The Space Between

When I was little and I went to bed before the sun did, I'd lay in my bed and make pictures with my hands. You know when you take both hands and bring the thumbs and index fingers together? You know that space that lives in the middle there between them all? In that space I'd create a whole world of shapes. I'd make all manner of hearts and trees and animals and letters, and my mind would wander aimlessly, and happily, through them all until my eyelids grew droopy and I fell asleep.

For reasons that I don't really understand, I have very few recollections of when I was a kid. This is a memory that just recently came back to me. And it's a good one. I think it came back to me because it was an activity that I repeated over and over again. It was imaginative and natural and easy and free and portable and quiet and good, and the results belonged only to me. Plus, it is probably the creative root of everything you see here.

What, you might well wonder, does this have to do with Dresden placemats? Oh nothing. Nothing at all in fact. I'm just so glad the memory is mine again. And I was reminiscing out loud.

♥M

P.S. As you can see, I finished the Dresden placemats, yipee-kayay! Previous posts about this scrappy little project live here and here.

Free or Not Free, That is The Question.

I mean, if free-motion quilting (FMQ) is highly planned, can it really and truly be called FREE-motion quilting? I doubt it severely. I mean, yes, I used all the same settings on the ol' machine, the darning foot, machingers et al... But I designed the above quilting pattern - the quilting is represented by the coloured bits, not the black bits. And then I marked my Dresden placemats with a slightly improved version of this design before proceeding with the quilting. So with all that prep work, does this still qualify as FMQ? And if it's not FMQ then what, pray tell, is it? Please educate me on this question if you could. I really need to know. Like, really really really. Like, yesterday if at all possible. Thank you.

Furthermore, despite the plan to have these done by March 25th (of this year), I'm still weaving in ends and sewing the binding on them, tarnation. So no finished placemats to show yet, blasted. Maybe they'll be done one day when we're all living on the moon and we've all learned to play the steel drums 'cause that's the only instrument you can make from moon dust... But no. No placemats today. Sigh...

♥M

P.S. I seem to recall having one more question for you... What was it again?... Oh ya! What would you say to some sort of re-use/recycled paper-based craft-along? I've never done a craft-along before so Gord only knows how it would go, but if you're game, I would love to give it a shot? Opinions?

Dresden Plates, If You Please.

One of the blocks from the Craftsy BOM class which I vowed I'd revisit is the Dresden plate. I fell hard for this block after making it in the class. Thought I'd make up a new set of scrappy placemats for our dinner table with them. 

I've only made a start. I'll be trying some free-motion quilting (FMQ) on them once they're sandwiched. It's been so long since my last FMQ attempt, the information has almost certainly dropped out of my poor little brain. I'm a combination of eager-beaver and petrified-wood about the whole thing. I think it would be wise to practice, practice, practice on a few scraps beforehand eh? Fingers-crossed I don't free-motion quilt any body parts in the meantime, hee hee... Wish me luck!

♥M

P.S. If you get a hankering for your very own Dresden plates, HERE's a handy tutorial (including template) at Sew, Mama, Sew!

P.P.S. In other news, I'll be utterly done my hexagon quilt within days if you can believe it! Just finishing up the finicky binding... I've been working on that thing for ten months now... CANNOT wait to hold the finished quilt. So excited!!!