In the Sewing Studio

Making the blocks for this quilt is easier than choosing the fabrics. I knew I wanted bright fabrics, but for each color, I needed two prints. Some of them had to be busy and exciting, and some of them needed to be not busy and exciting. Since I had decided to make this quilt a brights and whites, I would be using more lights than I had planned. That meant I had to use the ones I did have in a smart way, and I'd have to pay attention to not placing the same print to close to itself.

 I also decided to dump the asymmetrical arrangement of the blocks, so I had to make more of them.

I added a some busy light fabrics to the quilt, like these cats in the yellow block.

I had removed the blocks with the black, but I liked the reds, so I put them back. I also liked the orange swirls, and I brought those back as well.

At the end of the weekend, I had made enough blocks to fill the basic space. The layout of the blocks isn't final, and I need to make blocks to fill in the edges. I like the colors, and I think this is a good summery quilt. It's also an example of what else can be done with the zebra blocks.

AND OH LOOK! If you scroll up and down it does an optical illusion thing.

Sorry Allison.

By George, I Think I've Got It!

Saturday morning I made a couple more blocks and put them up on the design wall. This was OK, but it just didn't sing. Some blocks just looked too dark and sucked up all the light. I sent this picture to Julie. I told her I thought the design was ok, but I wondered if the colors should be analogous, like blue and green or pink and orange or yellow and green. I thought it would be a great boy's quilt with reds and blues and creams and whites. Julie said to go for it.

Problem was, I didn't want to make a red, white and blue quilt (been there, done that three times.)

So I took everything off the wall that wasn't working, and spent the next three hours making blocks.

 Although I love the oranges, that block doesn't work, so it has to go, but otherwise I'm good with it. It isn't perfect, but I have a lot to do yet. I think this would make a great summer quilt. Bright colors with whites/creams. Very vibrant and happy.

 Here are an orange and pinkish pair (actually they are quartets.) As you can see I'm getting a bit looser in how I interpret matches.

Here's a purple and yellow set. One of the things I decided was to use fairly light lights.

One of the things I realized right away was that if I was going to keep the block with the llamas and the dinos, then I had to have a few more blocks with busy lights in the quilt, so that is an idea I will pursue and there are already some strips cut using that idea.

Allison, you've got to turn away now...

This is the layout of this arrangement. Lots of possibilities here.

Matchmaking

Here's another "matchy" set. I like these. It's funny, to put these together. It's easier, and I think more successful, if you don't think about them too much. They are supposed to resemble each other, but only sort of.

I've got a lot of blue fabric on order to make the sample quilt I will use in writing the Zebras tutorial (I'm gonna make a blue Jealousy quilt) and in the meantime, I'm going to use my stash to work on the Oh So Modern variation. And if I told you that before, I'm sorry. It's kinda been a very stressful week, y'know?

The third one down is too dark. Part of the reasons why I get stuck is sometimes a good option is in another stack being matched with something else. I have no objection to repeating a fabric, but it's more fun (OK, better bragging rights) to say that in a quilt like this each fabric is used only once. That is not a requirement in this quilt. At any rate, I won't sew this up until I'm sure, and right now I am not.

i like these four, but I am a bit concerned they are WAY TOO MUCH together. If this busy quartet is the busiest one in the quilt it will stick out like a sore thumb, and I don't want that. I want all these fabrics to play in harmony.

Please note I am not asking for your opinions or suggestions. I'm just sharing what I see. I'm still feeling my way around. Nothing is carved in stone yet.

These are looking good.

Some of these are a bit risky, and some are not. It's going to be fun working this out.

I wrote about which thread I use here. Last year I bought some Master Piece thread by Superior Thread at a quilt show, and I am just now getting to try it out.

Last week I was reading Mrs Goodneedle and she showed a new seam ripper. I thought it was so spiffy I went to the vendor site, and when I found out they were three bucks each, I ordered four. (The fourth is already in my travel kit.) It is called a Razor Ripper.

I might be a seam ripper junkie.

Bobbin Along...

Here are another pair of pairs that look a lot alike, but are different.

Here is another set.

   My bobbins are wound and ready to go.

Ann, I use this medium gray thread for all my piecing. I find it disappears equally well on all colors.  Some quilters use beige, but I think gray is a better choice. It isn't as "bright." The only time I wind a bobbin with another color is when I am sewing the binding on a quilt. And then I don't even fill it all the way.

This is what those fabrics look like as triangles next to each other. I am happy with these combinations.

I pulled out some of my other leftover triangles so I could try to figure out what I want this quilt to look like. The other one has a kind of magic about it that is lovely and I want to figure out what that is so I can recreate the magic. I think I know, but I have to make more blocks before I can know for sure.

Oh gee, where have I heard THAT before?
              

Quick! What Do You See?

If you look quickly you see a block of pink and a white print. And you would be correct.

You would also be wrong. As you can see here, there are two pinks and two prints. (Gonna have to turn these two upside down though, because right now the llamas and dinos are upside down and we can't have that...)

 
Regular readers know I like to reward viewers of my quilts with surprises. In these blocks I have deliberately blurred the line. I have chosen fabrics that look a lot alike, but aren't exactly alike. I have  chosen pairs that have some clear differences, because I want viewers to do the discovering on their own. You are MEANT to see the differences.

This is where the idea came from. After I sewed up the first Zebras quilt, I had a lot of pieces left over, and I wondered if I could do something with them. The layout was mildly interesting, but the way some of the blocks seemed to blend together (second row from the top) is what really got my attention, so that's what I am aiming for. I do not know if I will "float" the blocks like the example above. I'll make blocks and see what they look like.

I can't go too far with this, though.

 My bobbin bin is empty.


LOL!