Sherbet Quilt Complete

 I've sewn up the top of the Sherbet Macnas quilt. This photo shows the colors more accurately.

Here it is all sewn up on the design wall.

I brought it outside to take a photo in daylight, and I think you can see how much prettier it is.

Here is another photo of the quilt outside. Again, you can see how much prettier it is. I like it a lot.

Pink & Orange

 

Believe it or not, the toe doesn't hurt. (At least not yet.) I was able to spend some time in the studio cutting the light blocks for the pink and orange Macnas quilt.

Because the design I cooked up has an odd number of columns, and it's symmetrical, and I have a bugaboo about symmetry, I will have a center column of single blocks and the other blocks will be sewn to it. That will be the most logical and un-fussy way to sew it together. 

That doesn't mean it won't be a bit confusing. My design is a bit complicated, and I am not quite 100% sure I will sew it together the way I originally designed it,  but no worries. I don't sew anything together until I am satisfied with the way it looks on the design wall.

One other thing. I WANT to play with the ambiguity of the orange and pink blocks. I want them to flip flop. And I'm including light, or white or cream blocks that have some other colors (like blue) in them, so this design will definitely not "read" exactly as I designed it, with the pinks and oranges clearly defined.

Of course that might change, but we'll see. I have to cut a lot more pinks before I can make the Macnas pairs and put them on the design wall. Which may take a bit more time as I seem to have caught a cold.

Sigh.

Snaps is a Flimsy!

 The Snaps quilt is a flimsy, and needs a better name. Here it is on my front steps.

 This came out so pretty!

Here are some of the fabric pairings.

 

Here's the green block I added to the quilt to give it that little "kick in the pants" element of surprise. This green was used in some of the block centers, so this isn't the only place this fabric exists in the quilt. (That would be bad!)

Here's the other, smaller, element of surprise. The centers of the cream blocks were the ones that had contrasting centers, all the pink and orange blocks had all cream centers. I wanted to change that up too. I was important to do it in a block where the green would "read" as a light value.

It's these unexpected elements that make such a difference.

Now that it's sewn together, I like it a whole lot more than I thought I would. In fact, I really, really like it!

I don't think this quilt needs a border. And I am inclined to think this quilt needs appropriately "modern" quilting.

Snaps 5

I really don't know why I'm pressing all these seams open. I usually press everything to one side. I guess it's a holdover from the Diamonds quilt where I pressed everything open.

This is going mighty quick. I've already got four row of blocks sewn together.

I guess I'm going to have to come up with another quilt to use up my creams. Hmmm...

Maybe this in creams with brights as the crossbars? Kind like a "regular" version of the Red Sticks quilt... Hmm. Will have to think about that...

Snaps 4

 

I finished sewing the cream blocks, and now they are all done. Here they are, in no particular arrangement. When I was sewing the cream blocks together, I knew I had to have some with centers of blue or teal or green to make it a bit more interesting. I like having them there.

Can you spot the green block? I knew the quilt needed a little "kick in the pants."

After looking at the top version for a long time, I had an idea and started rearranging the blocks. I love this layout and it will be the one I sew together. I also made another unusual block. Can you figure out which one it is?

This is about as simple as my quilts get, and although this isn't a stunner, it's pleasing and I think it will look very nice draped over the back of my charcoal gray couch.

It's funny that it hardly made a dent in my stash!  Hmm. Will have to do something else.

Oh gee darn!

Snaps 3

Here are my pieces for the Snaps quilt. You can see the bright accent colors across the top of my worktable.

I am glad I broke up the cream blocks and I like the contrasting squares of blue, teal and green.

Now I have to sew up the rest of the cream blocks. Can you see the little "kick in the pants" I added to this?

OK, it isn't very little.

Snaps, 2

When I woke up the next morning, I tried putting some of the pink and orange squares on top of the cream rectangles, and I liked it a lot better. So I had to cut up the cream blocks and then cut more little squares so I could make the blocks this way.

This is the kind of quilt that is easy to sew while you "watch" television.  Look Ma! No pins!

As long as I was cutting out more cream fabric, I pulled a couple of busier creams from the stash and added them to the mix. And I also decided to include some blue, teal and green little squares as the centers of the cream blocks, to make the quilt more interesting.

Why teal, blue and green? The complement of orange is blue, the complement of pink is green and the compliment of red-orange is blue-green. I knew this quilt needed a kick in the pants, and there's nothing like adding complimentary colors to do that. As I've said before, if you want to make something look more intense, put the color's complement (or opposite) next to it.

Here's another way of looking at it. There are three primary colors, Red, Yellow and Blue. All other colors can be made from these three. Orange is made from Red and Yellow. Green is made from Blue and Yellow. Violet is made from Red and Blue. A color's compliment lies across the color wheel and has everything the original color doesn't. Orange does NOT have any Blue in it. Red does NOT have any Green (Blue and Yellow.)

(If you want to make a color LESS intense, add its complimentary color to it. It will reduce its intensity. Most browns are mixtures of complimentary colors. But that's another story.)

This one is going together quick.