Friday, September 11, 2015

Collector Flimsy

Here's the first Friday flimsy from the sewing I did over the summer. Collector is finally sewn together!


At 77" x 59", it barely fits on my "design wall" (two Ikea wardrobes and a flannel sheet). I laid it out horizontally rather than vertically because it is most likely to be used as a throw on the sofa. I am glad that I didn't make it 77" square like I originally planned! It is plenty big now.

Except the backgrounds and setting triangles, all the fabrics are different.


My mom noticed that the kitties are eyeing the fish!

The layout took me a full day, it was quite a puzzle. The original design by Cosabeth Parriaud in Quiltmania had alternating stars and squares in the white blocks. When I reduced the size I had more squares than stars, so I decided to scatter the stars along the diagonal in a hopefully loose and creative way. Plus, I wanted it to be lighter in the middle, and I had to balance out the really strong prints like those three large circles. Then, when I started taking photos, I noticed that the blue prints really pop, so I had to balance them too. But, I got there in the end, and I was glad to get them numbered and down off the wall! The good thing about a design wall that has to come down at the end of the day, is that it forces you to make decisions. No dithering!


I took my time sewing it together so that everything stayed in order. Probably 75% of the points on the stars are a little cut off, but after all this, I am perfectly fine with that! I think the problem was with the way I trimmed the flying geese units, so I'll remember that for the next one. It's not very noticeable anyway:


When I pulled this project out again last spring, and I saw how much black it had, I thought to myself, "Ugh, I am so over black!" My Sedona Star colourway also had a lot of black, and they were designed at around the same time. I felt like my taste had evolved since then.

But, now that it is all together, I can see that the original concept paid off. I wanted it to sparkle, and it really does. That's from all the high contrast prints, on top of the high contrast design. So, will Sedona Star 2.0 still be black? Yes it will. And sparkly too. :)


Otherwise, it's just fun to remember where and why I bought all the fabrics in the quilt. Many of the darks, like the strawberries, were bought for this quilt, because my stash was low on them. But these tiny red hearts...


...were actually bought for Sweet Hearts, a long, long time ago. The sunflower prints are even older:


Remember Kaffe Fassett's first quilting book, before he started designing quilt fabric? I was very inspired by that red diamond quilt with the sunflower fabric, and bought mine around then. I owe a lot of my inspiration to Fassett, first as a knitter and now as a quilter. And of course, there's a heck of a lot of Kaffe fabrics in this quilt too.

So that's done and dusted. The back is pieced and ready to go, and now it's waiting for its turn to be quilted. It feels good to get one of these old projects done, and it is nice when the theory works out too!

10 comments:

  1. It's a lovely quilt top and I can see that it has a whole lot of interest up close as well. Isn't it interesting when we fall out of love with an idea but then revisit it ( to finish up etc.) and learn to appreciate it all over again.

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  2. The quilt is light, airy, and fresh despite the all of blacks. The proportions are perfectly balanced which is very difficult to achieve when working with only prints. I think that I would be far to intimidated to work only with prints, but you managed to do it very effectively and successfully. You have a fun stash to work from! Your fabrics are great.

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    1. Thank you! I think it may the blue prints that keep it fresh. I love prints, and that challenge of mixing patterns and colours is so interesting. It keeps me coming back!

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  3. This is really something! I love the overall effect, the balance of light and dark, the emergence of patterns in the geometry, the harmony - and what will obviously be the interest of the fabric detail up close. I dips me hat!

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    1. Well, thank you kindly, ma'am! It's nice to have something work out the way you planned. It wasn't always so -- wait until you see next Friday's flimsy!

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  4. What a great balance of colors, and you used up all those scraps! I certainly can't see the points sewn off, and I'm sure not many others will either. Now you have a lovely throw just in time for the cool weather.

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  5. this is looking super playing around with the blocks you have got them arranged so well, happy stitching them together. Some great fabrics so much variety and it all works so well together

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  6. Wow! Your Collector quilt is a feast for the eyes! You did a fabulous job on this quilt!

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  7. I appreciated you sharing your thought process on you awesome quilt. Sometimes the dithering about placement can sway a quilter from the original plan. So many fabrics playing so well together.

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  8. Great quilt! It is nice to have a quilt that is a "catalog" of the fabrics we collect over the years. This one would be great fun to quilt because of the variety of fabrics used! Well done on getting it finished!

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I'm told Blogger has been bouncing some comments, so if it happens to you I'm sorry! But the settings look right so I can't explain it. In any case, thanks for reading!

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