Lenten Twelves 2021 : Gilded Edges

Sometimes I can’t decide which I like more: the thrill and excitement of an experiment or the confidence of a sure thing. Experiments are full of possibilities, potential breakthroughs, innovative ideas. They also come with nervousness, the chance of failure, and many pauses for consideration. Tried and true methods, on the other hand, can be carried out with speed and confidence. Also, lest we forget, tried and true methods are not always boring or lacking in innovation; sometimes they are the successes born of experiments that have been perfected into common practice.

Experiment : Gold Screen Printing

This week I picked up gold screen printing ink (experiment #1).

I have never printed with metallic before, but I have sketched and imagined the possibilities since visiting Prague and being inspired by the minimal gold accents adorning their many stone sculptures. A gold zucchetto graces a sandstone cleric blackened by pollution. A gilded halo floats above a blackened angel on the famous Charles Bridge. Saint Elizabeth wields a golden scepter over the tourists and locals.

Unfortunately, my local art shop was out of the small jars of gold textile screen printing ink. Not wanting to wait, I opted to dive in to this experiment with acrylic ink (experiment #2). The ink was silky smooth to print with (although I can’t be sure the texture difference between the acrylic gold ink and my textile ink isn’t age-related rather than substrate-related).

Results: beautiful gold printing

I still want to experiment with the gold ink more to really grasp its versatility and uses, but so far, I would consider it a success. Due to its metallic nature, the gold ink looks darker from some angles and lighter and more subtle from others. I would be curious to see how it plays off darker fabrics.

Experiment : Canvas-mounted Quilt

This is something I regularly wrestle with as I create wall quilts: how can an art quilt be easily and masterfully hung? There are several methods for finishing the edges of a quilt other than traditional binding, and I hope to work on a tutorial series covering some of these methods. However, no matter how you finish the edges of the art quilt, you are still left deciding how to hang it on the wall. I have used velcro. I have used dowels. I have hand-sewed individual quilt squares to a piece of mat board. None of these methods have satisfied my desire for a method that elevates the quilt to the crisp finish of modern art without requiring painstaking care and copious amounts of fiddly hand-sewing.

This week, I planned to try wrapping my finished quilt around a pre-made canvas (experiment #3). I added a border to the original composition in order to provide extra fabric for wrapping. Then, after printing on the quilt, I realized I had calculated the margin wrong and added more. I also cut my batting in a cross shape so that there would be no bulky batting to fold around the corners of the canvas.

Results : trying French cleats next

After all this thought-filled preparation, when it came time to wrap the quilt around the canvas, I realized that I liked the quilt composition better with the borders that I had added (borders that would be lost to the edges and back of the canvas). Not to mention, I love how the gold printing is cropped by the outermost border. With this in mind, I padded upstairs to discuss the predicament with my partner and resident art-hanging expert. As a gallery director and once-art-museum-preparator, my husband is a treasure trove of expertise and talent when it comes to hanging artwork.

After some discussion, he suggested I mount the quilt on a 1/4” piece of plywood and then use French cleats on the back to float it in a frame. Enthused by this new idea (experiment #4), we drove to the store to get some MDF, short screws, and short staples. We don’t own a table saw, so my husband will cut the board and French cleats for me when he’s at work tomorrow. I am excited and hopeful that this system might provide a straight-forward and professional system for mounting and framing my art quilts. Stay tuned!

Lenten Twelves 2021

Follow the links below to read more about this quilt series or check out #LentenTwelves and #LentenTwelves2021 on Instagram. Curious what “Lenten Twelves” are? Check out this introductory post: Lenten Twelves: a Creative Practice.

Black and White Quilt Finished

It’s done!! My Black and White Twelve Quilt, inspired by Piecework Collective’s Black and White quilt show in 2016, is the largest overprinted quilt I have tackled to date!

View fullsize

With the creative restrictions of black and white, I strayed from my standard light grey and white geometric quilt top and played with a different neutral: cream. Although it felt like a stretch at the time, I now regularly keep cream in my quilting line-up. The resulting subtle play between the cream and white and the dark grey and black adds gentle movement while imbuing the quilt with a warmth that a cooler lighter grey does not provide.

