Autumn mindset....
Have you ever heard of Eva Cassidy? She was one of the most gifted (IMHO) singers I've ever heard. She sings a song called Autumn Leaves & it's the most expressive melancholy sentiment of a lost love carried through seasons. One can find meaning in lyrics that differs from another, but in the end, we like what we like. I love this song & her voice.
I put this song on my playlist as soon I began building my list. I have an incredibly eclectic playlist to entertain myself. Everything from Andrea Bocelli & Luciano Pavarotti to Skid Row & Cinderella, Lauren Daigle to Queensryche, Johnny Cash to Gilead, Annie Lennox, Queen, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Bill Withers, Willie Nelson, Boston, Don McLean, Aerosmith, Evanescence, David Gramberg & Mary Lou, Aaron Neville, Rita Coolidge, Soundgarden, CSNY, ELO, Don Williams, Meatloaf, Lou Rawls, Carole King, Pink Floyd, Chris Stapleton & so many more. Individual songs along with songs plucked from plays such as Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady & Rent.
It would take 2 1/2 days to listen to just one of my playlists & that is fine given that I listen to music for the entire time of my workday as a rule. It could be a couple hours or as much as 14 hours when getting custom's out the door. You could say music is my fuel.
My taste in music is as varied as my taste in fabric choices when I create projects. As the quiet surrender of summer days wind down, I find myself choosing fabrics differently leaning toward more seasonal colors of Autumn.
A fellow sewer, Andrea Sims, writes her own patterns which you can find here: Quilt Patterns –Quiltingfor4 Home with Andrea Sims. She has one pattern I was particularly fond of called The Sweater Pattern which you can purchase here: The Sweater Quilt - Etsy.
This is Andrea's finished quilt & I loved it. I Purchased my pattern from her Etsy shop (women lifting women in small business!), downloaded & printed it out most immediately. FYI: I have a little trick I do. I print all my patterns in black & white so as not to influence my color choices on my own quilts. A day or so later I noticed she had displayed many other quilters finished products & was getting antsy to start my own Sweater Quilt.
Photo below was taken & used with expressed written consent from
I was in immersed in the choosing of my fabrics & jotting down notes that popped in my brain, & then selected & started the cutting of my fabric. It didn't matter if it was 10:30 p.m. as my husband was doing a double at the hospital & the dogs were put up for bed for the night. It was quiet but I wasn't tired enough for sleep, so the cutting seemed logical to me.
I was learning a couple of new tricks as I went along (Andrea is good for adding videos of little tips & tricks she uses while quilting) & decided once the cutting was done, it would serve me better to wait for the sewing after coffee in the morning. I Headed for bed, watched A Little Chaos with Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts & Directed by the amazing late great Alan Rickman.
A good day followed by a quiet night.
Rise & Shine with all my enthusiasms!!!
All my fabric was laid out and ready for me tackle. I was ready to roll. I sat for the better part of the day piecing my pieces, trimming any edges & before you know it, my top was complete. I was happy with my fabric choices & placement & stood back & admired me creation. Measured my finished top, cut my batting & backing plus 4" & then wound a ton of bobbins (12 to be absolutely precise). Then, I headed for the Babylock, Matilda, & got down to business quilting it all together. I chose a meandering quilt pattern for this quilt & before you know it, it was under the needle & progressing nicely.
I had not only enjoyed the cutting & piecing of my quilt, but the colors just seemed calming to me. After about 8 hours of quilting, she was almost done. Prepped my binding, found some good flicks on the TV (Downton Abbey for the win) and got busy hand binding. Hand binding is my favorite part of quilting. It is so relaxing & easy to set aside if you get pulled away from your work & fairly compact if you work in quadrants.
So close to being done now.
Exciting!
And then she was!
Now, in full disclosure, I added an extra row to this quilt as I didn't know if we'd keep or sell her and we grow them tall in our home. She is for sale in my store as I want different colors for my quilt. But i'm pleased as punch how she turned out. I'm now looking forward to working this up in different colorways but will try another of her patterns in the meantime. I'm working on a primitive version of her Bright Ornaments Quilt pattern.
