Next up on my project list is a black and white king. Sometimes the biggest
hurdle in starting a new quilt is all in my head. What if I make
mistakes? What if I don't like how it turns out? Am I ready to put
in the focus it takes? Ugh.
So I start in small pieces, slowly. First up, wash the fabric. For this quilt, that was a project all on its own. Just look at the pile of it on my ironing board! Ironing all that took over two hours. It gave me a chance to know the fabric - feel the weight and the texture, see how well it behaves. Now it's flat and folded and ready for the next step.
Most of my quilts are inspired by other quilts or entirely my own design. Usually I jump straight to cutting and sewing blocks once the fabric is prepped. Midnight Garden has instructions. On a quilt this size, I need a test block to ensure I'm cutting all the pieces the right size and that they'll fit together. Nothing worse that cutting large amounts of fabric and discover it's the wrong size (especially if the pieces are too small!).
I bought the
fabrics having an idea of the grayscale values in the pattern and a guess of
how it will all look together. Sometimes what looks good next to each other doesn't look right when pieced.
I cut out a set of diamonds and triangles, just enough to cobble the bare minimum part of a block. Then I used my photo editor to make the rough star of the block (it's missing the corners). It's enough to give me a feel before I dive in.
All four of these layouts are made from the same set of diamonds and triangles. What a difference it makes! The top left corner is according to the instructions. Lower right is probably my favorite; I kind of like the other two as well. The pattern is for a single repeating block but now I'm thinking it might be cool doing some kind of mixture. What do you think?
Sharing with:
Quilt Schmilt - To Do Tuesday
QuiltFabrication - Midweek Makers
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle & Thread Thursday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday
Alycia Quilts - Finished or Not Friday
Nina-Marie - Off the Wall Friday
I definitely like the idea of more than one block. You could make a pattern with the different blocks. I think they're all really pretty!
ReplyDeleteThat's a fabulous color scheme! I like the stars that have the light center the best - gives your eyes a place to focus. I can see how a mix of star designs could be fun, too. Enjoy creating!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing where you decide to go on this one, and I don't think you can go wrong whatever you do! I'm glad you mentioned the prewash step, because I was planning on sewing some simple drawstring trousers back in September, but then the shoulder thing happened and I had to put two-armed and two-handed projects on hold for a while. I still can't really lay out and cut a pattern, or use my Featherweight, or an iron, but at least I could go ahead and prewash fabric! It would feel like progress just to get that step taken care of in advance, Thanks, Sally!
ReplyDelete