Quick! What color is this quilt?

This is a serious question!  I have asked a number of friends and the answers are not consistent.  Now, I'll be the first to say the photography is less than "good" but we're all looking at the same pictures.  So, what color is this quilt when you first look at it?

What about now?  It's a "blue" quilt, huh?  The shade creates a consistent sense of color for some reason that I don't understand and am not likely to spend much time trying to figure out.

These are the wonderful fabrics I got at Houston last year (sigh....).  They are Caryl Bryer Fallert's reproductions of her hand dyes and I adore them. They were a Benartex product. But, I only have two strips left and need to bind the quilt.

I quilted this on my longarm with Glide thread -- it's a pale pale silver that almost has a metallic look.  I had a few problems with an occasional skipped stitch and actually "unquilted" about 2/3 of a pass because of tension issues that popped up.  I'm sure this was something I did and not the Glide.  And I could not be happy with this on the back -- so I finished the quilt, took it off, ripped, and put it back on.  I'm much happier!

So -- this really is a serious question.  I'd love to bind with a dominant color but I can't figure out what that would be!

I hope you are finding time to quilt with fabrics you love!

Jan

A week of extremes

I'm so so happy to say that this quilt top is done.  All these beautiful "reproductions" from Caryl Bryer Fallert's hand dyes are together in one quilt top (no culling out of warms or browns, as I had planned).  I adore it.  The colors together make me very very happy -- as does getting it off the design wall, off the floor, off my cutting table, off my sewing table..... It had taken over my little sewing room.  Now it is neatly folded and waiting for quilting inspiration (and time).  I had failed to mention in my original post that this is a free pattern from Marcus Fabrics using their Ombre strips (pattern is called Ombre Hand Dyes by Nancy Rink).  I think we sometimes forget about all the great FREE patterns that fabric manufacturers have available to us through their websites.  Anyway -- it's done and the floor is now visible in my sewing room.

And -- to keep that feeling of "accomplishment" going -- I have continued to plug along with my little bitty 4 patches that were part of a swap from earlier this year.  Briefly, we were to make 800 of these little darlings and package them in groups of 100 (I think) where they would be assembled and redistributed -- with each of us getting 1 of our bags back and 4p from 7 other quilters. Not!  Long story but I got at least two of my bags back and maybe more (one quilter decided she'd keep all hers!).  Plus I had made 100+ more for my quilt.

I absolutely have NO idea how many 4p I have -- but I know that the 7 finished blocks I've made have over 100 in them and I've just started.  The blocks (each with 16 4p) finish at 8" so this may or may not be a twin size quilt -- I literally don't know.  I'll keep sewing in steps until the squares are used up and then decide whether I need to make a few more (using 1.25" strips) or chuck the extras.

My milestone for the week is getting the first step done.  Every little square now has sashing on one side -- setting it up for the next step(s) with half being sewn together and half getting a 2.5" "topper" strip.  Since this is a leader/ender project, I just grab and sew as I finish a row and need something in my machine to be ready to sew the next piece on the quilt I'm "really" working on.

This will be years in the making --

But, all in all, a good week.  One quilt top made with 2.5" strips and only 15 pieces in the entire block. And, one step completed in teeny tiny pieces of all kinds -- darks, lights, batiks, vintage, low quality, homespuns, Kaffe, hand-dyes, florals, novelties, you name it.  So much fun to come across someone else's fabrics -- and keep the line moving!

I hope you are having a productive week -- whether it's with little bitty pieces or larger, dramatic pieces,  or quilting, or cutting, or designing, or just dreaming of your next project!

Jan

Re-entry

I don't know about you -- but it takes a bit of time for me to "re-enter" the habit or routine or pattern of spending time in my sewing room after a week away.  There are chores to be done.  Thoughts to be thought.  Bills to be paid.  Laundry to be done.  Work to catch up on.  Groceries to be bought.  Life just needs to happen before patterns can re-emerge and quilting restarts.  That includes blogs to be written apparently!

The good news is that there was "reentry" on Sunday after we got home on Wednesday.  I made time after church to play with fabrics, start new projects, revisit current works-in-progress and get on with it! I'm happy to say that I pulled some fabrics for a little project, made a top for a hospital quilt, and spent some time with these beauties.

These are the Caryl Bryer Fallert Gradations Collection from Benartex.  They were one of my splurges at Houston last year and have been teasing me ever since.  They are reproductions of her hand dyed fabrics and clearly aren't as subtle and rich as those -- nor as expensive.  And they will make a great quilt.

I'm not sure how many pieces there were in the collection but as you can see from this unedited picture, I had to lay them out one day months ago and just admire them before I started cutting anything.  I didn't have a pattern but I knew I wanted to maximize them.

Mom22smartchix and I each bought them and decided on the same pattern earlier this year which meant cutting them into 2.5" strips.  Here is the waste.  Every little smidgen of it.  I'd say we maximized our fabric, wouldn't you?

I have decided I want a summer quilt for our bed.  The last one we had we gave to our son and daughter-in-law because they liked it.  Of course I want them to have it and it's great fun to see they are sleeping under it.  But, somehow the bear paw out of homespuns is just a bit dark.  Soon the Christmas quilt will come out (too soon!) but for now, I think these may just be the ticket for a summer quilt next year.  It will be bright and make me happy -- if I have enough fabric for queen size.

It takes five strips to make three 10.5" blocks.  I have 33 made, lots of strips left, and will just sew until they are all used up and decide what to do from there.  Either buy more and make a great border or decide it's a full size quilt and move on.  It's a "win win" no matter which way it goes.  They are fun to work with since each block is slightly (or greatly) different from the other two.  I started out thinking I would just use the jewel tones -- I have since decided I'm going to use them all.  Including the browns which make me a little "itchy" but should be beautiful against a blue or lavender block.

But somehow, these are not quick blocks.  I can't quite figure out why they take as long as they do.  Creating two short strip sets, cutting the block, cutting the strip, recutting the block and inserting the strip.   They don't look like they should take that long, do they?  Mom22smartchix elected to cut all the elements separately (she has trouble following directions and the crowd).  Hers will have much more color variation and may be faster -- who knows (although cutting couldn't have been faster). It will be fun to see them side by side, someday.

In the meantime, I have been lucky enough to use AMA's Handi-quilter and was able to finish this in time to take it to the cottage for cool mornings and evenings.  All homespuns from 4" strips and homespun backing.  And now I WANT ONE TOO!  And yesterday, I'm happy to say that I quilted a child's quilt top AMA had given me and one of my hospital quilts.  So -- I'm definitely getting back in the groove!

I hope you're getting your creative groove on, as well!

Jan