Monday, January 11, 2021

On Podunk Pond Assembly Line

 Happy Monday Quilting Friends!  It's days like today that make me thankful for my happy place.  Outside it's going to be another cold, gloomy and gray winter day in Indiana.  But inside it's bright and happy like a warm spring day.  The sweet smell of the lilac candle in the living room has drifted into the Studio giving me the illusion of spring.  My brightly color version of Bonnie Hunters quilt pattern called On Ringo Lake is singing to me....🎵🎵 Hello sunshine, Good Morning, Morning...Wakeup sleepy Head....I'm the happiest Girl...In the whole USA.🎵🎵  While admiring the vibrantly color design wall it occurs to me that this quilt will need a new name.  It's doesn't remind me of a lake.


Can you see it?  This quilt laid out on the ground with a picnic basket, me and my girl Khaleesi(dog) laying in the sun watching the clouds roll by on a beautiful spring day.  Yep it's official, my quilt will be called On Podunk Pond.  I feel this better describes my version of this pattern, color makes all the difference. Not to mention I have a strange emotional attachment to many of my quilts that helps me with making and naming them.


Quilting has always been an outlet for my emotions, good or bad.  I tend to stitch the happy times and the not so happy times of my life into a quilt.  It's also used as a way to keep the blues at bay.  I find surrounding myself with bright and happy colors makes my little ole heart go pitter-pat.  So when I feel a little negative or blue I like to open the fabric stash cabinets and just pet, sort or play with different fabric combinations.  
Not everyone feels the same working in the same color pallet and that's okay.  We each need to find what we are passionate about and what makes our heart and soul sing. 
 Following the popular color trends is not my thing.  Like right now, most fabric lines are muted with browns or grays and lean towards pastels.  I suppose it's a sign of what's going on in the world.  Things do seem a lot more dismal and gray in the last few months.  I may make an occasional out of my comfort zone quilt to challenge myself but I always go back to the basic box of crayons for color inspiration.  What colors make your heart sing? Are you more of a warm and cozy quilter?  

Another trend in quilting is efficiency.  A quicker way to do this or that is great but we need to remember to move.  While it can be great for pumping out the quilts quickly it can also have an adverse side effect if we don't take steps.  STEPS being the key word.   In the past I was always looking for the fasted way to get things done.  That has changed a bit.  I still want the process to be fast but I also want to move even if it's just a few steps.  Having my quilting assembly line set up in a nice "U" shape allowed me to never leave my seat.  Efficient for quilting but not for health.   So I've decided to make it a point to MOO-VE.  It's not about weight it's about health and being able to MOVE.  I'm sure many of you here in the USA have seen the TV commercial for a drug that says "A body in motion stays in motion".  
I want to stay in motion as long as possible.  We all do right?  So here's what I've done to make myself move a tad bit more in the studio.

Steps 1, 2 and 3 in the image below are the basic no movement, keep it quick and simple quilt assembly line.  In the past I would piece all the blocks at once.  Then get up press them all at once and put them on the design wall all at once.  That's the low movement way. 
The new more movement way is to piece one block at a time, press the one block and put it on the design wall.  I have two options for pressing the blocks.  I can either get a nice stretch by standing and stretching over my machine to reach the pressing board(4) or walk around the table to the other side press the block and walk back around to the design wall(5).   
The yellow arrows are pointing to the empty design boards, there's two sizes. Previously all of these would be put right beside me on a table, no movement.  Now I must stand and stretch a little to put the small ones on my cutting table...more movement.   While this isn't an aerobic workout at least I'm getting some movement and working the largest muscles in my body, the leg muscles.  And this project is moving along after years of being a UFO.


So far I'm loving this new game plan.  However, the efficiency police in my brain is having a cow right now.  Changing up my system/quilting rhythm has effected my attention to detail.  Interesting how changing the way I move can effect other areas like quality and attention to detail.  I'm so focused on the new  movement steps that I'm making more piecing errors and spending more time with jack the ripper.  Oh well, I guess I just need to make the best of it and look at it as more movement.  










