Monthly Archives: June 2026

Positive Blues

I have made quite a few quilts over the past few years. Many of them have been very simple, because I have been gravitating toward patterns that settle the mind, rather that ignite it. I am fully capable of challenging patterns and designs, some of which I plan to share as I begin to ‘unfold’ again into social media and such. It feels so good to be back, with a solid mindset of productivity. I hope to inspire a few of you to pick things up again if you also feel like you had put things on a shelf for another day, which then turned into another year or more.

Having finished a few really fun quilts for guys, I found that I had a decent amount of leftover scraps. This was not a big surprise. Actually, it’s par for the course, I am afraid. Maybe, instead of talking about this quilt, I should have started with the ones that produced the scraps for this one. Doing things backwards is in my blood, though, so lets just go with it.

It began as it usually does, with a pile of scraps left over from another project that coordinates so well that I refuse to throw them in the garbage. Sometimes I wish that I would get the minimalist bug, but my brain would just get bored with the nothing and end up with something within about 30 minutes. I won’t explain myself. I will simply share my madness.

Here, you can see that I have a variety of cut-up plaid shirts, quilting cotton, and batiks, In a range of mostly blue, turquois, and green. I stayed on that one corner of the color wheel and it seemed to work out just fine. Most of these scraps were small, so i just sewed a bunch of them together, improv-style, until I got pieces that measured 3 1/2 inches square, not yet knowing what I was going to do with them.

This is what they started looking like as I sewed. I didn’t worry too much about contrast or too much of one color or another, but I did try to vary the type of fabric within each square, such as a batik sewn to a plaid, or quilting cotton to a batik, etc.

Most of the squares looked like these. I only did vertical and horizontal lines, but I think a stray diagonal would have been fantastic too.

I kept sewing until I had a few stacks like this, still not knowing what to do with them…until I was inspired by a really cool pattern that I will link HERE

I will disclose that I do not know Catherine at Running Doe personally, but I would be shocked if we haven’t met as she is from the same part of Texas as I. I receive no royalties or kick-backs by sending you to her amazing site full of super easy patterns that are easy on the pocketbook. At writing, this one is $2.00. She does long-arm quilting too, so I will have to make another post relatively soon regarding that part of her business. I have some in the works, Catherine! Watch for me.

Anyway, I bought her pattern at a local quilt shop at first site, because I thought it would be a good idea for these squares, so I used it for inspiration, and didn’t follow her measurements, since I was already starting with smaller squares. My adaptation made a baby size quilt, hers makes a much bigger quilt. I just know that I will be making her original version eventually, because I just really love this block so much. It is such a great design for a guy quilt.

What I ended up doing here, is I added one fabric that is the same in all of the cross blocks to ‘pull’ the scrap squares together visually, and I did all of the math to figure out how much background fabric that I would need for sashing and borders, then I repeated that same background fabric in the middle cross to make those blocks look like they are just floating on the background.

This is what the blocks looked like once I finished sewing what I had left. Once I got the quilt top all together, I sent it to www.quiltingbydavid.com who I have used multiple times in the past. I really need to get comfortable quilting on my domestic Janome, but that will take some practice and determination on my part. Lets see what is in store for me in the future. Hand quilting, yes, but I couldn’t possibly hand quilt all of my quilts in my lifetime. Longarm quilters are true gifts from God. Thank you to all who provide this service.

In closing, I ask you if YOU ever just start projects, not knowing how it will end up looking. What is your most common source of inspiration? Do you have to know what you are making before you begin, or do you piddle around like I do, until you find a path?

I have missed you all! I am so glad to be back sharing again. Have a great week!

-Button Counter

Resurgence

Reading a fictional book today, the author dropped a few profound character thoughts. They were those kind of words that make you want to write them down in a junk journal or tuck away where you can read them again someday, just as a reminder. I won’t share the book, partly because the book is really irrelevant to the connections that I felt to the character’s thought, but also the book had a really unexpected icky topic that I don’t want to promote. Anyway, this is what was put out there to the audience:

‘It is at the point of transition, that awareness is created. The step into another state changes everything. As long as I was living in a state of ignorance, I had functioned. But I had not lived.’

Then a little bit before these words, there was this:

‘Everything looked different, My home had gained a different persona. Or perhaps it was my perspective that had changed. It felt like removing a garment that you had worn for ages just to keep warm, and discovering that it is beautiful. I walked through the rooms and felt as if I were seeing them for the first time.’

Lately, I have been experiencing this type of unveiling of sorts. It isn’t just in my home or other physical surroundings, as the author describes above. It is also seen in my interactions with other people. I see new things in society as a whole. People that I used to strive to emulate, or try to gain recognition from, no longer hold my interest. In fact, I have found many to be lacking in character. My own character being under construction as well, I find myself floating on my own raft with its own leaks in need of repair. You would think me to be discouraged, but I am finding my own steps to be freeing, albeit awkward. Like unknowingly hiking through miles of mud and finding myself of solid ground. It’s disorienting, but good. This boat of humility is finally on a course of positive fulfillment. The most shocking part of it all, is that I see myself having a great amount of calm, patience, and understanding in a world of confusion and chaos.

Let’s talk again very soon, friend.