Critical Mass

Have you ever worked on a project for what seems like forever, and it seems like you are getting no where on it, then all of a sudden, it shapes up and really starts to look like something? I like to refer to that as a project hitting critical mass. 

For the past several weeks my main project has been this wedding quilt, the pattern name is Faceted Jewels. I'm altering the pattern a little, both by adding more blocks and making the pieced border one row larger all the way around. The original quilt is quite scrappy, which I love, but I was asked for a green and cream quilt. Multi fabric quilts are the only way I am comfortable doing a two color quilt. Only two fabrics and I think I'd go nuts. 

This quilt has so many sub-units, that although it has been my main project for the past several weeks, it felt like I was getting nowhere. Three of my leader/ender projects from that same period of time are ready for assembly. It wasn't until this week, when I finished all of the blocks for this quilt, that I finally hit critical mass, and it's starting to look like something. 

This isn't the whole quilt, nor even the entire center, but I was so anxious to get a peak of how it's going to look, I put up a few rows on the design wall. I may move a few blocks around, and I'm questioning if I pushed the green family a little too far, but overall, I'm pretty happy with the way this quilt is looking. I've made a lot of green quilts, and my variety was really lacking, so I really pushed the color family to simply have enough fabric. I even raided fabric I had set aside to make a quilt for my bed. I'll have to acquire more greens before I can make the quilt I had planned for my bed. 

Isn't it funny, that a color like blue, that I despise, has taken over my stash even though I make lots of blue quilts for people. But other colors that I love, like green, red, and purple, I can't keep in stash very long at all. Part of the reason my stash has so much blue is that a lot of my stash was given to me, and a lot of the remaining stash came from thrift stores or remnant bins, so I was just buying what was available at a seriously discounted price. Since I give most of the quilts I make away, it's not a big deal if I don't like the color. My current leader/ender project is another blue quilt, so I am whittling down my blue stash a little at a time. 

Once I have this quilt assembled, I need to spend a few days basting. I basted one of the wedding quilts last week, and I have another ready for basting. One just needs borders, and one still has quite a bit to do on it. I am pretty excited to try my new basting setup. I bought two 8 ft folding tables that are 30" wide. If I move my living room furniture to the edges of the room, I'll be able to set up the two tables side by side, and baste on that surface, which will require a lot less moving around of the quilt top, compared to basting on my kitchen table. The 8 foot tables fold in half, so they aren't too difficult to store, and I tend to baste several quilts all right in row, then have a quilting spree. If I set up the tables when DH is working three days in a row, I could baste quilts until I run out of pins, and take the tables down before he has a day off. Since he works 12 hour shifts, I don't think it would bother him much as long as I'm taking over the living room on work days. With the tables being specifically purchased for basting, I'm not even worried about getting pin marks on the table tops, and should we need the tables for a party, that's what tablecloths are for ;-)