Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
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.
Julie had a few more Pantone blocks for me at Sew Day last week. I have made a couple, but I don’t know if I took photos and I still have a stack of fabrics I need to use to make blocks.
Before I started working on the Disco Double Zip Pouch last Sunday, I decided I needed to select some fabrics for The Pantone Project. I felt like I had about 20 cards, but I could only find 8.
I think I brought down at least 20 fabric boxes, which is always the thing that keeps me from picking out fabrics as the postcards arrive. It always ends up being fun, however and I seem to have a hard time remembering that. I always find fabrics that I remember buying, but had forgotten about.
I was only able to choose the fabrics. I didn’t have a chance to make the blocks yet. I might be able to make them before the next Sew Day.
I am only a little sure about the Apple Green. The background is perfect, but I don’t know what the blue dots do to the overall effect.
Friend Julie sent me another Pantone Project color postcard last week. On the reverse she wrote that she thought of the color as ‘butter’. I completely lost my mind. I started thinking I was in line for cataract surgery or something, because to me the color looked more like margarine.
As a result, I started running around the house taking photos. I know that all sorts of things -lighting, weather, etc – affect how the camera sees the color, but I have to say that the color in the photo (left) looks pretty true to the color on the postcard.
My living room has, what I think of as, butter colored walls. It was hard to tell unless I took a photo of the ceiling (white) and the wall (butter yellow). I was pleased to see that I could see a contrast.
Then I took a photo of the Pantone postcard against the wall. I wasn’t thrilled with the way the paint looked in the second photo. The yellow/butter paint looked white compared to Pantone 7548, but what can a person do? I wasn’t about to set up studio lighting.
I actually have butter (as in the food), so I went into my kitchen and compared the postcard to actual butter. Unless I am in need of cataract surgery, I think the yellow in the postcard is brighter.
I don’t mind Friend Julie calling this butter. I am just glad I don’t have any eye problem at the moment.
One reason I am making so much progress, aside from taking the time to select the fabrics, is that I don’t mind the (almost) paperless foundation piecing as much as I mind regular foundation piecing.
You can see also that the fabrics are relatively bright and cheerful.
Friend Julie has been diligently handing me groups of blocks whenever I see her.
Here is the latest batch. While it may look paltry compared to my bonanza, keep in mind that she has been keeping up and I haven’t. She gives me a few at a time whereas I procrastinate by making bags. I tried to work on a block or two during my lunch hours and after work. That works pretty well when I have the colors already matched to the postcards.
I took a break from making bags, Metro Twist and Scrappy Celebration to make some progress. Thus, I made some good progress over the weekend on making Pantone blocks.
I had already chosen quite a few fabrics, which made the task easier. Foundation piecing, not my strength, gave me pains on the first block.
The background of this fabric, a Martha Negley fruit and floral print from a few years ago, was the right hue for Pantone 4545 (not all the colors have names. Some only have numbers, which is a little annoying). I only had a half yard of this fabric and these fruit and florals don’t always have a lot of background. In this case, I only had a few bits to work with.
Of course, I cut a piece that was the wrong shape (remember: foundation piecing needs backwards and upside down pieces), so I had to Swiss cheese cut the last bit of background. Sigh. Fortunately, I don’t have enough of this to use for a back or a bag, so it really shouldn’t matter. Still it is painful to see one of these prints with a hunk out of the middle. Fortunately, this project (and Friend Julie) are worth it.
As an aside, you know how Tula Pink is doing Deja Vu prints? I wish Free Spirit would do them for Martha Negley as well. Maybe I should start fan club for Martha? I love those fruit and veg prints.
I went to town making blocks. I got into a rhythm that was only interrupted by not having selected anymore fabric. I thought I made a wider variety, but, looking at them like this, apparently not.
I was planning to make Flying Geese for Pantone 3985, a kind of olive green, but ran out of fabric. When I selected the fabric, I didn’t realize I only had about half of a fat quarter, so mid-block, I pivoted and made another Storm Center, which would work with the size triangles I had already cut.
I needed a template, so I cut the Pirate Black Storm Corner so I could use the triangles as a template, thus I ended up with four of these. In the grand scheme of the whole quilt it will be ok. It just looks a little odd now.
I suppose I shouldn’t have called this “August Progress” as it assumes I won’t make any additional progress, though I hope I do. I still have a number of colors to match and turn into blocks. Note they are all kind of dull, though looking at them like this reminds me they are not all beige.
I am also happy I made some good progress as I was feeling quite guilty at my tardiness. The hardest part of this project is selecting the fabrics. Aside from hauling the fabric bins down from the top of the fabric closet, the inks on the postcards seem to be different from the dyes used in fabric. I know that is true, however the actual hues and shades seem to be really different.