Day 50 – Radio Static

Today is day 50! That’s a huge milestone! We only have 315 days to go!

To kick off our special day, here’s a very easy, beginner filler design: Radio Static.

There’s a reason I don’t often count how many days I have left because my hands start to sweat and I get consumed with worry about actually coming up with 300 more designs.

But then I remember how easy it’s been to create this first 50 so the next 50 can’t be that bad.

And this works for more situations than just insane blogging projects! Whenever you’re faced with a big problem or a gigantic quilting project, break it down into small pieces.

Take my latest quilting project: I ended up buying the Circular quilt pattern I talked about here and have finally gotten started on it.

This project involves appliqueing 70 circles inside squares. After the first one I was ready to scream. I might love quilting, that that doesn’t mean I love everything about quilting.

Me and applique don’t talk much, and when we do, it’s a pretty dysfunctional conversation.

I ended up breaking the project down into 5 square groups and will only do 5 squares a day until I finish all of them. I can do 5 squares of anything, but what I can’t do is stare at a stack of 70 and expect to be able to do them all in one evening.

So that’s the attitude I’m taking with this project as well. If I can quilt 50 new filler designs, I can quilt 50 more. Just don’t tell me what day I’m on again until we’re closer to the halfway point!

Alright, let’s get back to Radio Static:

Inspiration – Have you ever seen the movie “Meet the Parents” when the crazy, ex-CIA Father-in-law straps his future Son-in-Law to a lie detector test? Apart from being pretty funny, the wiggly lines of the lie detector test made me think of this filler design.

Design Family – Edge to Edge. This means the design is stitched from one edge of your quilting space to the other. This design will work terrifically in open or uncomplicated areas like sashing, but probably won’t look as good in small, tight areas.

Difficulty Level – Beginner. How hard is it to stitch zig zaggy lines?

Directional Texture – 2 Directions. Edge to edge designs often give off a very horizontal / vertical texture.

Suggestions for Use – I think this design would look really great expanded over a floral quilt, like the new Moda Basic Grey fabric “Eva”. The contrast between the sharp lines of Radio Static will look really cool with the flowing lines of this fabric.

This is my latest favorite moda fabric and I simply MUST create a quilt with “Dauphine French Lace” or “Dauphine Versailles” though being purple, I doubt my husband will like it on our bed!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day