Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I slapped more blocks on the design wall, still without my ideas handy.
There are some elements I find interesting and want to keep (hooray for cell phone cameras!), but this still isn’t right overall. I may need to make a few more blocks, if I want to finish off some of the design elements. I’d rather work with what I have, but we will see.
I finally started putting the Pantone blocks up on the design wall. I was itching to do it after I saw Julie putting some of her blocks up.
After I finished the last batch, which Friend Julie received the day after I sent them (!), I couldn’t help but slap some of the blocks up on the design wall.
I didn’t have my ideas handy, so I just put the blocks up. This will not be the final quilt and it may be that I don’t keep any of the elements in this arrangement. It was fun to put them up on the design wall.
I finished work on Friday and spent the weekend on some cleanup projects, one of which was the Pantone blocks.
I finally finished all the blocks for the Pantone Project. I am excited that I can start playing with the layout, especially after I saw what Friend Julie was doing on her design wall!
These have been hanging around my workroom for a few weeks now. Last weekend was really the first time in a few weeks I had uninterrupted time to sew. DH was out and the house was quiet so I could concentrate. Fortunately, except for one fabric, I had picked out all the fabrics previously so all I had to do was cut and sew. I did choose some of the easier blocks, but I tried to choose blocks I thought I could use in the overall quilt design. Now to just get these to Julie at some point soon.
Julie handed me the last three Pantone blocks at Sew Day the other day.
I still have a few to make as mentioned the other day, but I am working my way through them.
I spent some time last week finding fabrics for my last group of Pantone blocks.
I don’t have any greens as dark as Deep Forest, so in the end, I just chose a black.
Most of the others I selected from older fabrics that I haven’t even looked at in awhile. I have one more fabric to select, but I have already cut the 4.5 inch squares. I have also started to make the blocks and will show those soon.
I spent some time last weekend making the last of the Pantone blocks for our swap.
The first step is always selecting fabric. For this group, I went through practically every bin of fabric except red. I had a really hard time finding fabrics that were close to the postcards.
I always dislike thinking I have to do the selection, but once I get into it, I am happy. It is also a bonus to discover fabrics I didn’t remember I had.
This batch of postcards had a LOT of browns and beiges. I don’t have a lot of those colors, as you know. I made due. Caramel turned out to be the hardest color. I couldn’t match it with anything brown or beige so I went to orange and found one fabric that looks ok if you squint, in a dark room. 😉
I started making blocks as soon as I was done selecting fabrics. I chose the block design based on what I needed for something like the design I showed you last week.
I just received two more postcards and Julie tells me she has about 6 more cards to send me.
Along with garment sewing and a new bracelet, I also got some more Pantone blocks from Julie at Sew Day.
I have a stack of postcards to match and plan to do that this weekend. I owe her several and hope to bring them to the Retreat.
We are almost done making the blocks, then it will be time to put the quilt together. Perhaps I will use this design – or something like it – sooner than I think.
I received a few more blocks in the mail from Friend Julie the other day. I need to get back to making some more. I have four cards from which to make blocks.
I think now that I have some small bags out of my system, I’ll be able to get back to this project.
I received Sauterne with a heavy heart. Not for the message, which I always anticipate, but for the color. Another color I almost never use and never buy. Amazingly, I found a Philip Jacobs print with that color used for some flowers. It was almost perfect.
This print was the third one I found. The speckle gold is a good type to use for this project, but definitely the wrong color.
In the middle is a Heather Bailey print. Again, those tiny leaves right under the postcard are the perfect color, but so small. I didn’t think it was right.
Finally, I found a 10×10 square (I wonder where that came from?) of an Alison Glass print that actually was the perfect color and also the perfect type of print – a tone-on-tone.
I received another postcard today, so back to the fabric closet for more hunting and gathering.
During my birthday extravaganza weekend, Friend Julie and I exchanged more Pantone blocks.
I think my doodles are giving us both some ideas of which blocks to make.
I spent most of the Sunday of MLK weekend working on the latest batch of Pantone blocks. I dug into some old fabric to find good matches.
Pantone has a lot of browns and I am digging deep to find anything that looks close to the colors on the postcards. I found some brown fabrics I had forgotten I had. The exercise is making me think about shades and tones that are missing from my fabric palette.
I talked awhile ago about selecting some fabrics. These fabrics sat on my worktable until last week when I decided enough was enough and I started making blocks.
I forgot to take photos of all the blocks before I handed them over to Friend Julie, but trust me, I did make about 9 blocks. 😉
She proves it, because she sent me a photo of the blocks.
This effort set me on the path I described earlier this week where I made more blocks. I thought I might see Julie on Sew Day and I wanted to have another batch for her, as I mentioned.
We are fast approaching the end of the Pantone Project block making aspect of the project. That means we are speeding quickly towards the design of the quilt phase. I looked for the ideas that I had generated last year and couldn’t find them so I sat down and doodled what I remembered,or thought I remembered.
I don’t have tons of spare time, so the doodles evolved over several days. The colors represent different days.
Remember, we have units based on Doreen Speckman’s system from her book, Pattern Play**. As an aside, I know most of you missed Doreen’s career in quiltmaking, but anything you can find on her is worth the effort. This book is all about designing quilts using units.
Friend Julie and I are using these units for our project, which means I used those units for my doodling. In putting together these units, I made larger designs. And that was super fun.
I started off thinking of a row quilt. I was a little stiff at the beginning, but as I worked, I started coming up with some interesting shapes using the units.
I am super excited about the umbrella/propeller shape, which makes me want to make more of those blocks. That is an added bonus for the doodling.
One issue I have not addressed is color. You know that each unit is a different color and we are making units from colors in the Pantone Postcard Box** as they inspire us not to any plan. I am not going to worry about that now. After all, I can always make a second quilt with the colors of my choice from the same design, if I want.
You can still play along. You will need:
Decisions to Make with your friend:
**Obviously, you should shop at local fabric, knitting shops or quilt shops. However, if you can’t, please know that I use affiliate links. I may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I do not recommend items I don’t like. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
Julie handed over a couple more blocks at Sew Day. These give the impression of primary colors to me, though I can clearly see they aren’t.
I decided I needed to be diligent about the Pantone Project blocks. I put my nose to the machine and started working hard on them. I want to have another group to give to Julie on Sew Day. I don’t know that I will be able to make them all. I can try.
I am in the process of making a second batch. On New Year’s Day, I got all the postcards together and selected fabrics for each of the cards, then, interspersed with sashing the Grey Strip donation top, I started making blocks. I did change out the light blue, Pantone 9044, in the middle on the left. You can see the replacement fabric above in the Peaky & Spike block.
I am selecting blocks to make based what I have already made. I have a sort of plan in mind for the final quilt that requires even numbers of blocks.