Tag: Piecing

Make Visual Decisions Visually: Serendipity Puzzle

That is a quote (without the Serendipity Puzzle part) from Lorraine Torrence. It is a great ‘rule’ to remember, at least for me. I find that the picture in my mind’s eye often looks better in my mind’s eye.

To that end, I cut some sashing pieces to try and figure out if I was on the right track.


This example was my original idea for the sashing. I am not fond of it, but it is also not terrible. It looks busy and is not restful. Not sure if this quilt can be considered restful in general, but I certainly don’t want to add to the excitement. I may have to sew some pieces together to make sure this is not the right sashing design before I decide.


To me, this screams “look at the cross.” I think the contrast between the light background and dark sashing does not add to the overall design.


Think, so far, this is the best, which surprised me. It gives some space to each block so you can see the design and alleviates some of the busy-ness. I would put pieces of the three different lights instead of just the blue on white.

What is the Difference?

I experimented with pressing on two of the blocks. One I pressed towards the white (example: top) and one I pressed towards the color (example: bottom). I think it is hard to tell the difference online, but in person, if you look, you can tell that the color pops forward more on the bottom one. Ruth McDowell talks about this in her classes and her Piecing book. I don’t think it is relevant for this piece, but it is an interesting exercise.

Real Progress on Thoughts on Dots

After the CQFA meeting today, I came home, eschewed the work nagging in the back of my mind and worked on Thoughts on Dots. Earlier this week, I started to sew the squares into pairs. Today I kept on sewing – four patches, groups of two four patches until I was finished with the main part.

Above: The main part nearly sewn. The big problem I had was that the squares were not the same size. Part of it could be the ruler that I used at St. JCN’s. However, St. JCN said that the fabric was stretching as it went through the feed dogs. It was getting really bad as sewed the four patches together. Finally, I decided to take a page out of St. JCN’s book and trim the squares. Nobody will sue me for changing the size of the blocks. I changed my rotary blade and very carefully measured and trimmed the 4 patches. The larger pieces went together better after that, but I noticed as the same pieces went through the sewing machine a third or fourth time that they started to stretch again. While it is possible that my feeding of the pieces through the machine or my pressing had something to do with the stretching, I doubt it as I was trying hard to be very careful.

This is the second time that I am doubting my machine. I guess I need to take it in for a service. I can use the Gem while the 9K is on vacation, but I think it is time for me to really consider a new machine. 10 years is long enough for one machine and it has seen some hard use.

Above: Detail of the main part nearly sewn together.


Above: Finally, I got the entire main section done. I call it the main section, because I need to piece the entire top in sections. Since I plan for this piece to be a cuddle quilt, I think it will be relatively large. My design wall isn’t big enough to do the whole piece at once. Pay attention to the bottom two rows, which are still unsewn in this picture.

The above photo shows the former bottom two rows at the top of the quilt. They will still be on the bottom of the top section (far above photos), but on top of this new section, which is shown directly above. These are new squares that I threw up on the design so I could arrange the bottom part. The rule is that I am not allowed to move the top two rows as they have to coordinate with both the section above and the section below. I know they coordinate with the section above as they are, but since I can no longer see that section, I have to leave them as is to ensure I don’t make any egregious color errors.

I didn’t think I would make changes right away, but even before I got all the squares up on the wall, I began moving squares away from their fellows of the same color and removing squares that were too dull or didn’t look right. The immediate problem is that the colors in this section seem darker to me. I think I will have to remove some of the darker colors and put in more pink, add some more of the fabrics with the white backgrounds in order to make it more sherbet-y.

There are colors/fabrics that I like, but may not make it into the final piece. One example is the blue 60s dot (left hand side 3rd from the bottom, two from the left.)

I like the weird spiral dot smack in the middle, but it may be too different to include on the front of this piece.

On the back, I may make columns of the leftover squares and alternate them with plain rows – like a row quilt. It would be good not to let those already cut squares go to waste.

I was thinking about binding today and may add a thin rectangular border of various fabrics and pull it to the back rather than making a regular binding. We will see.

No Need for Geranium Dishsoap Today!!!

The sun out and the sky is blue. It is still long-sleeve cool, but the sun being out makes all the difference in my mood. This is the second day! Is the rain gone? I don’t think so, but perhaps we will get a few days of spring before the descent into fogbound summer. Whatever the weather drama, I am determined to be grateful for the sun we get and appreciate it while it is here. If it rains tomorrow, so what? It is sunny now! YAY!

