Project quilting
Ohhhh I'm so thrilled to be on this fun journey through Project Quilting! And this past week was just that…a journey, which was a bit ironic, since the challenge was to find the NAME of a PLACE to inspire your quilt. 

So, let me remind you of last week's challenge: go here to see my quilt and the judges comments

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And so coming off of those great comments, I was determined this week to improve, go a bit more "outside the box", do something a bit more "traditional" since this was how quilting competitions were judged. 

I started thinking about what town name I wanted to use for my inspiration. I came up with two places that actually inspired creativity: Hungerford, TX and New Hope, PA. One of my goals of doing project quilting is to keep my Etsy shop stocked with new and innovative mini quilts…my passion! And looking at all of my quilts, one with food all over it didnt seem like it would fit into my current aesthetic. (I may have to try it, though, just to meet a challenge!! LOL!!) 

So I went with New Hope. New Hope is a little town on the border of PA and NJ and the place I met up with my darling online friend, Chris and her mom and daughter last August. My friend constantly reminds me that there is hope in this world! She is an inspiration and has been for a bunch of years! What a blessing she is to me!! 

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When I thought of the words "NEW HOPE", all I could think about was SPRING! and those words made me think of the Alexander Pope quote, "Hope Springs Eternal!" I started thinking about how I wanted to depict a lot of winter with just a hint of spring…and while thinking about this, I kept thinking, I have to have a traditional pieced background. I thought a neutral color in the background with some kind of fleece at the bottom for snow…and a single flower on the right edge depicting spring. 

As things developed, I found a fairly (what I thought was) easy pieced block in a magazine, and I proceeded to make four blocks using tea-stained muslin for the background of the whole quilt. When I put all four blocks together, I ended up with no points matching…and yep, I'm going to be transparent here and show you the final of these four blocks. 

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{I did find a little book by Alex Anderson on the basics of Quilting…and it completely explained triangles and how to make sure those points match up. So I have a place to actually learn how to do that here pretty soon!! 🙂 }

Now, I'm also going to be real and tell you I felt like a big time failure when it comes to quilting at this point. And it was only Monday noonish, so I kinda picked myself up and thought, let's try again. I went and found some upcycled fabric (an old curtain) and started over…I learned how to make a 3D rosebud, and added it to the quilt…and realized that it was a little big, so I had to seam rip it out…and proceeded to rip a huge whole in the background fabric!! ugh!! ever have one of those days???

I tried to cover it with fabric…yep, again, I'm gonna show you a pic…

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This isn't competition-level quilting! I know that! 

But something was off with both of my tries…and I walked away from my craft room a little dejected and not really knowing why I was trying so hard.

I went to a meeting of other Etsy sellers and even tried to explain there what I was going through, but couldn't really put it in words…

And on my way home from the meeting that night, after all of my dejection that day, I realized that I was not being authentic at this point. I was not creating something that was truly me!! 

I truly don't mind learning something new and failing to learn…this is not a problem for me. But when I'm trying to show my best foot (weird saying…wonder where it came from!), I need to do what I'm good at.

So here is my final quilt:

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A little explanation…

The tree on the left denotes winter, as do the snowflake quilting (no snowflake is the same!! teeheee! yep, i totally did that on purpose!). Notice as you look right the snowflakes get less and less. The flower was created using those cool Clover yo-yo makers in the shape of a flower. And you know me and my embroidery…yep, addiction!! I did do some raw edge applique with quilting on them (tree trunk and flower stem/leaves). I'm learning! 

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When I finished this quilt, I styled the picture and decided that I adore it!! I lvoe the idea of there always being hope in the cold, starkness of winter. When it looks so bleak and I'm shivering in the cold (think metaphor here…), there is hope! It makes me smile inside and out…It brings me JOY (my darling friend, Chris's word for the year!) and warms me. The whole journey gives me hope! You know, I am capable of matching points and doing things a little better than I did last time. I am not a failure…I am a conquerer. 

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Thanks, Project Quilting, for taking me on this journey!! It was well worth every mile!!

To vote for my quilt, please go here:
PROJECT QUILTING Challenge#2 Voting

see my name (Sally's Angelworks) first on the list on the left sidebar and click on the little dot in front of the name. Then scroll down to the VOTE button and click! yay!!! You have until Friday, Feb 4th at 7pmCST to vote, so do it quick!! 

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(Carmel really liked that second try! LOL!! comfy to sit on!)

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