Fancier

Another idea i had for the coneflowers was to add a contrasting strip. At first I thought they should be in a separate quilt, but then I thought just do it now. 😂

I made the top one first and didn't love it, but the second one is better. I think I'll just rip that final seam on the top one, trim down the yellow part, and it will be much better. And then I'll make one more.

I forgot to share this earlier, but I did also make that "lost and found" word pair from the title of an earlier post. 😁

I've had several ideas for a transition between the light center and the dark border, but I have a feeling I should hold off before I sew anything until I get the center sewn together. It's possible that it's already enough. We'll see!

And Some Flowers

I've been thinking about some free-pieced coneflowers since the summer, but couldn't really justify starting something new then. When I realized all those word pairs I've been making belong in a border, there was a demand for something in the middle. I immediately thought of these. Thematically, they are kind of perfect. 😁

For the leaves I wanted to suggest a light, feathery texture without being too literal. I made green and white strata, sliced them up, and rotated through the layers as I sewed them together. It is a good way to generate a lot of piecing quickly. 

My plan was for the flower head to be about the same width as two leaf sections. As you can see, they are nowhere close. 😂 I think I'll build out the background around the flowers to make them fit better.

I also was planning to make chunky stems, about 3 cm/1"+, but now that i look at the picture i think a crisp skinny stem will sharpen it up quite a bit. I don't want anything to line up too rigidly, but there still has to be some definition to hold the eye. And to balance the high contrast border too.

That's the real fun of an improv approach, isn't it? Try, adjust, carry on. Enjoy the surprises along the way. ❤

Lost and Found

I just wrote that title and now I think I need to add that duo to my quilt. 🤣

My plan for this quilt was for it to be an art quilt that hangs on the wall. For like a decade now I've been expecting to transition from utility quilts to art quilts. But this week I was looking at online classes and I had a major insight. Wall quilts don't light me up. Bed quilts do. 

There's a couple reasons. First, I like working large, it's just more exciting and dramatic to me. Also, the expectation that someone may sleep under the quilt clarifies the message and the design quite a lot for me. It's like a duty of care to keep the message positive and healing. 

So as soon as I realized that I want to make a bed quilt, the design came together in a few minutes. These pairs of opposites will be the border. I only need one or two more and that's done. There's a couple I already sewed together stacked that will have to be unsewn, but that's easy at this point. 

It may sound strange to say that bed quilts are my artistic medium, but I feel so much relief when I say it that I know it's right. I'm pretty excited actually. 😂 It's good to know. 

(Oh, and no, still no sign of those Grunge fabrics btw. But maybe they are getting closer. 🤣 )