For this quilt, I also experimented with piecing the quilt top halfway, screen printing blooms, and then finishing the piecing process. Previously I either printed on a completely pieced top or a completely pieced and quilted top, never part way through the piecing process! It definitely adds some waiting time as the screen printed blooms need to dry before the quilt can be stitched up further, but I love how this printing process causes the flowers to weave through the quilt, contrasting organic with the architectural.

The quilting took me years. Literally. Started in 2016, this quilt has been in process a long time, but while trying to finish my PhD last year, the seemingly endless straight-line quilting offered me a methodical and restful rhythm.

I am excited to have it finished at last, and I am pondering what it would mean to tackle a quilt of this magnitude again. Although I enjoyed the process, I think I may collaborate with a long-arm quilter next time. That said, it would be hard to let go of total control…I guess only time will tell!

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Piecing

Printing

Lenten Twelves 2018

Every Lenten season, I take a break from my current quilting projects to feast into creativity. The first year, this meant a 12"x 12" mini quilt every week (hence the original name "Lenten Twelves"). The next year was a series of baby quilts. Last year was a series of printed quilts. This Lenten season, I am exploring double wedding ring quilt blocks and the stations of the cross.

The double wedding ring block carries double meaning for me. For one, it has significance as I plan my wedding and prepare for marriage. However, it also feels like an apt block to explore during Lent as we contemplate Jesus coming to the world to take the church as his bride.

While visiting the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC last fall, I came across Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross. Minimal in black and white, the room was incredibly meditative, and I have mulling over their simple power ever since gallery. With Barnett as inspiration, I am spending this Lent working in shades of black and white and loosely exploring the stations of the cross. The 14 stations of the cross are intended to be meditations that center around the day of Jesus crucifixion, following the story from when he is condemned to die to when he is placed in his tomb. 

My first block is titled: Prayers in Gethsemane.

At this moment in the story, Jesus has finished the Last Supper with his friends, and the full weight of what awaits him next is sinking in. Since he is God, he knows that he needs to die in order to atone for the sins of the world, but he is also human and is overwhelmed at the thought of being crucified. Together with his friends, he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and asks them to stay awake with him as he contemplates his impending death.

"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.'

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.' Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. 'Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?' he asked Peter . . .

He went away a second time and prayed, 'My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.' When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy." - Matthew 26: 36–40, 42–43

When Jesus needs his friends' support, they fall asleep. This block depicts the twelve sleeping disciples in grey with Jesus awake at the center. Dark printed foliage covers the entire piece, obscuring the disciples and blending into the night sky.

Check out previous year's Lenten Twelves series.

Black and White Deconstructed Quilt Finished

Quilt: Lenten Twelves Three

Watching: Season Two of Blue Bloods

Favorite Part of Quilt: diagonal straight-line quilting in just the grey areas

Place for Improvement: experimenting with the connective quilting after rearranging

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Printing Stripes on Quilts

Fresh Deconstructed Quilt Finish

Quilt: Lenten Twelves Two (2017)

Listening to While Quilting: Invisibilia (Season Three)

Favorite Part of Quilt: I love this quilt so much, it can't be just one.

• fresh springy colors
• citrus over-printing
• fun and easy quarter-square-triangles
• rearrangeable on the wall!

Place for Improvement:

• turning corners with serger and tucking in the loose ends
• hiding white batting edges

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Lenten Twelves Two Progress (beginning)

Citrus Printing onto Lenten Twelve Two

Mustard Stripes Wall Quilt Completed

Quilt: Lenten Twelves One (2017)

Listening to While Quilting: Despacito (Remix Audio) ft. Justin Bieber on repeat

Favorite Part of Quilt: my first experiment with stripes printed on quilts

Place for Improvement: printing stripes with thinner ink for more even printing

I have to write a lot for grad school. (One year from my PhD if anyone else is counting!) Because of that, writing on the blog does not bring me joy right now. However, formulas do, so in true scientist fashion, I am going to follow this formula of indexing my quilts with: the music/tv/podcast I was listening to while working on it, my favorite part of the quilt, and something I want to improve upon. Thanks for sticking with me.

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Lenten Twelves One Progress (beginning)

Printing Stripes on Quilts

Citrus Printing onto Lenten Twelve Two

New screen!!! I designed a new citrus pattern and made a screen of the one-color version to print on quilts. I love it!! I am so thankful that I have the resources at the College of Textiles to put patterns on acetate and then burn them onto screens. 

