  (Yup, born and raised in Texas, just south of the Hill Country).  He's the first in a very diverse series of Texas-themed quilts.  None of them will be Texas flags, and none of them (at this time) are going to scream Texas, but to me, it's Texas that links them all together.  They are sights and scenes from the Texas that I know. 

 So, today I'll go back into the quilt forge and start working on this guy again, try to hammer out the kinks in the applique process.  There will be more pictures to follow!  I hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth of July, and came through it healthy and ready to head back into work.  (Yeah, right).  If I am really motivated, there might actually be pictures of the outside of the quilt forge: see the mesh bag for the birds, the bird baths, the bird feeders....  And maybe some of the stained glass-type designs we're working on for the quilt forge windows...  just to take some of the glare out of the evening sun! 

As ever, busily!

Shay