I've finished sewing the 18 blocks needed for my Autumn table cover. Then I calculated how much fabric I would need for the sashing. Hmm. I didn't have enough of one fabric, and I didn't want to buy more. This is a scrap quilt, and I wanted to use what I had.
I had quite a lot of this martini fabric. I expected it to be wrong, but I had to give it a go. As you can see, it was an epic fail. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. I tell my students it's easy to tell when it's wrong, and it's not hard to know when it's right. It's when it's so-so that we have difficulties. The secret is to recognize, and admit that it isn't doing anything for you. (See
"The Value of Meh")
After a lot of agonizing, and going through my stash to find something big enough so all the sashing pieces would be made of the same fabric, I said "The hell with it. It's a scrap quilt," and I started cutting the sashing pieces out of two separate dark fabrics.
I started laying the blocks out on the floor to get a feel for how to arrange them and quickly realized it didn't much matter, that they would look good no matter how they were arranged. So I lay out some of the sashing strips to see what that would look like, then I lay out a few little squares to see what color I wanted those to be. Did I want them to show up (in which case I would make them gold) or did I want them to disappear (in which case I would make them brown) or did I simply want them subtle (in which case I would make them green.)
I think I like all three. What the heck. When you're going over the top, keep going.
4 comments:
Love that motto - terrific way to make quilts and live life.
Megan
Sydney, Australia
Sometimes when I audition fabrics to be used as sashing or a border in a quilt, once I see them next to the blocks, they remind me of some people we all know. You know - 2 individuals who are both great people, but who would never work out on a blind date or couple. I really love your blocks & the martini glass fabric is great, but together they seem to fight for attention & cancel each other out when it comes to overall visual impact. Maybe that's where your "Meh" is coming from. I love scrappy quilts, but even with a scrappy quilts with hundreds of different fabrics, not every fabric will complement your blocks. There are all kinds of reasons for a particular fabric not working well as sashing & you can't always pin the reason down. All you know is that the sashing fabric doesn't do justice to your finished blocks. that fabric. It's disappointing when a fabric you plan to use doesn't work out for whatever reason. Fortunately, you were able to find some other fabrics in your stash that look great. If a fabric doesn't float your boat, then what's the point of using it? The only person who's opinion matters when it come to determining what fabrics should go into your quilt is yours. Your decision to use the 2 dark tonal fabrics as sashing was a great choice. The fabrics read enhance the beautiful colors & patterns in your blocks & deciding to use all 3 colors for the cornerstones just adds to the quilts scrappiness. I like how each color of cornerstone color causes my eyes to travel to the surrounding blocks & identify colors from the same family - a sort of visual matching games. You
will have the top finished in no time now. On Thanksgiving Day, it won't matter if the turkey is a little dry or the gravy has lumps in it, because all eyes will be looking at your beautiful table cloth & all it's rich fall colors & pattern. This was the perfect project to commemorate your 1st Thanksgiving in your beautiful new home. Millie still needs to do a final QA inspection when you are done with it. I bet she passes it with flying colors.
love the final layout- you're right: it looks great!
Like Ellen said in her comment - it is YOUR quilt!
I am SO glad you decided to go with multiple color cornerstones!
Hugs!!!!
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