One very difficult quilt
I love leader and enders. They changed my piecing life- thank you, Bonnie Hunter!
For the last 2 years, I have been doing wonky stars as leader/enders. I make the star legs, then my granddaughter lays the block out on freezer paper and I piece them.
In my head, I saw this quilt as a tile wall or floor. It took over a year to find the design I was thinking about- a circle of stars with many neutrals like tiles. I finally completed the blocks- 12 of them- and put them on the wall. I thought about adding more neutrals between the blocks, but opted for sashing with a text fabric.
When I got it all sewn and up on the wall. I was crushed. It did nothing and the circle of stars had little impact. I consulted with Julie and she said rip out the sashing. I swallowed hard, ripped it all out very carefully, and inserted more 2" neutral squares.
I did like it much better, but it did not look finished. I tried a bunch of ideas and went with a skinny border of fabric that gradates to other colors. Ok, that is done and now I need to finish.
I thought again about the tile idea, and thought how some tile has a border of square in a square motif. I remembered an Anita Grossman Solomon book I have (ebook- big mistake, never bought another ebook again) where she makes square in a square blocks by cutting a stack of large squares. I made four of them and put them up against the skinny border. I am afraid I will have to make a lot more before I know if they will finish off this quilt like it is my head.
Sigh. I thought this was supposed to be fun. Could use some fun. Why do I have such a hard time getting what I see in my head out on the wall?
14 comments:
I think the stars look great. Good luck with the final border. Look forward to seeing it.
The stars are wonderful. I know it's an expensive option, but the EQ8 program allows me to audition my ideas to see how they work in real time. It also allows me to try options I might not have thought would work, only to find out they do!
I absolutely LOVE these circles of stars, Linda!! Sorry to hear that your first plan didn't work. SEW typical of Julie to advise a rework of the entire quilt! LOL
Quite nice!
I love your stars - and agree with chrisknits - EQ8 is expensive - but it allows you to play with various options without having to sew/rip anything - and it would save you a lot of frustration and aggravation - ;))
Sorry about the troubles with this quilt. I like how it is so far. Good luck.
Julie's advice was so right wasn't it!! Taking out the sashing was definitely the best move. Your quilt top is beautiful and the addition of the border with all the colours just makes it, I'd love to see if you do go with the square in a square blocks.
So glad you got good advice to get rid of the sashing. Huge improvement and it looks fabulous with the strip of border. I am not so sure about adding another pattern to the border....will it detract from those circles of stars? As it is now the border fabric is accentuating the colors in the stars. Why not just add more neutrals as an outer border...maybe a double row or even plain wider strip. All the stars and their work should be your feature. Just my 2 cents worth!
Wow, I think it looks great! Julie was right to take out the sashing. I would have never thought. Of course I LOVE all the neutrals. I love wonky stars. I love the circle patterns! Can't wait to see where this goes next.
I too am not a fan of eBooks. As of now my local library is not yet open for anything. Two libraries are open for curbside service, but you have to get what they have on hand and can't get library/to library service. Also, there are too many protests going on close to the libraries to drive there. People are just laying in the streets to stop traffic. Guess if this continues I'll have to re-learn how to enjoy an eBook.
Your stars look very good, I like the new version and the colorful border is great!
Like Debbie, I'm a bit concerned that the additional block design on the border will make the whole quilt feel heavy instead of light as it is now (floating stars). Perhaps you could make one block, take a photo, print out several copies and pin those on the design wall to get a feel for how it might look. (for the record I am NOT a fan of EQ - I'm trying to be on the computer less, not more).
wow! these stars are amazing and your setting is great! what a fun quilt.
I think you might be a little to hard on yourself - I really like where this is going.. I think you are right - color in the borders - and that will probably make the stars pop - but when you quilt it... you may find you LOVE it even more. You can do some circles around the cluster of stars and really bring out the circle effect... you got this!!!!
Linda,
I love the stars set in circles. The quilt looks really fun, let it sit for a while until it speaks again to you. :)
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