I posted a beginning layout photo to Instagram and one reader (is that the right word for Instagrammers who follow your feed?) asked if I knew it was 2016. I politely explained that I was working with the patches from last year and hadn’t quite started 2016’s version yet. Unlike you, dear reader, s/he does not read the blog and doesn’t know how this project works. ?
I have to admit that I almost gave up on putting this one together. I just felt like I didn’t have it in me, which is why it is April and I am just laying out the pieces now.
There are a few reasons. My design wall is the primary one. It is too small and I have just complained about it in my IRL circles rather than doing anything about it. I AM going to do something about it soon. I have a plan and having a plan means that I can execute that plan.
Next reason is that the project is feeling a bit stale. I don’t think it really is, but it feels that way to me. Part of that feeling probably came from having three of the quilts rejected from QuiltCon. I keep telling myself that clearly the people who did not jury in my quilts cannot appreciate the work that goes into them.
Third, I have a lot of projects on my plate and that I want to make. Doing one that is similar to the seven others I have made seems futile.
However, it is an excellent mind puzzle and color exercise, so I am back in the saddle and I have given myself until April 26 to get the piece laid out.
The first step is to sort all the pieces into general color piles: all the blues together, all the reds, etc. Normally I have several plastic boxes with patches, but this year, I used a large Recchiuti box and all were in one place. This step gives me an idea of how many patches in each color I have to work with.
The first challenge is to get all the pieces on the design wall. I can do some basic laying out before all of them are on the wall, but I can’t refine the placement without seeing the whole piece.
As of this writing, the patches are not all on the design wall. Since time is ticking, I need to work on getting that particular step done. It starts with putting a few patches in one color up and then the next. Making them all fit on this subpar design wall is the key. I am determined not to trim them all this year, like I did last year, even if I have to layer the pieces more than I would usually.
When I finished a good chunk of the layout, the above photo shows my first pass.