With new screen in hand, I printed a translucent white onto my springy mini quilt.

Then I free-motion quilted around a trailing path of fruits and leaves and finished off the background with scattered aqua straight-line quilting. I love how it is turning out! I will definitely be trying more of these this summer. Next up is chopping this quilt into teeny minis and then finishing them with my serger!

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Lenten Twelves One Progress (beginning)

Lenten Twelves Two Progress (beginning)

Printing Stripes on Quilts

Printing Stripes on Quilts

I have a new screen! It's a 12" x 12" square of graphic lines, and I love it! I masked out the bottom so that it would line up perfectly with two seams in my mustard Lenten Twelves One. Although I think my printing ink should've been a bit thinner to get in the crevices better, I like the overall effect, and I am excited to try it on more quilts!

Right after printing Lenten Twelve One, I ironed this grey guy flat onto the printing board and printed him too! It is so fun to add movement with such a graphic statement atop a quilt. 

I didn't really mean for the second set of lines to perfectly align with the center of the quilt, but oh well! When you're sketching, sometimes your pencil lines don't quite go where you meant. When you're quilt sketching, I think the same is true.

Seeing my collection of Lenten Twelves grow this year has been fun. I feel like I am stretching my creative boundaries with these quilt sketches, and I am having a last in the process!

To read more about this Lenten Twelves series, follow the links below:

Introduction to Lenten Twelves

Lenten Twelves One Progress (beginning)

Lenten Twelves Two Progress (beginning)

Lenten Twelves One Finished

Black and White Quilt Printed

I finally finished printing this black and white quilt, which meant I could stitch up the remaining seams. I am so pleased with the results.

1. Larger Scale:

I have been trying to work on a larger scale. From 6"x6" farmer's wife quilt blocks to 2'x2' senior show quilts to 3'x3' for QuiltCon last year, and now almost 5'x5' !

2. Within a Design Challenge:

Seeing the "Black and White, Twelve Quilts" show this spring inspired me to create a quilt with the design parameters of monochromaticity. I work with light grey in almost every quilt, but I stretched myself and chose an off-white instead. I love the warmth the cream adds!

3. Stretching My Process:

As I explore the process of printing on quilts, I don't want to end up in a rut. With Stone + Bloom for QuiltCon last year, I experimented with masking off sections of the quilt. For this quilt, I went a step further and only partially pieced the top before printing. 

The next step in the process always takes me the longest: deciding how to quilt the quilt. I printed out my design sketch to audition several quilting options, and after some layering with tracing paper and several long collaborative FaceTimes spent staring more at my quilt than my boyfriend, I think I have decided on the direction I want to go. That boyfriend of mine is such a trooper.

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Piecing

Finished

Eggplant Modern Printed Quilt Finish

Last January, my aunt commissioned a quilt for above her fireplace. We chatted about color schemes and styles, and I pieced this large grey and white morning star quilt block. Then I stalled. For months. But in December, knowing that I would be flying to the west side of Michigan for a baby shower for my cousin, I decided that this quilt would be my next completion. And here it is: completed!

It is based off of Morning Star, a quilt from my senior collection, "She Can Laugh at the Days to Come." The deep eggplant printing lends a stronger graphic quality to the final composition. I also experimented with a dark navy straight-line quilting thread instead of matching the grey, and the pop balances the blooms, I think. At just under 30" square, this quilt is a bit of an up-size from the original Morning Star, and I love the final product.

I bound this baby using my new clover binding clips while watching Ellen's Design Challenge with Brent. Talk about a good evening, and a good finish. I just dropped it off at its new home this past weekend, and I can't wait to get a picture of it above the mantle!

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Inspiration

Sandwiching

Straight-line Quilting

Straight-line Quilting + Eggplant Printing

Straight-line quilting on the modern eggplant-printed quilt is complete! I whipped out the second half last Wednesday at sewing night while watching the Philadelphia auditions for American Idol. My current idol favorite is Jenn Blosil. She is hilarious and unique and such a hoot but so great to listen to as well. Have you been keeping up with the auditions? They make for good sewing tv, except that as soon as someone starts singing, I feel like I should stop adding the chug chug of my machine to the mix.

