Siren's call

I've been spending quite a bit of time sitting at my sewing machine finishing up several quilts. When I am piecing, I can watch or listen to things, but quilting requires my full attention & silence. In the silence, I think -- life stuff, work stuff, what's for dinner & -- my beckoning stacks of fabric.

One beckoning stack of fabric resolved itself while I was quilting. Sailboats & sea-ish, marine-ish go-withs. The sailboats are mostly scraps from shirts I've made for Shug -- the shirts have all been various levels of, I won't say failure, maybe non-success?, all either too small or too short. Anyway, I had been thinking of another no-plan outing with free-cutting & free-piecing. But the shipshape nature of these prints seemed to want to be more ordered.

And because I had not lashed myself to the mast, I heeded their siren's call.
Why not add another plus quilt to my oeuvre!

And here is a question for you: you've heard the saying "art doesn't have to match your sofa"?
Well, does your quilt need to match your bedroom decor?
Shug's & my room has terracotta-colored walls. The furniture is a jumble of Mission-style & inherited family things all with a patina of cat damage. Will this quilt "go" with our room?
I would love to hear your thoughts!

Quilt of Shame

My brother & his wife were married 12 years ago. They married almost exactly 8 months after my brother's & my Dad died. My sister-in-law-to-be had already been a part of the family for a while then; she was there with us through Dad's diagnosis, treatment, death & had been a support to all of us. Their wedding felt like a family renewal, so I wanted to make something special for them.

A wedding ring quilt, right?!?

But a cheater sort of wedding ring -- the ring arcs appliquéd on to squares. No problem! The finished top was gifted to them at their rehearsal dinner.

Then came twelve years of quilting.
Not literally, of course -- twelve years more-off-than-on quilting.

I am such a better &, more importantly, a smarter quilt maker now. I know my strengths & I know my weaknesses. This quilt was waaaay more quilt than I could handle back then. But as I got smarter in the following years, when I would pull this quilt out to work on, all I could see were its flaws.
Well, it is done now. It looks a bit dated (12 years, approximately). It will soon be with its rightful -- & patient -- owners.