Working through it

I’ve been telling myself that I need to finish the various quilt tops that I started in the Nancy Crow workshops last year. The problem is, something is holding me back. Most likely fear. So, I’ve been procrastinating instead. The problem is that I’ve procrastinated so much (in the form of organizing obsessively) that now my studio is all clean and orderly and there is nothing else fun to organize. Now I don’t have any more excuses. And still, the fear is there. I hung the partially completed blue quilt top on my design wall, hoping for a spark of inspiration. Nothing. So, I decided to try a different approach. I decided I just needed to start sewing something. Something simple. Something unimportant. Just sewing.

I took out two more jelly rolls. How do I get sucked into buying these? Of course, these are blue and they were on sale, so maybe it is understandable after all. I decided I needed to make a blue and white quilt. I had to laugh when I saw that the blue in the jelly rolls is the same blue that is in the Nancy Crow quilt top. I pulled out a few strips and pinned them up on the design wall. Maybe I’ll add them in.

Back to the jelly rolls. I decided to make a Single Irish Chain quilt top. Good for just two colors. Simple piecing. Relaxing. Should be fun. Low stress. No fear.

I sorted the strips into lights and darks. There’s something very soothing about doing small tasks. Then I started sewing light and dark strips. A nine patch is pretty simple when using precut strips. I made a stack of units that were dark-light-dark, and a even bigger stack of units that were light-dark-light.

Next, I cut each of the units into pieces 2-1/2″ wide. I could have made two different kinds of nine patches (photo on the right), but for this Single Irish Chain quilt I just need the kind that has light corners.

A bit more time sewing and I already have thirty of my blocks pieced. The nine patch blocks will alternate with a 6″ blue square. Just to get an idea of how it will look, I placed a few pieced blocks on some blue fabric. Here’s a sneak peak.

Since I didn’t really plan anything out, I’m hoping I’ll have enough blue fabric. I might even have to dip into my stash!