"Branching Out" Progress

I think I’ve finally come to grips that I’m not much of a BOM (block of month) or quilt along type of person. I am not sure why except that I like to really get down deep and involved in various projects.

By barely touching the project and then putting it away for a month, I never get to really immerse myself into that particular project. I find that yes, I can do it, but no, I actually don’t prefer to work this way when it comes right down to it.

I tend to focus more on about 3-4 quilts at a time, all in various stages, and then sometimes I finish up several within a couple of days.

BUT, I tend to lose interest in BOM or things I am forced to spread out over a year because I don’t have the blocks yet. And that’s my biggest fear - losing total interest in a BOM and thus it languishes. I hate it when I do that as it feels like a waste and I guess I just need to “know thyself”. :)

I have found that I am so much better off with these types of things if I just save the instructions and then really work on it when I get the chance and work hard. I did that with a mystery quilt many years ago - making up for a few week of clues all in one week. I have been slower about getting Edyta’s mystery quilts done - Colorado took me a while and last year’s is getting done ever so slowly. I did get the fabrics kind of chosen for the next three rounds. That is important and probably the slowest part of that.

But I digress.

I think because of the internet and the knowledge of what all is going on “out there” (which I do not profess to know), there are myriads of quilt alongs going on at any given time. This year I had wanted to do several of them, but then when it was time to actually do it, I keep putting off doing it and tell myself, “I will wait til the next month and just do two at a time”. I wonder why I do that. Hmm.

Anyway, I think once I start making some of these blocks like this one, I had a lot of fun AND I get a groove. I then can work faster and really enjoy the blocks I make. I find when I enjoy looking at the blocks I’m making, it gives me positive reinforcement and renewed energy!

This happened this past week wtih these blocks. It made me come to the computer and work on some layouts.

I didn’t really find a complete layout on the printout of the pattern that I have, so I drew it up into EQ (Electric Quilt). After searching the internet for some finished quilts of this pattern and having a hard time, I just did what I think I will like.

This one will take 110 + 90 blocks for a total of 200 blocks. I had previously thought I would need 92 blocks! Such a joke! :)

For my state of mind, it won’t be a quick finish, but I think it will be amazing. This is a LOT of blocks!

Since our yard has a lot of pine trees, but not blue spruce (we have only one that was a live Christmas tree and survived planting), I thought this might be a fine quilt for our bed. It is also true that I spent a lot of my younger years in Washinton state, looking at Mt. Ranier. My husband grew up in Alaska. Having a quilt like this for our bed would be mighty fine, I think.

:)

Here are the blocks I’ve gotten done so far. I can see this one taking quite a while to get these blocks done - unless I REALLY get involved in this one. I am loving each of the blocks. I don’t know why, but as I finish each block I admire it. The hashtag people use for this one is #modabrachingout.

Since our yard has a lot of pine trees, but not blue spruce (we have only one that was a live Christmas tree and survived planting), I thought this might be a fine quilt for our bed. It is also true that I spent a lot of my younger years in Washinton state, looking at Mt. Ranier. My husband grew up in Alaska. Having a quilt like this for our bed would be mighty fine, I think.

The thing about this particular ‘has been quilt along’ is that it originally happened in 2022. Well, I’m not sure if you realize what we were doing here in Poland in 2022, but between Rachael and I (AND a myriad of volunteers)…let me remind you.

We sent thousands of quilts to Ukraine after the war started in Feb. of 2022 - donated by Quilted Twins customers and shipped by Rachael and crew there in Dade City to us.

and

Remember all that? it was crazy! I was so busy I had almost no time to think about quilting for myself until we had finished all that packing up. And then the shopping continued, even once the quilts were all packed up.

Needless to say, I was completely unaware of any sort of quilt along that year. These kinds of things were beyond my radar.

Anyway, the picture above shows it as its current state with only about 40 blocks finished. I have a long ways to go if I am to make 200 blocks. I will be using my one lone blue spruce in our yard as my pictoral guide for coloration.

I will obviously use it as a stepping off point, and go on either side of the colors - both the bluish ones and the green ones. Hopefully I will still be able to get a sort of blue spruce forest.

On the branches, you can see the new growth which is very bluish and the underlying green part - which is the older growth.

So, that is actually pretty cool - as I didn’t realize how it had both colors on it until I took a picture up close.

I have found that I also do not enjoy the cutting out of this kind of project all at once. I actually prefer to cut a few blocks and then sew for a while and then cut some more.

So, here is a group of the branches from the first set of cutting. Each time I cut, I put the pieces that go together stacked together so when it is time to sew, it doesn’t take long.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

So far I’ve not actually timed how long it takes me to make a single block as I don’t tend to work that way. For example, while writing this, I have some of the strips with the cream sewn on to them that are stacked on the ironing board, waiting to be pressed and then trimmed.

I did make about 90 tree trunks because I thought that was what I needed. I will obviously need to go back and make a lot more of those when I get close to needing them.

This is just a check in on this project.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this.




Becky PetersenComment