Tag: Project-Quilt

I was out of the house almost all of last weekend, which is not my usual routine.  While I had fun, I was disappointed not to get to spend copious amounts of time working on my projects. Still, as I mentioned on Wednesday, I did fit in a bit of work around the edges on the Tarts.

I played around with different looks for the piece of pie. I drew one, first, that the viewer looked at straight at, e.g. the viewer did not see the top of the pie at all.  It didn’t really work for me. I didn’t like the look, so I reworked it so that the view had a more angled view.

I didn’t have a good pie crust color that I wanted to use (‘wanted to use’ being the critical phrase, here) The orange makes the viewer do a double take, IMO. I will do something, perhaps, with the quilting on the piece to tone down the orange a bit. The orange does blend in with the other orange fabrics in the whole piece.

After I place everything the way I want it on the background, I stitch it down. In the last few pieces I have also been topstitching in addition to the machine appliqued zigzag stitching. I don’t think you can see the topstitching in this picture, but people who are able to view the piece in person will be able to see it, I think.

I picked the background to make a triangle with other purple pieces at the top of the piece. I picked it after I picked the ‘filling’ fabric. I wonder if they don’t allow each other to shine? I think this particular block looks better as part of the whole than by itself.

I left a bit of the fabrics above and below showing so you can see how it fits in close up.

Here is the whole current piece. I kind of miss that big white rectangle at the bottom and am having trouble assimilating the pie. I think I will manage to get used to it. I can’t imagine a big white rectangle in the piece would be a great design decision.

Am going to try to get to some studies for the silverware next to the red cups. I am also thinking I will add a few more black and white squares to the checkerboard on top of the frothy drink.

Here is one last choice that I couldn’t resist. I am kind of liking this one best, but I think that is because it is new. I still like the China Cake Plate in the Tarts Cake Plate Conundrum post.

I am having some trouble  deciding how to organize the blocks on the left hand side.  Other arrangements are:

If you start from the bottom you can see the evolution over the past few months.

Summary: Different options for one new element in the Tarts Come to Tea.

This is a quick post to see what you think about cake plate options.

Here is one of the renditions of the Tarts Come to Tea from 4/19/2009. As you can see I redid the cup in the middle with a to go cup. I am pretty sure I have moved elements around since I took this picture.

One issue with selecting fabrics is I still have a Pamela Allen hangover and I want more pattern. The Child was in the room doing his artwork and offered up his opinion, strenuously!

I really liked the fabric with the flowers. This was the first fabric I tried and it reminded me of a china pattern.

I thought this was more like a china pattern than the fabric in the first example and less regular.

The blue plate special fabric was appealing. The Child thought it was too regular.

The pink melted a bit into the orange background, though I thought it picked up the other pinks in the piece.

I finally gave in and tried a dark-ish blue. Before I did, The Child would just roll his eyes at me when I showed him the above choices and remind me that none of them were solids. He didn’t really care about any other fabrics or patterns in the quilt.

I finally gave in to certain individuals and created a solid blue cake plate.

I wanted to see a different cake plate, so I made another pattern and cut it out of patterned fabric. I really like this version of the cake plate. It is definitely busier and the cake isn’t highlighted as much.

I am thinking of adding a cherry to this cake.

Most of what you can see is the Tarts Come to Tea, but some are other projects, which I will talk about later. Progress is being made, despite seeming to make only very tiny amounts of progress every weekend.

I thought of putting a cupcake in the line of cups instead of another cup for a couple of reasons:

1. I couldn’t find another cup that I liked immediately.
2. I thought I had made plenty of cups already; all over the piece there are a total of 11 cups.
3. If the title of the Piece is the Tarts Come to Tea, then there should be some blocks showing items that could be construed as ‘tarts’. I am not up for creating sexy women in machine applique’ right at the moment. 😉

Here is the new frothy drink. The one with the background plaid is gone. I have it in my scrap pile and it may be reborn as a teacher pillow or something. We will see.