Madness

It seems that every year after Christmas I get the irrational urge to sit down and design a new quilt project. Not because I need a new quilt. I have two queen-sized quilts still waiting to be quilted (one is half done) so adding another one to the pile is just madness. Furthermore, I have no more beds needing quilts. And all the wall quilts were taken down when we did our renovations several years ago and still haven't gone back up. 

So why would I want to make another quilt?

Because I can.

Although, to be fair, I originally planned to just make cushions. I had been dissatisfied with the ones in our sitting room for a while and decided it was time to make some new ones. For some reason - and I'll never understand how inspiration and creativity conspire against me - I decided on making cushions using the stained glass technique even though every time I've used this technique in the past I've told myself that never again will I make a quilt in this style.

I made four cushions.

I almost stopped at three but then decided that four was a round number and two on each sofa would balance everything out. Of course, the last one that I made had to be the most complicated, but I think it was worth it in the end. If nothing else, it convinced me that I do not want to do a wall hanging featuring multiple irises. (Please hold me to this if I ever change my mind at a later date.)

I breathed a sigh of relief when they were done and then promptly turned around and started a quilt. Using the same technique.

I'm not even sure where this impulse came from. A few years ago I made a stained glass quilt featuring an iris in the art deco style. The plan was for it to go above our bed because we hadn't ended up putting stained glass windows in our bedroom as we had originally hoped due to cost. A quilt seemed to be the next best thing. 

Suddenly I decided I no longer liked it and that I wanted to do something different.

So I did.

I have finished blind stitching (or not so blind - my stitches are far from perfect) all the bias binding by hand and have tacked it all together ready to quilt. 

I'm still shaking my head at what madness prompted this latest project.

While I was searching for fabrics in my scrap pile suitable for the stained glass cushions and quilt (and there was more variety in my scrap pile than there was in the shop in town) I came across a number of pieced patchwork strips left over from the time I took two unfinished quilts and made them one.

Not wanting to waste anything, I decided to make these into a small quilt. My original plan was to whack them together without too much planning, trying to preserve as much of the original sections as possible without having to unpick or resew seams. But something seemed to be lacking ... 

... and so I added some applique. The flowers are also remnants of some past experiment, and it feels good to be able to use up these scraps which would have otherwise gone to waste.

I think once it's quilted I'll like it. However, now I have even more quilts to quilt and nowhere to put them.