Quilty Problem Solving in Real Life

Been working on several different projects lately, and all of them are presenting challenges. I do love a good problem to solve - it's one of the reasons I quilt, however, the solutions don't always come easily. I have been feeling kinda satisfied with my solves lately, so I thought I would share them with you, in case you run into anything similar.

Recently I did a series of smaller quilts, based loosely on outer space, I'm calling them collectively Cosmos. I started with one idea and it quickly morphed into four (and counting) At first, I thought as I finished two of them, I would make them all into one large quilt. But I wanted to quilt them all separately cuz quilting large quilts is not all that fun. Further, each one is pretty distinct from the other, and the quilting plans I had for each was different, so after getting them all quilted, they sat while I tried to decide whether I was going to figure out a way to attach them to each other and make one large quilt, or whether to just bind them individually.

It's rather unusual for me to have such trouble making up my mind about something. I usually know where I'm going, but I got stuck this time. (Those of you who know me well know that I was getting quite irritated with myself for taking it all so seriously. I was telling myself that I was making too big of a deal out of it; that it hardly mattered in the scheme of things, that no one but me cared about it...just make a decision for Christ's sake, Carrie!!!) But they just hung there on the design wall and stared at me and well - it was ridiculous. So I asked quilt guilds that i was lecturing what to do and as you may guess - the resutls were about 50/50 for together or apart - no real help there. I then asked my quilting posse, who all know me really well. I told them I was leaning towards binding separately but would also like to hang them together. And my friend Karen said "Get a large backing and attach them all together when you want to and then you can have it both ways!" So brilliant. And it works great, although it took a looot of velcro. I can now hang them altogether on my stairwell OR hang them separately, whichever i want. So I guess one way to solve quilty problems is to ask your quilt friends.

Another current project is a second of sorts - I made this quilt,called "Beautiful in Every Color" a year or so ago, which is a kind of Warhol-esque remembrance of our trips to various national park, this one being Arches. I have always intended to do more, so I finally started one based on Bryce Canyon. It's actually going so much better than I had anticipated as this one is comprised of lots of really tiny pieces and I wasn't sure I could do it.(I had one fluff up when I made an entire hoodoo using only one type of material and it sadly didn't

work. I thought since it had so many colors already i could use different areas of the fabric and it would have enough contrast but alas, once i got it done it was not right. So i had to make it again, which i was happy to do, even though it is quite fussy work. But it has to be right or there's no reason to do it!)

However, the REAL problem that I've solved is different. In Warhol's lithographs, he uses bright colors to do multiple pictures of the same thing, right? But he also uses a lot of black outlining, which you can see is missing from the Beautiful quilt. That's because I couldn't figure out how to do it. To construct the quilt, I'm using a method developed by Caryl Bryer Fallert Gentry (so many names!) that is a mix of paper piecing and reverse applique' where you sew over the top of the pieces with invisible thread.

As I was working on the first hoodoo it finally hit me how I could add the black outlines - just use black thread for the applique' instead of invisibile thread. Yes- it's kind of a "doh" moment. But I'm elated that it came to me even so. And it totally works and looks just the way I want. So I feel like maybe sometimes doing something more than once is a great problem-solving tool, because I almost always figure out a way to do it better the second time. Also, I figured out how to get the teeny parts of the rocks that stick out right, which is to use a pin and tweezers. Not going into technical detail on this, but trust me - it solves a problem.

The last problem I'm going to share is the one I solved two ways; it is on my quilt called "Bounce.' (Which was happily displayed in the Houston Quilt Festival this year - woo hoo!) This quilt taught me so many problem solving things. For example, I had originally drawn the blocks on EQ8, but frankly it is complicated and even though I thought it was even, I had cut out all the pieces before i realized they hadn't come out interchangeable and it would not fit together (Don't worry, I saved all of them and will definitely be using them for something else in the future.) So instead of using the computer to draw it, I ended up drawing the square by hand, and using card stock templates to cut it out!! (I'm sure it isn't perfect but at least I somehow finally got the pieces to sew together perfectly!) Once I had it cut out properly, I also realized AFTER cutting them out that I had no idea how to sew the pieces together. Yep -it was another set of sit and stare session(s), with the quilt mocking me as I racked my brain to figure out how to put it together. I finally figured out I had to sew the empty circle pieces together, then add the circle, then add two outer orange peel sides, then start the circle that shared orange slices with the first circle, and sew them together, row by row. It was crazy, but it worked (well - the first attempt didn't as the circles were too big and bulged out, so I had to re-cut them and sew it a third time...but who's counting?!) This left me with a square hole between the connecting pieces (the striped ones) into which I reverse applique'd a little square, being sure to match the stripes exactly...Naturally after I got competely finished I ended up hand applique'ing over many of because they were so imperfectly aligned (sigh). Yep - it took a buttload of problem solving to get this baby together. But I LOVE this quilt. I wanna make another because it would be more perfect as I've already solved all the problems of construction, etc. Not right away though...I'm busy exhausting myself with new challenges. :)

So yeah - for me it seems every time I make something I end up having to solve a helluva lot of problems which I have totally created for myself. I maybe just like to curse or I'm really testing my zen-ness or maybe I'm just insane. But really what I've learned from each problem is "Never give up, where there's a will there's a way...do or do not, never try (that one's from Yoda)...AND you can do whatever you want with fabric (but it ain't always easy).

So go forth my friends, and problem-solve away. Maybe share how you did it with others or don't, because it's good for our brains to figure shit out on our own, you know - keeps us sharp.

Just KNOW it can almost always be figured out.