  






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11 comments:

  1. I love your ON Podunk Pond version! I'm right there with you, too, regarding fabric colors. Bright and bold fabrics make my heart sing. Happy MOO-ving!

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  2. I choose to not participate in the Ringo Lake mystery, after doing the 2 previous mysteries. When it was revealed I really did like it though, so I’ve saved the necessary steps. Now that I’ve seen your Podunk Pond ... which I LOVE ... I think I’ll dig the mystery pattern out and start it in nice cheerful colours. My favourite colours are in the teal, turquoise, aqua range, but I have plenty of quilts in those colours. Thanks for sharing Podunk Pond!

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  3. I like the colors you've used in your quilt and how you've made this design your own. I agree about moving when sewing. I choose to not have a pressing pad by my sewing machine. I get up and walk across the room to the iron and press there. My mother was a good example of NOT getting enough exercise. I don't want to be hobbling and unable to walk when I'm in my 70's like she was. Have a lovely week and happy stitching!

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  4. I love your version!!! It reminds me of summer Ahhhhh..........

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  5. I wish I could wrap my mind around a mystery but no. I’m too afraid of starting something and not liking it. To choose colors?? I need a pattern!! A picture of the quilt!! Ha! I have searched your blog and the only time I see u mentioned your small design boards was in 2019. I’m wondering if u ever did a tutorial on them. I’d love to have a few of those! I really miss u when u take blogging breaks! Sharon

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  6. I agree with many of the things in today’s post. I love to pet the fabric and sew a lot of emotion into my quilts. This last spring I fell and injured my shoulder. It took two weeks to get into surgery. I was in terrible pain and couldn’t move my arm. I would sit in my sewing room and pet the fabric. I pulled fat quarters off the shelf and figured out how to iron them with my left hand just so I could do something. I didn’t move enough and after surgery it took another week to not be in to much pain to move. When I finally got back in the sewing room I decided that I needed to move my ironing to the other side of the room so that I would stand up and move a bit. I am regaining more strength everyday but will not move my iron back to within reach of my machine as I agree I have to keep moving. Yes it is not as efficient but not moving is not efficient either.

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  7. I never enter Bonnies mystery but I love watching the quilt reveals and all the different color ways that are used!
    Sometimes I have to check 2 or 3 times to confirm its even the same pattern.

    I love your colors and on Podunk Pond is a lovely tribute to Bonnies pattern and your colors!!!

    To keep me moving when I quilt I listen to audio books and each time I need to change the disk I get up and do a stretch and move about...

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  8. it is so bright and happy!!! I can totally see you and your girl picnicing!!!

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  9. always love your colors, gloomy and cold here to

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  10. Lea Anne, oh my, you made me laugh, I think it was Jack the Ripper. I love your blocks, I first said, wow! There are so many. I love the colors too. Colors for me? Depends on what I’m making, I tend to want to use seasonal colors I guess.

    I absolutely agree that movement is important, I do the same thing too. My cutting table is 8 ft from my sewing table. My ironing board is right behind me, but I have to turn around, and stand up to use it. And my design wall is 3’ out of reach. I’ve bookmarked Bonnie’s mupysteries, some, I love mysteries. Someday I’ll get to them.

    But your side sign boards, omgosh, I’d love to even have one! That’s so, so impressive! Next trip to the hardware store I think I’ll have to buy a sheet of that board. Right now I’m using my one 17” sq wool mat, partly so my one rescue kitty doesn’t use it! Thank you fir brighten7ng my day. Winter here in central Idaho.

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  11. When Mom In Love would come spend summers with us she would complain that the ironing board was too far from the sewing machine... either ends of our long 20' living room. I told her there was a reason, I needed to get up and move! She eventually got her knee replacement done, and was able to move better after that.

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