Monday, January 28, 2013

Banish the Blues

Like some of the rest of you, I had a heck of a time settling on a single idea to turn into my theme piece.  Blue has so many wonderful ways it could be taken - everything from the bluebird of happiness, once in a blue moon, talking a blue stream, blue jeans, blue eyes, the wild blue yonder to blues music and even feeling blue, to name just a few.  I think that last one settled in on me - the January Blues hit and I just could not get motivated.  I pulled some fabric a while back and you saw this:


That wasn't working for me, but then I pulled out some of my indigo pieces from last summer and thought that would be the trick.  I started working away on this one:






But I bit off far too much - deciding to do it all by hand, and while I like it and think it will get finished, it will be a slow hand working project, with no deadlines.

That left me at Friday night with nothing to show.  Back to my blue stash.  So far, I'd been looking at more true blue types of colours.


I needed to charge things up a bit, so I started pulling my brighter blues - the turquoises.  They brighten my spirits.  Add some white, and I'm happy!  Some simple piecing with the thought that I would add some fun and funky embellishments.


Then disaster. see my blog for the details, but lets just say I'm without a machine capable of doing freemotion at this point in time.  :(

Another change of plans ensued, but finally, I got it done!  Luckily, the walking foot worked, and I got to play with that - I've not used a walking foot on a project before to do the quilting.
Banish the Winter Blues
Banish the Blues

blue button
add some self covered buttons with a bit of glitz

waves
mix up the quilting

piped binding
a self piped binding to finish it off
Nice and bright, and hopefully, those January Blues will be gone for good!

7 comments:

  1. Nice pipeing!! The quilting makes the piece.

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  2. This definitely sends my January blues out the window. You have a wonderful way of adding FMQ in just the right place and amount. That you managed to quilt those curves with a walking foot is amazing. I love the simplicity of this piece and the buttons you added give it just the right amount of "glitz".

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  3. Love this Banish the Blues piece Janet! I’m always in awe over your FMQ, but I love to see what you are also able to do when you are limited to use straight lines (you know me and my love for straight line quilting). Even then it looks perfect. And happy!

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  4. Wow! What an achievement without your FMQ foot! I love those buttons, absolutely gorgeous and the piece is happy and calming at the same time. Love it.

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  5. You really managed to banish the blues, this is beautiful Janet! Wonderful touches with the buttons and piping!

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  6. Janet, I'm sorry for all your troubles, but I really like what came out if it. Simple, elegant- it all just works together beautifully. The buttons and stitching are the perfect finishing touches.

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  7. Oh dear. your final piece is so cheery!!! It will definitely chase those blues away!!! I hope your machine is back in business soon!

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