I look out for eyes wherever I go for Pamelala. This one was found in the Starbuck’s right in my neighborhood!. I don’t why I never saw it before. I go to that Starbuck’s at least twice a month. I saw it and then had it on my to do list for, what seemed like, months to go back and photograph the eye. I finally did yesterday. It is a nice eye and I like the way it is in the teapot.

This is the arrangement that I laid out, serendipitiously, before the three additional blocks were added. I was thinking that I would need to do something more interesting than a 4×4 or 5×5 square arrangment. This layout just put itself up on the wall. I would fill in the blanks needed to make the thing square with blank blocks. I refuse to make a weird shaped quilt to give to someone. I don’t think I will need this arrangement now as SLB is taking some of the blank leftover blocks down to SoCal to have other people decorate at another shower. We’ll see how they end up before I decide.

Another Little Exercise in Color/Pattern Arrangement

I got these squares from Hancock’s of Paducah. They are the fabrics which comprise Moda’s Poetry Collection by April Cornell. Again, I liked the fabrics, but they are the kind of fabrics that might just sit in my palette if I bought any yardage. Thus, the squares provided a good solution for me to work with the fabrics on a limited basis.

I have been having fun rearranging them. There is a wide variety, but the patterns on the fabric are the same. There are just different colorways. As a result it has been challenging. I don’t want all the same colors together, nor do I want all the same patterns next to each other. I would like the various patterns and colors spaced evenly and pleasingly over the piece. If I am not there yet, I am close.

Another challenge is that there are a couple of prints that stand out if they are near each other, like the dots (of which I did buy yardage). These patterns demand to be far from each other. If not, they scream “what moron put us so close together?” and they produce a lot of grumbling. There are also motifs which are different, but very similar in scale. This means that, from far away, I am looking at two fabrics in four colorways that look the same. I don’t think I can avoid having some of them together and my only option is to make sure that the colorways next to each other provide as much contrast as possible within the limits of the fabric group.

One reason, I like doing this sort of work is that it is easy. I don’t have to cut or press until I sew. I can arrange and rearrange forever with very little physical energy, yet there are some rules. Granted they are self-imposed, but all puzzles have rules. Also, it seems like it is good for my brain. I feel as though my brain is working when I am rearranging.

Once this one is sewed together, I will have three squares pieces. I haven’t the foggiest of what I will do with them. I still think table runners are in my future, but we will see. If nothing else, they will be good machine quilting practice.

BTW, Pamelala has a blog. It doesn’t look like she updates it very often, but the art she has up there is great! Her assemblage art is fantastic. She isn’t doing it anymore, so grab a piece while you can, especially since she is becoming famous for her quilts now.

Mr. B’s Rectangles et al.

In the post about Sewing Accomplishments, I talked about some squares that I sewed together. They were, as I mentioned, a pack of squares from the Benartex squares club.

I got a different set of rectangles sometime previously, which I found Friday in the pile of the great unwashed (fabric). I washed them along with other fabrics and just sewed them together today. (Photo is prior to sewing them, but I used the same arrangement).

I probably wouldn’t use these types of fabrics, so this was a good solution. I thought that it might be a good beginning for a quilt for one of the older nieces or nephews, but it is an odd shape and those children are so large now that they are adults (or approaching adulthood) that I am not sure what would look good with it. I am not a tie-dye sort of person, so don’t think that I have much that would go with the fabrics. I do have many tone-on-tones, so I may be able to find something. I took down the piece after sewing the squares together and will let it percolate for awhile. In this case, sewing the squares together was a way of getting pieces that were really too small for anything else to cease being annoyingly in my way.

This squares thing is very interesting to me. It satisfies a need in me to see an entire line of fabric, yet doesn’t make a big investment in fabric that I probably wouldn’t use in large quantities. I do have an appreciation for most types and colors of fabrics (though baby poop brown still proves to be difficult), but I don’t usually want them all in large quantities…. or any quantities for that matter. This means that the fabric squares are a good choice.

I cut some more squares for Thoughts on Dots. I also ejected some squares from the piece. I went back to that heavy/light method of choosing fabrics and ejected the two fabrics (the blue Terry Mangat fabric and the dark-ish green) that I had identified as iffy a few postings ago. They were both in the third row of that previous posting.

TFQ pointed out that some of the reds are not reading as dots. I have to think about if I care how the fabrics look from both far and near or if I want different looks depending on how far you are from the quilt, e.g. as you come closer you see different things. I said that a feeling of heavy and light was important, but in this case color is as well. I think that some of the reds don’t read as dots, because the dots are too light. I have to think about whether the reds become black holes of doom now that the very darks are gone. It is definitely an interesting exercise.