Brent was a doll and held up my quilt for me this weekend since I am out of masking tape. I guess it's time to swing by Target! (Alert: danger zone. Target also has a quilted men's sweatshirt I'm kind of dying to have but since Brent already owns it...I'm not sure if I'm allowed to buy it as well...) The next step is tying all of those threads to the back. Then it will be free-motion quilting time. I decided to try lines first this time to achieve a flatter quilt with less chances of puckers. So far so good.

I've been wanting to get back into posting progress photos, but if I post them on their own, then the finished post doesn't have any progress photos...dilemma. What do you think?

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Inspiration

Sandwiching

Finish

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday today over at Freshly Pieced. Hop over there to see some more unfinished beauties.

Eggplant Modern Printed Quilt

My aunt requested a printed quilt for her mantle an embarrassingly long time ago, so I decided it should be my first finish of 2016. (After it failed to be my final finish of 2015, but we don't have to talk about that.) This Saturday evening, I turned on Ice Age 2 and straight-line quilted a whole half of the quilt. Ice Age 2, you ask? Well, I needed a movie that I didn't love, so that I wouldn't be tempted to look up from my machine and take long pauses between lines. Success.

I'm greatly enjoying the process of this quilt and plan to finish it in time to deliver it to her in person February 6th at my cousin's baby shower. Baby shower, of course, means baby quilt! My mom and I are tag-teaming on this one, and I sent her some of my mint flamingo fabric. I haven't actually used that in a project yet (can you say fabric hoarder?), so I can't wait to see the final product!

The printing on this quilt is a dark eggplant. It turned out a little darker than expected but makes for a striking quilt. I decided on a blue grey thread that is a little darker than I used on the previous incarnation of this quilt. It should balance out the dark blooms nicely.

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Inspiration

Straight-line Quilting

Finish

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced for the first time in a long time. Head over to see other masterpieces in the making.

Stone + Bloom: QuiltCon

There are simply too many ideas rolling around inside my head to have enough time to quilt them all. QuiltCon was a great opportunity to actually realize one. I have been experimenting with screen printing on quilts for almost two years now, and it was time to scale up. Measuring about 3' x 3', this is my largest printed quilt yet. Big isn't actually all that much slower to piece and sandwich, but quilting it does become a bigger beast.

I began with free-motion quilting the blooms one Wednesday. It seemed like the logical place to begin, and then I stalled. I always forget the number of hours I can spend staring at a quilt deciding how to quilt it. Eventually, I decided on matchstick quilting the white bars, but stopped at the edge of the printed blooms.

The grey was more difficult. Beginning with 1-inch spaced straight lines, I wasn't happy with the wrinkles and how much the pistachios faded from the design. After several more hours of staring at it taped to the dining room wall over Thanksgiving, I added more quilting to the the solid grey to achieve half-inch spacing.

The whole quilt was a little wonky after quilting, so I pinned it to my printing board and blocked it with a spritz bottle and then began the Great Binding Debate. (Did you know that I have had multiple quilts that arrive at this step and never make it further because every binding I audition feels like it will ruin the design? #perfectionistquilterproblems) Eventually, I decided red but with bits of grey. That way red wouldn't touch the red blooms along the edge. I still think light grey could have been zen...or boring...we will never know.

I also can't decide which side I like up. What do you think? Horizontal or vertical bars?

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Inspiration

Progress

QuiltCon Making in Spare Moments

In the spare moments between class and collaborations, I have been working my way towards my first submission to Quilt Con. I'm pretty pumped. It is a scale up of a Lenten Twelve (below) from this spring combined with some of the quilt printing I have been experimenting with, such as Lenten Twelve II and Evening Star.

I wanted higher impact, so I scaled up to 3' x 3.' It's funny because piecing it took just as much time as the little one, but voila: more bang for your buck! I say that now, but I know that it will take me longer to quilt it...

Then I printed it with my iconic hydrangea print and blocked out the white bars from being printed. (Iconic is my way of saying that I have used that hydrangea print for so many projects now that...well...I am looking forward to designing new patterns.) I bit the bullet and loosely free-motion quilted around all of the printed hydrangeas, and now the past two evenings have been spent staring at the quilt trying to decide how to proceed with the quilting.

I have two questions for you:

1. Is there a specific way that you must tie off your quilting on the back for an exhibition? Must we bury our threads on the back? Can we reverse a little? Is it personal preference?

