Kill! Crush! Destroy!

So for those of you who haven't been following along, I made a quilt top that ended up just too damn big. I decided to re-make it so it ended up smaller.

I could have done it by unsewing the blocks, but that would have taken too damn long, and there was a faster way to do it. The blocks before I sewed them together the first time were 4-1/2" square. I wanted them to be 3-1/2". There was plenty of room to just cut them down.

The first step was to cut the big blocks out of the quilt, which I did but cutting along the seamline dividing two blocks, like you can see above.

Then I cut the blocks apart into rows, and trimmed away the seam allowance.

Then I cut the rows apart into blocks.

Next I trimmed each block down to 3-1/2" square. Having a ruler that was 3-1/2" wide was helpful.

I'm going to sew these together by webbing the components into larger blocks.

The block is now 12-1/2" square.

You can see the smaller block to the right.

You all know that I will do anything necessary to get the quilt I want. Yes, this is a lot of work, but that's OK. I know I am going to end up with a terrific quilt that will be the perfect size to use.

 

Break it Good!

 

What I never liked about this quilt was the bright white center. To me, if the very center of a quilt is white, or the lightest value in the quilt, then it reads as a hole. So I made a couple of blocks with the center pieces  are less bright, and I like them better.

Well, this is a little bit better. 

But it still isn't singing for me. So I have decided to BREAK IT GOOD!

This isn't really breaking it in a significant way, but I certainly like this better than the other way. Even though I think it's pretty boring.

Now THIS... (at least the top three rows) I like a lot. I am not sure about the pink block. It tends to overtake all the others. But this makes me happier than the other versions, so I'll be pursuing this idea.

I spent yesterday with Sargent, so I won't have any news about this for a day or two...

Is Less More?

 

When I went into the studio last night and looked at what was on my design wall, I wasn't impressed. What would happen, I wondered, if I removed the yellow? I thought I might use it later in the quilt, but "for now" I wanted to see the blocks without it. Not bad. I needed to make more blocks anyway, so while my dinner roasted in the oven, I did just that.

It was looking pretty good, so I kept going. As you all know by now, even this arrangement is not final. I have a lot of fabrics I can continue to play with.

While I work on moving this idea from "Meh" to "Magnificent" it's worth mentioning a few things.

1. You should never fall in love with your idea. You may need to beat it up to get it where it should go.

2. An idea is only an idea until you make it real. And good ideas change as you work.

3. If it isn't working, or if it's stuck in a rut, "Change partners and Dance," as my prof John Hatch once said to me. Don't be afraid to "Break It, and Break It Good." What the hell, if the blocks aren't sewn together yet you can do whatever you want without any consequences.

4. Just because your friends tell you it's gorgeous doesn't mean you have to listen. If it doesn't sing FOR YOU then who cares? I remember the Selvage Fairy said to me once, "It's interesting to me that the worst thing your quilt can be is 'Nice.'" Nice is nice, but for me, it very often isn't good enough.

5. Conversely, if they tell you they don't like it, you don't have to listen to that either. Just because somebody doesn't LIKE something doesn't mean it is any good. (Read the Value of Meh; link above.)

Well that's it for me today. Time for bed.

Kill Your Darlings

As I have said many times before, we ALL know when it's WRONG. We generally know when we've hit it out of the park, but the absolute HARDEST THING is that place in between - that place where what's on your worktable or design wall isn't going anywhere. The solution?

Be ruthless.

Kill your darlings.

Break it. Break it bad.

Change partners and dance.

The so-called gold I had been working with the last few days just wasn't going anywhere I wanted it to go. If it had simply been a project of my own, I might have stuck with it, but this quilt is designed to be a "how-to" lesson to make a Diamond quilt, and if I wasn't "feeling the love," I sure as hell couldn't convince anybody else to feel it either.

So I tossed the pieces off the wall and dug through my stash. I can show how to make a Diamond quilt in colors that anybody can reproduce. If I've learned anything from my students it's that if I give them good basics, they will figure out how to push ideas around on their own.



You should click, and then double click the photos to get a good look at the big prints. Some of them I've had almost ten years.