Yep! That is me! It is so good to finally see this quilt coming together. The photo is not great but this is how I laid the blocks out at first and I thought I liked it but the more I looked at it the more I decided that the churn dash blocks shouldn't be bunched together in the middle.
In winter my design wall lives in my conservatory - imagine you are standing at your kitchen sink and instead of looking out the window you are looking thru what used to be your window into what is a conservatory. Normally you can see outside thru the conservatory windows but at the moment what you are looking at is my design wall. It has to go here in winter because the normal home for it is in my lounge room (yep we don't use that room much) in front of the fire place. Great when we are not using the fire, not practical when the fire is lit.
I wasn't happy about moving it to the conservatory at the beginning of winter, but that was before I realised that I could sit and ponder my WIP while I did the dishes or stirred pots on the stove. Very handy! Made a lot of decisions at those times! And the last decision I made was to split up the two churn dash rows and place them top and bottom instead of in the middle. To me, that gives them less importance and brings your attention more to the stars etc. I liked how it balanced the colours too. (See second photo)
I work a lot from photos of my design wall. That way I can sit in my sewing room, where I can't see the design wall, and work as though I can. To check that I was going to like the new arrangement instead of rearranging all the blocks, I simply printed out a photo and cut it up then taped it back together how I wanted it - easy to do with the rows!
The next challenge was the size of the blocks. For some reason the star blocks turned out exactly 8 1/2 inches squares like they are supposed to and the other blocks were all a fraction too small. I couldn't cut down the stars without losing the points, and enlarging the other blocks with more star fabric wasn't an option. So, what to do?
By adding the sashing to just two sides of the blocks and then trimming them all to ten inches the differences are not at all noticeable. I always say a mistake is just an opportunity to be creative (and then I hope like mad that I can come up with a solution!)
In order to sew the sashing on to the correct two sides I drew on the picture with black marker and just referred to that for the sewing - only had to unsew three! Happy with that! A lot less work than having to lay it out on the design wall and then pin.
So now the blocks have been sewn into rows. I doubt I will have time to sew the rows together til Monday. In the mean time it can stay on my design wall so I can study it and firm up my ideas for the border. Not sure how much border it needs. Something dark though. It is already 47.5" by 57" so it is a reasonable lap size. It doesn't need to be too much bigger.
Tomorrow I will be baking for the school fete. Chocolate Chip cookies and Milo Cookies - the you non-Aussies, Milo is a powdered chocolate malted milk drink. In the afternoon I will be catching up with the sisterhood briefly. Saturday is busy - I am heading off in one direction with Fly Boy and DH is heading in another direction with Guitar Hero. We will be back home again for dinner. Sunday is Father's Day: quiet morning, lunch at a favourite cafe restaurant and then clothes shopping with the boys (don't even go there!) Hopefully there will be a little sewing in there somewhere.
The Rainbow Scrap Challenge has changed colours again with the new month. We can usually get a hint of the colour to come by looking at the background colour of superscrappy blog and today I noticed that the colour is black!!!!! Now that wasn't what I was expecting, but that is OK as I have lots of black. I think tonight I will go to sleep thinking about what I will do - I am partly thinking of some place mats for my kitchen table - something mixed with brights and definitely whimsical! I am forcing myself to NOT do a quilt as I have enough other projects to complete!
Till next time.......happy stitching!
In winter my design wall lives in my conservatory - imagine you are standing at your kitchen sink and instead of looking out the window you are looking thru what used to be your window into what is a conservatory. Normally you can see outside thru the conservatory windows but at the moment what you are looking at is my design wall. It has to go here in winter because the normal home for it is in my lounge room (yep we don't use that room much) in front of the fire place. Great when we are not using the fire, not practical when the fire is lit.
I wasn't happy about moving it to the conservatory at the beginning of winter, but that was before I realised that I could sit and ponder my WIP while I did the dishes or stirred pots on the stove. Very handy! Made a lot of decisions at those times! And the last decision I made was to split up the two churn dash rows and place them top and bottom instead of in the middle. To me, that gives them less importance and brings your attention more to the stars etc. I liked how it balanced the colours too. (See second photo)
The next challenge was the size of the blocks. For some reason the star blocks turned out exactly 8 1/2 inches squares like they are supposed to and the other blocks were all a fraction too small. I couldn't cut down the stars without losing the points, and enlarging the other blocks with more star fabric wasn't an option. So, what to do?
By adding the sashing to just two sides of the blocks and then trimming them all to ten inches the differences are not at all noticeable. I always say a mistake is just an opportunity to be creative (and then I hope like mad that I can come up with a solution!)
In order to sew the sashing on to the correct two sides I drew on the picture with black marker and just referred to that for the sewing - only had to unsew three! Happy with that! A lot less work than having to lay it out on the design wall and then pin.
The Rainbow Scrap Challenge has changed colours again with the new month. We can usually get a hint of the colour to come by looking at the background colour of superscrappy blog and today I noticed that the colour is black!!!!! Now that wasn't what I was expecting, but that is OK as I have lots of black. I think tonight I will go to sleep thinking about what I will do - I am partly thinking of some place mats for my kitchen table - something mixed with brights and definitely whimsical! I am forcing myself to NOT do a quilt as I have enough other projects to complete!
Till next time.......happy stitching!
Oh wow - I can see why you are so happy. It looks fantastic! Making your "little" mistake led to such a great layout.
ReplyDeleteYour Quilt looks Great...Your Eye does lead to the Stars..Great Job!
ReplyDeletecheers
WOW that is so effective... the sashing choice is just perfect xxx
ReplyDeleteI love the sashing and the block layout! The quilt as really come alive!
ReplyDeleteI think it is good to be able to take time to decide on arrangement. If you have the space it is nice to take your time until you are satisfied.I think that is one reason I like doing my own "thing" rather than using patterns made by someone else on a computer. That is really looking great.
ReplyDeleteI like the new layout much better and the sashing really makes the quilt work. Looks fantastic. Enjoy those Milo cookies! Gotta have them with cold milk.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great insight into your design process. The arrangement and layout of your blocks is quite nice with the changes you made. I think at least a small border would look good, just so that the blocks on the edge don't fall off visually. Glad that the black has your mind working, it has been fun trying to cover all the months and all the rainbow as well.
ReplyDeleteBruce's quilt is coming along great. I can see why you are so happy. I love how the quilt is coming together more and more each time I see it.
ReplyDeleteHugs
donna
looks great......good idea for the "fix"
ReplyDeleteIt is really looking good! Would love to see a photo of your conservatory and I like the idea of standing at the sink and looking at your wall.....lots of great ideas probably pop into your head!
ReplyDelete