2. How big is too big of an area to have un-quilted on a quilt?

I hope your QuiltCon making is going smoothly and wrapping up! Or that you are enjoying watching everyone else sweat while you stay above the scramble.

Best,

Kelsey

Follow the progress of this quilt with the links below:

Inspiration

Finish

Stone + Bloom : New Mini Quilt Collection

The new quilt collection is finally in the shop! These mini quilts are the perfect gift in all their crisp geometric organic goodness. Each quilt has been hand-printed with a bold and crisp design before being carefully free-motion and straight-line quilted. The quilt is bound with mitered facing and affixed to a 10"x10" stretched canvas with velcro. The canvas allows for simple hanging as well as a flattering shadow to highlight the piece. A shadow box can also be used to give the quilt added emphasis and dimension. Although the shadow box does not come with the quilt, it can be easily purchased from IKEA or your local frame shop.

These quilts are the perfect size to grace an office or a small wall in the home or at work. They make lovely gifts for that special teacher at the end of the year or to show a family member or friend how much they mean to you. From Mother's Day to weddings to house warming gifts, this modern and handmade treasure will brighten any room and express your love and appreciation.

What do you think? Where would you put it? Who would you give one to?

Find them in the shop here.

Follow the process here; from the first idea to the piecing to the printing.

I am linking up to TGIFF (Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday).

Printed Quilts and Good Books

Printed quilts. Summer plans. Artistic direction. Lovely moments. Sweet rememberings. Ohio stars. Michigan.

I don't know where to begin and what to share. I've been feeling many directions recently. Homesick. Frustrated. Loved. Supported. Far away. Overwhelmed. At peace.

I suppose though, I want to talk about quilting. I've been treating it like my job. When I photograph projects like this, I am full to the brim with excitement and inspiration, and I love it. When I come home from a long day in the lab and feel like curling up with dinner and a good book, I don't love it. I savor that evening. It's glorious and wonderful, and I am so thankful for those times. But I go to bed feeling I wasn't productive enough, that I didn't sew, sandwich, print, or accomplish enough.

This is not how I want it to be.

Do you ever feel like this? Somehow the bloggers and instagrammers can pull together entire quilts, whole fabric lines, and gorgeous photos with time to make dinner for the kids and go on vacation. I don't understand how they they make it happen, but I know that I want to stop trying to measure up. I thought this might mean focusing on just one: quilt design or fabric design. I prayed about it, thought about, talked it out, and journaled.

My conclusion is Neither. Neither will I feel like I don't have time for all my quilting dreams, nor will I hold such high and grandiose expectations with such short timelines for my fabric designs. In fact, I will not focus on either one for the next three months.

I am twenty two. Twenty two. I don't need to be the same place as those people with books and fabric designing jobs and thousands of followers. This summer I am going to sew myself a dress. I am going to plant an herb garden. I will hang art on the walls. I will cut myself slack because I am working on my PhD. I am going to read books and cook food and visit my family. When I turn twenty three, I can decide where the road leads next, but for the next three months...the deadlines and comparisons and timelines will be set aside. How freeing does that sound?

Will you support me in this?

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Modern, Crisp, and Printed

Hello and welcome again from the Blogger's Quilt Festival ! If you're here for the first time, I'm glad to have you. You'll find I love clean and fresh design. This quilt, titled Evening Star, was for my first show. It's completely machine pieced and quilted and is overprinted in the same process I use for printing my fabrics. The quilt sold and is now hanging in a loving new home (hooray!), but sadly these are the only two photos I have of it (sad). Enjoy this tiny montage.

This is my second entry this sunny spring of 2015. My other is a bright and modern minimalist mini quilt. I encourage you to check out the other quilts in the modern section of the festival. Some have caught my heart with just a glance, and I can't wait to discover the makers behind them!

Lenten Twelves : Easter

Seven weeks ago my mom challenged me to feast into creativity this Lent by creating one twelve-inch quilt per week. Thus began Lenten Twelves. Finishing up quilt six and the final week, I consider it a success. My creative dam has broken. From exploring new techniques to pushing personal boundaries, these last weeks have been fun adventures in quilting with the wonderful gentle pressure (of texts from my mom with her finished weekly quilts) to just keep sewing. Thanks, Mom!

