Hita's Whimsy: Whimsy's Doodles becomes an heirloom.

Ahhhh. It's been forever since I've updated! Almost my entire focus has been on the Whimsy's Doodles quilt. I have to warn this is a lengthy update, so if you are tired of hearing about Whimsy's Doodles, you should skip this blog post, or just scroll through and look at the progress pics 😉.

Jan 28, 2019
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Feb 11, 2019
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This picture taken with my phone camera doesn't do it justice. I thought I had a photo of the whole quilt without fold lines 😏. I may return later and edit a better pic in when I get the quilt back in March. But I can't wait until then to publish this update!
No worries! I have plenty of progress photos!!

It all started as a creative free form exercise. I blogged about starting in Doodles with needle and thread.

Sept 25
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I have to admit it was very awkward for me. I thought I was going to make a few wavy lines for my first stitches, but a triangle formed instead. I just went with it and continued with a few rounds. Then formed wavy lines around it.

Then the curly cue! I have no idea what happened there. My needle and I were not having the same vision at all!! Oh, it hurts how awkward it looks!! But one of my rules for this exercise was that I would not be taking any stitches out once they were in. So these crazy shapes stayed. (I eventually dismissed this rule because of the possibility of entering into competitions.)

And I decided to name my needle Whimsy. Stitching became a partnership between us. And in a way, it seemed to give myself permission to let go of the need for a plan and hand the doodling to her.

I guess we have to use what ever process we need to turn off the rational planning side of our brain and turn the creative side loose!!

Whimsy works for me!!

Sept 26. 2018
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Sept 26, 2018
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We came to an understanding...

We fell into a rhythm...

Sept 29, 2018
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I didn't want to put my needle down.

Sept 29, 2018
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Whimsy was on a roll.

Sept 29, 2018
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Oct 1, 2018
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Oct 2, 2018
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In less than a week, but many hours of stitching, Whimsy and I were progressing nicely.

Oct 2, 2018
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Oct 5, 2018
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Oct 6, 2018
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hahah, I'm trying to give you a break and not include ALL my pictures, just a select few. But, you know how it is. Watching the blank space being filled one doodle at a time. I was amazing myself. My stitches were turning into a piece of art!! And it's coming from within me!

....are you getting a feeling that I was getting a bit full of myself about now?

Oct 8, 2018
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Everything wass working well. I wanted to try something different. Like a spiral seperate from the previous stitches. It was ok...

Oct 9, 2018
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..until I kept adding stitches. And the spiral was becoming flat.

Oct 15, 2018
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I couldn't figure out what exactly had me unsatisfied. I didn't know how to fix it. So I moved to the other side and continued with petal flowers. (Later, I went back and took stitches out. That helped bring some dimension back. Lesson for me here, sometimes more is just more, not merrier or better.)

Oct 17, 2018
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But creativity wasn't really flowing. I think it was around this time I had already decided I would enter Whimsy's Doodles into competition, but I hadn't decided which category. The choices were miniture - less then 24" or small hand quilted - over 30".
The indecision prevented progress.

Oct 29, 2018
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Yet I stubbornly kept trying to continue stitching... unsuccessfully, I might add.
I browsed (desperately scoured is probably more descriptive) Pinterest for inspiration!!

saved to my phone on Nov 6, 2018

The result is that I don't have many pictures between Oct 29 to Dec 10. Stitching was probably at a minimum. Along with my indecision, I also has more pressing life obligations, mom duties, upcoming Christmas parties, and homemade Christmas gifts to go with those parties... other things had to be priorities...

Nov 19, 2018
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.... like Prince. He's probable telling me, "that's enough with the quilting, Mom! time to CUDDLE!"

Nov 24, 2018
obligatory cat pic

December. I finally decided to enter in the small hand quilted category which meant I had to add more fabric. Which meant I had to figure out some borders... with a deadline fast approaching!

Dec 10, 2018
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I used wax paper to help me visualize. In the end, I decided to keep it as simple as I can with a small 2" blue border and then a wider white outside border.

Dec 10, 2018
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I also had to add batting! Since I had started with a scrap of batting that happened to be the right size to fit in the quilting hoop. It was hard to match more to it because I didn't know where the batting came from. (Lesson here, keep batting bags to store left overs in so I'll know what brand and content and ...)

Oh wellI, I managed and the result is not bad.

Dec 12, 2018
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Notice the mitered corners?

Dec 12, 2018
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Time to get quilting again! I turned it over to Whimsy and away we went!

Dec 13, 2018
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...many 10 hour days... with a beeswax thread conditioner heart made by my brother Nathaniel Hernandez.

Dec 14, 2018
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Every free second of the day was spent doodling. I was even dreaming doodles! I couldn't stitch fast enough.

Dec 14, 2018
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... reaching the first corner was joyous!

Dec. 17, 2018
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I learned that I tend to think in small scale. The problem is that hand stitching doesn't lend itself well to very fine details. Details get lost in close stitching, like the swirl in the center of this next doodle. In the future I'll have to work on enlarging my scale. Still, I'm pleased with this doodle.

Dec 17, 2018
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Time for something with a more organic feel. ...ummm, again I saw clumsy. I was determined to embrace the imperfection and hoped it would blend in as the stitching continued...

Dec 21, 2018
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That first corner took a whole day to fill in.... 10 hours! With that as a gauge, I calculated that it would take 60 more hours to fill in the center!! my brain was screaming "DEADLINE, DEADLINE, DEADLINE!!!"

Dec 23, 2018
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Making it to the second corner was a huge relief. I'm wasn't really keeping track of time. Another lesson here, if I ever do this again I will keep a log of stitching hours. This would be for my own benefit, also, the first thing everyone asks is "how much time have you put into this?"

Dec 26, 2018
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I'm also going to have this quilt appraised. It'll be good to know the value for future reference and insurance purposes. Part of the appraisal form asks for how many hours to complete the project. There are many reasons to keep track!

Dec 28, 2018
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Eventually, (if it's God's will), it will be given to my first grandbaby (who is still just a dream at the moment.) I need them to know the value.

Dec 28, 2018
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Even New Years Eve was spent stitching!

Cheers!

Happy New Years 2019!

Dec 31, 2018
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Touched the third corner!! So close soooo close!! It's very encouraging.

Jan 2, 2019

And the final corner! I do admit, I used bigger motifs. They blended in well though and you can't really tell.

Jan 4, 2019
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Onto borders!!! My thoughts were that these would stitch up faster because I wasn't doodling anymore. I did draft my own cable to fit the blue border. I drew it onto interfacing and pressed a herra marker over the interfacing to transfer the lines to the quilt. I thought it worked pretty well. There's a bit of an imperfect flow to the cable that pleases me. (I am trying hard to embrace imperfection as perfect in my own work. It's very liberating!)

Jan 5, 2019
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Jan 8, 2019
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I found running nine lines at a time quite fun. It took six days to go around the first border. It seemed forever and my fingers were getting sore but there's no time to stop.... because.... "deadline!"...

Jan 11, 2019
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Outside border. I had ordered stencils online from the Stencil Company. I was so happy to see this design was perfect as is for the outside border and there wasn't any need for major alteration. The most that was needed was stretching the motif connections a 1/4", which isn't noticable at all!

Jan 11/2019
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Jan 17, 2019
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The outside border is the only place I allowed myself to use ink marking. I used the blue pens with ink that disappears by spraying water on it. However, the water apparently just spreads the ink. So when the water dried the ink reappeared where the edge of the water had pushed it. It caused a little bit of concern for me. Thankfully, when the whole quilt was submerged in water and washed there were no signs of the blue ink at all. phew!!