Good Morning Beautiful - Design Wall Notes

Good Morning Beautiful
Each Saturday and Sunday morning I wake up and watch the sunlight come across my design wall.  The colors take on inspiring shades and tones as the sun rises.  In a very real way, it relaxes me. 

It makes me want to say: "Good Morning, Beautiful." (and even start singing one of my favorite country songs of the same title)

Is this always the case?  The answer is no.  Sometimes the quilt layout gets frustrating because:
1. The vision isn't coming into reality
2. An unrealistic deadline
3. You're simply not "loving" it
4. You're missing your "sew-jo" (your sewing mo-jo)
5. Uggghhh... you're not even sure what's wrong...

But how do you get from "ewww" to "you had me at, hello?"


Purpose of a Design Wall
This is definitely where the design wall comes into play for me.  It allows you mix and try different layouts and combinations, and then stand back and evaluate.  The wall gives you the opportunity for a quilt to "simmer" much like a fine marinara sauce.  I find that one of my quilts can be up on the design wall for weeks as I "tweak" the layout. (Obsessive, much? Yes!)

For example, I played around with a set of Tula Pink EPP (English Paper Pieced) hexagons for a long time on my design wall before I finally settled on a design.

 

 

Here is a picture of me sharing my hand-quilting progress at a PHXMQG (Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild) meeting in March 2015.

Design Wall Inspiration
Do you want a new or improved design wall?

Mine is a tattered picnic table cover that is pinned to our bedroom wall.  I like that I can roll it up for easy transport to another room, or even a place across town.  It's a quick fix, perfect for an apartment dweller, but there are other options like these here:

For a quick, portable design wall try Nickel Quilt's Tutorial Here.
Avid / Ambitious Quilter?  Try this one from Cut to Pieces.
Want more ideas?  Check out this Pinterest board.

Thank you for indulging me as I pass along some of my notes regarding design walls.  There are plenty of resources available out there and I appreciate your thoughts and input!

Inspiration: Coral

Coral, coral, coral

 

I've had visions of coral dancing in my head the last few weeks.  Why?  I signed up for secret swap for the Sewing Summit later this month.  My partner's inspiration color is: coral.  Do you think I've nailed it?

I used some of my favorite Tula Pink Prince Charming hexagons to create this little needle book.  I loved the hexagons and chose to have the quilting echo the shape.  Loving the effect!

Second item highlighted a piece of Cloud 9 Fabrics and gave me the chance to use the Summer Madras Tote tutorial from Noodlehead.  I chose Kona Charcoal for the main and used the coral fabric for the exterior pockets and lining.  Anyone else a fan of fun colored linings?!?!  I know I am!

From my partner's Flickr page, she's not into a lot of patterned fabrics and so I am hoping that this mix of pattern and solid will be loved.

 

I will admit that I made a mistake, well technically two mistakes.  In my haste and excitement to make the bag, I made the handles with the Kona without any interfacing.  I am in the process of figuring out how to remove and repair the handles.  Any thoughts?  Can I "add structure" to the handles without removing them?  Oh dear, this is why I typically stick with quilting...  This is why we try new things; to learn!

Hope you have a fabulous Tuesday!

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday over at Better Off Thread!

Playing with Hexagons

I completed my out-of-town assignment for work today!  In celebration I am sitting in front of my design board playing with my Tula Pink hexagons.

Floral hexagon arrangement

I love how fabric the seems to say "I'm ready for my close-up."

Organized by color...

Placement of my hand to give scale to the 99 hexagons... 

I knew in my head that they wouldn't go far, but it's nice to spread them out to get the true sense of scale.  I feel more "justified" (i.e. not as guilty) to buy more of Tula Pink's Prince Charming.   (You can find it on sale here).

I think I'm leaning toward the color gradient.  What do you think?  Or should I try more of a zig zag pattern?  Hmmm....

Hexagons - A Traveling Project

This week brings another long commute to an out of town project for work.  Thankfully, I have my hexagon kit to bring with me and work on at lunch.

For Christmas, I bought myself (yes, I bought myself a gift for Christmas) a hexagon kit from Tula Pink, using her Prince Charming line.  The kit came with pre-cut squares and 100 paper hexagon pieces.

Not sure what I will do with them yet, perhaps a mini quilt?

And a sneak peak at progress on the Sea Glass quilt.  Hopefully I can squeeze in some much needed sewing machine bonding this week.

Oh, and for extra fun, here is my favorite hexagon.  I was able to fussy "position" the hexagon paper piece to highlight the bicycle!