Greater Mysteries

This was one of the days in my life that I pushed myself. There are no quilting deadlines. It's just me. I wonder if the psych class I am taking brings out more of my shadows. No one ever pressures me as much as I do myself. 

The Harvest fabric BOM uses up more of those scraps all the time (7/25). It is a challenge to use up smaller scraps after seeing the work of other quilters who are going with one to three fabrics for all their blocks and getting a pretty dramatic look to their creation. At least with scrappy and by taking photos, I can see what I want to try and create next time. Some of the fabrics will be gone with only one block and not have leftovers for another one. My stash is getting used!

The second quilt block (2/12) I finished is part of coordinated fabrics for a quilt, and will have that look. The biggest challenge I have always faced with these mystery quilts is selecting fabrics rather and making them pop, than to have someone tell me which ones to choose. In the end, quilts are stunning. I conclude, however, that the pink print looks better as a complement to other fabrics rather than as a background like I made it in this second star block.

The next part of my day was spent with the Purrs & Paws quilt and the Peace, Love, Holidays quilt. Each has 35+ blocks that repeat the same pattern, just with different fabric. Both are scrappy and these are my sample blocks. With the goal of using what I have, it really means not saving certain fabrics for another project or worrying that something won't work. Cats are made with 10" squares. Its a matter of making more of them and then getting to the layout. The holiday blocks are 8.5" and this mystery goes through Summer Solstice so I am not sure how the rest of the quilt blocks will look OR what happens to these.

Some time ago, my Alaskan Cousin encouraged me to select my fabrics more randomly for the scrap quilts. (She's more of an artist than I ever will be.) I am not quite at the stage of quilting where I can really let go of the rules or guidelines or traditions, while learning that random selection works.

One more day of working on the Cat and the Holiday blocks, and everything can get set away for next month's journey into the great mysteries.