This week's quilt was a mix of experiments. First up: curved piecing. I went for minimal this time, cutting the pieces on a whim at Wednesday sewing night and whipping it up just as the evening came to a close. It still blows my mind that I hadn't ever tried curved piecing before Lenten Twelves One ! Curves are almost easier than half-square triangles!! Second on the quilt docket: printing. This week, I opted for my childhood favorite, periwinkle, and I love it. Thanks for the suggestion, Yvonne! Experiment three: free-motion quilting. I'm rather rusty and inexperienced, but the pattern came together better than I was expecting! I'm not sure I love it with the printed design. (It reminds me a tad of wheat rather than foliage.) However, I realized that I also shouldn't be overly intimidated by it! And that is enough to make it a success.

This series has truly been about working through my quilting hangups. Colors. Circles. Curves. Applique. Minimalism. Printing. Free motion quilting. With the celebration of Easter, I am bringing Lenten Twelves to a close until next year. Thank you for joining me on my journey. I hope I can encourage you to push even just one of your quilting boundaries. After all, after the forty days of Lent...come the forty days of Easter!

If you missed the Lenten Twelves Intro Post, follow the link and read it now for background on the challenge my mum and I took up this Lent. Find her finished Lenten Twelves here. Or find my Lenten Twelve One, Lenten Twelve Two, Lenten Twelve Three, and Lenten Twelve Four, and Lenten Twelve Five. Happy exploring.

Lenten Twelves : Two

Do you ever get a quilt pattern or color palette stuck in your head? Two summers ago it was triangle quilts. Last winter it was coral and navy. Then it was plus quilts. Now it's Ohio Stars.

I try so hard to resist (not quite sure why honestly, probably just my stubborn nature), but I've come to the conclusion that it's best to have out with it, the better to move on (or at least the better to make use of the single-minded concentration.) This week I had an evening star completely sketched and calculated out when Printing marched into my creative mind quickly followed by Ohio Star. I went with it. What better way to play with ideas than a weekly twelve inch quilt?

Feasting into creativity with my mum this Lent has been really lovely so far. We keep each other accountable and check-in with one another. Last night she provided the pep talk I needed to get off my butt and actually sew. She really is great. I'm so very thankful for her.

And speaking of sewing last night, I tried free-motion quilting on my Bernina for the first time, and it was like butter! I didn't realize how difficult my Brother had been until just last night. I will definitely be practicing my free-motion quilting more in the coming weeks through these quilts, and I feel much less reluctant to try now! Hurrah!

What sewing mental blocks or fixations have you been experiencing lately?

Any you might tease out in a quilt this Lenten season?

If you missed the LentenTwelves Intro Post, go follow the link and read it now for background on the challenge my mum and I took up this Lent. If you'd like to join or just follow along, you can find us on instagram with #lententwelves or just check out her blog Fibermusing  and her Lenten Twelves.

Fresh Starts II

How does one name a quilt? I was brainstorming (the collective I that includes Brent [boyfriend], Taylor [sister], and other text-support [Mom]) and came up with some I really loved, but suddenly, out of nowhere, the name game became a thought-provoking dilemma.

I love "the Tate" and "the James" as if I am naming the pattern. Then anything after it could be "the Tate II" and "the Tate IV" or "the James VI." But those means nothing to anyone but me. Tate is my new roommate's last name. James is the name of the library on campus I inhabit. See?

I also like "Summer Sails" or "Fresh Starts." These have more immediate narrative when you hear them. They are names you might post in a gallery. Also a tad more whimsical, these names shift the focus from pure design to story.

Gahh I'm so indecisive; I should just give it a number: minutes worked on it plus date finished, 125610152014.

I realized mid-dilemma that this one is easy. It is called Fresh Starts II. Its first incarnation was already christened, making my decision simple. And the quilt is drenched in fresh starts, moving to Raleigh, beginning grad school, a new relationship, and an exciting business venture. Fresh Starts II it is.

But how do you name your quilts? Your projects? Your products? Your art?

What's in a name? I'm all ears.

Yep, it's sideways. But what's really the top anyways?

My photo-snatching partner-in-crime and I peering through the Contemporary Art Museum window around front.

And I'm linking up to next week's Finish it up Friday because I couldn't be my lazy bum to post before last week's. Better late than never! Check out the flimsy finish and quilted progress too!