The Larkspur Quilt Project Continues

What I’m now calling the Larkspur quilt is progressing, though not as fast as I’d like.

Remember the first block?

For a while I wasn’t sleeping well and I now understand what researchers (and new Moms) mean when they talk about sleep deprivation. One day I spent an hour trying to scrounge up enough material to fix a mistake I made in cutting. Funny thing is, it turns out that I never made the mistake in the first place. I just didn't remember that I had already made those blocks and they were sitting in a stack on my cutting table. I’m never sure when people ask how long it took me to make a quilt whether I should include those little side trips in the equation.

Yes, the top was all nicely pressed before assembly.
Afterward I folded it up  and let it sit for a few days.
Looks like a mess but it will be fine.

But alas, the top is pieced, the quilt sandwich is lined up and pinned, and I’m ready to quilt. If I only knew just how to approach all that negative space. Though I couldn’t make it too the Modern Quilt Guild’s QuiltCon event in Austin this year, I have been enjoying hearing some of the talks which Craftsy.com has made available online.

Watching those talks with all the amazing quilts used as examples gave me ideas, but I was especially taken with Angela Walter’s talk about machine quilting of modern quilts. If you aren’t familiar with her work, take a look at her portfolio. The woman is absolutely fearless with a longarm. Now I don’t have a longarm quilting machine or even a great setup for free motion quilting on my home machine, though rearranging some tables might help.

Layering and pin basting on a small table

Like all quilters who work in small spaces carved out of a busy home, I also don't have a great spot for assembling the quilt sandwich for a queen size quilt like this one, so I use Wendy Butler Berns' binder clip method on my cutting table. She explains it in detail in her machine quilting class on Craftsy.com.

Anyway, after looking at some of her designs, I’m determined to be bold. Lots of quilting. Lots of motion. I might even try to work in a few flowers and birds. I’m itching to start, but making myself wait until I can devote a whole day to working on the quilting. I know I won’t get it all done in one day, but starting when I can only spend an hour seems like it would be too frustrating. Soon though, soon.