In arranging the squares this time, I tried putting a pink or yellow square in every other spot. In doing this type of arrangement, I realized that I need some violet. I had to remind myself that I have not even scratched the surface of the dots that I own and will get to the violets soon. I also need some more yellows. I am not sure I like this arrangement, but will work through its possibilities until I decide it works or doesn’t work.

One of the joys I am finding with these dots and with the size of the squares is the playfulness. I find that I am not agonizing about blocks going together because I am only working with squares.

The other thing that occurred to me is that I want this quilt to be larger than my design wall. I intend to wrap up in it when the weather is ugly and I need a boost. The question, then, becomes do I sew the squares that I have together, take them off the wall and do the next section? OR Do I take a photo of the squares and then take them off the wall recreating the piece from photos once I am ready to sew. The former would be fun and provide an element of surprise, but runs the risk of some major color disasters. The latter is very safe.

Finally, I was getting another load of the great unwashed ready to be redeemed and saw these two fabrics end up near each other. It occurred to me that these are the two things to which women resort to escape. Drugs, I suppose, are another, but alcohol and chocolate are much easier to procure and also legal. I think that these two fabrics have provided inspiration for another of the Women’s Work series (currently only a series of one!). I have lots of perfect fabrics and ideas, but not many completed quilts. I had better get busy.

Sewing Accomplishments

I did get some sewing and fabric work done over the weekend. Nothing fantastic, but it felt good just to be handling fabric.

I actually finished this block on the way back from our ski trip the first weekend in March. I didn’t get around to pressing it until this past weekend. I started this block years ago in an Elly Sienkiewicz class when I thought I might want to do a Baltimore Album Quilt. Two blocks taught me my lesson. All of you who do needle turn applique’ are goddesses. I will never be one. This block will go into the orphan block quilt that I plan to make when I am old.

I just stopped receiving the 4×4″ squares from Benartex. I decided not to renew my membership in the club as receiving the 4×4″s was starting to get on my nerves. I no longer wanted to find a place to stash them and have given up on making a 4×4″ square quilt. However, this group came and was on my sewing table on Friday when all of sudden I became desperate to sew. I just sat down and sewed them all together. They are definitely in the color scheme of Robyn Pandolph, a color scheme that I admire. I always think I might make something in this color scheme, but then always end up adding hot pink or lime green, which isn’t this scheme at all. This was a good way to get it out of my system with very little effort on my part. Now I have a big rectangle of squares on my design wall and am not sure what to do next. I could do nothing and just admire what I have when I am in a Robyn Pandolph sort of mood. I could make a table runner. I could make this the center medallion of a quilt. I am not sure yet. Still, it was fun and fun is definitely a good thing.

I also finished my block for the Sampler class. The technique was foundation piecing and the block is a simple New York Beauty. I am not happy with it at all. It is too simple. This block made me think that I could just keep these blocks as class samples and not make them into a quilt. This presumes that I will teach a sampler class again. There is something about the blocks together that makes me not want to make them into a quilt. I will have to figure out what.

I also made progress on SLB’s wedding shower quilt. I cut all the blocks and all of the strips that we picked out. I plan to start sewing the strips this weekend.

RE: More Thoughts on Dots — I also began cutting 6.5″ squares of dot fabrics with the thought of making a simple yet happy quilt with all of the dot fabrics that I have. So far I have four blocks. Immerhin.

Feelin’ Blue Layouts

Aja’s blocks for Feelin’ Blue arrived this week and they are gorgeous. I think she must have picked backgrounds, which truly inspired JZS and I to do our best. All of the blocks are gorgeous and together they have the right amount of color with right amount of blue. It is still monochromatic, but not boring. I read or took a class somewhere/sometime and recall the teacher/author saying that you had to add a little of the complementary color to a monochromatic quilt to make it interesting. I’ll have to look up from where I am remembering that comment.

Now my task is to layout the blocks.I have a couple of different ideas.

Feelin' Blue Layout 1
Feelin’ Blue Layout 1

The first one is nice, but unbalanced. Balance isn’t always what it is cracked up to be, but I do like balance.

Feelin' Blue Layout 2
Feelin’ Blue Layout 2

The second photo is my attempt at balance. I am leaning on going with this option. I still may play around with the layout some more just to see what I can come up with.

I am also still fiddling with the placement of the individual pieces. I stare at it in the morning for 45 minutes or so and move pieces around based on different subjective criteria. Two light blues in the middle piece are next to each other and thus make a big light blue blob. Too many oranges in one area. Etc.