Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Rethinking

Hello everyone!  Enjoying the summer?  We had a mostly-dry weekend! It was great. And since there is a big holiday at the end of the week, this is a short work week for Best Husband Ever, which he loves, even though it will cut into my library time.  I guess I'll just have to make up for it with some brats and beer or something. Does testing different barbecue sauces count as research?

For this week, I am working again on a quilt I thought I was done with. Remember this one?


I called this Terrestrial Star and thought I finished it off  back in May.  Well, even after I showed it I wasn't really pleased with it.  There's nothing wrong with it, but it just didn't feel right to me.  Plus, I had this to deal with:


Yes, a big pile of leftover brown strings! Wow, that's a lot. What to do with them all?

So, what I finally decided to do was take the borders of the quilt off and expand the center using the strings.  I cut several pieces of this paper in half lengthwise:


This is just extra-cheap paper from somewhere, maybe a dollar store, maybe a big box store.  As I said, I cut some sheets in half lengthwise, which makes them about 4-1/2 inches wide, and just started string piecing across the lengths. 


I'm thinking that I will put a row of these around the center and then see where I want to go from there.  If nothing else, it will be more visually interesting than what I had. Thankfully, I have a bit of the green left, so I can still finish off the borders with that beautiful green.

As I said, there was nothing wrong with the quilt the way it was, but I just wasn't happy with it. So I guess it's back to work-in-progress status.  The good news is that the string piecing goes really fast (I do them at least two at a time to keep the strings flowing) and I should be finishing this up really quickly. I hope!

So, that's my project for this short holiday week.  Not sure that I'll get it done, but it's nice to have goals.  I also did make some more progress on the Kaleidoscope quilt and bought this fabric for Roman Floors:


 Don't those look yummy?  I can't wait to start work on that quilt in earnest.

Hope everyone has a great week and gets to do something fun.  And a very happy Canada Day tomorrow to all my Canadian friends!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, and WIP Wednesday.

5 comments:

Quiltdivajulie said...

Totally understand ... The things we do for our quilts ...

viridian said...

I remember this quilt from previous visits to your blog. Keep plugging on!

Libby in TN said...

I'm anxious to see how it works out. This quilt is what inspired me to make brown string blocks! Your pile of strings looks like my Tribbles.

Gina said...

I know what you mean about the quilt. I have quilts that just don't feel right even though there's nothing obvious wrong. Well done in going back to it and I hope it works out for you. I love the fabric for Roman Floors. THat lilac is to die for xxx

JanineMarie said...

I love that pile of strings, Mari, and what you're doing with it. Have fun with that Roman Floors fabric, and no pressure, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how you use it.