Endings and Beginnings... Quilt.Project Updates

In the midst of things, I do try to work on quilting.  Like a jigsaw puzzle, there is something soothing in being able to pick up pieces and make something whole.  I have two table runners actually FINISHED...a rarity for me.  I fell in love with an easy pattern and beautiful batik fabric and have two finished; one for spring/summer and one for fall.  I only have a picture of the fall one so far.

My daughter picked the border fabric which I also used on the back.  It is not something I was leaning toward at all, and when we were in the quilt shop I did not have the runner top with me so she just guessed.  I love it!

Besides having great difficulty usually finishing something, I realize I also have a tremendous problem getting something STARTED!!  On a crazy black Friday event probably five years ago, I picked up some yardage (at 5 am) that just appealed to me.  I had no pattern, no idea who it would be for.  Just two or three yards of fabric.  

I don't know if it was 2012 or 2013, but I fell in love with "Swoon" by Camille Roskelley of Thimbleblossoms.  This is a picture from her blog.  A beautiful block I could see myself trying.

  By now, finding more of the fabric I originally purchased,  "Etchings" by 3 Sisters for Moda was near impossible.  Designs are introduced, fabric made, sold and that's it, on to something new. No fabric reprintings!  I managed to find a fabric bundle of "Etchings" last fall and brought it home eager to make a Swoon quilt for my bed.  The pattern called for fat quarters.  The bundle I purchased so eagerly was a bundle of fat eighths.  NOT enough to create the large blocks.   Disappointed, I set it aside till I reread a quilters' Blog Hop and found a block that intrigued me by the same designer.  Simply called "Building Block."  It was a free download for the block.  Early this summer, needing a distraction from grief and empty house, I spent a week of evenings pressing and cutting out just about ALL the fabric I had in this line.  Then began piecing.  Seven pieces of fabric sewn together to make one 6 1/2 inch block.  After about 30, I was feeling a little overwhelmed!  The free download included instructions on using the 6 1/2 inch block as the center of a 12 1/2 inch block!  I had enough left over material to try it, and I loved it!!!  Now to scour the web to try to find more material to make these bigger blocks!  

I was only able to find enough to make 9 blocks.   Laying it out, adding some sashing, this will be the center of my quilt top.  All the smaller block have been sewed and are waiting to be grouped together around this central square.  It looks a bit odd, clothes pinned to my living room curtain.  No pattern to follow for this other than the block, so I keep laying it down on the floor to play with it and come up with some sort of design.  It's a bit random but that is a perfect reflection of me ~ a lot of chaos hopefully coming together within a design that my husband will be ok with.  It's also made me think that is how I live my life ~ a bit of impulse, reaction, and a whole lot of procrastination rather than with forethought and intention.