Putting together a quilt- opinions needed!

I began working on piecing blocks for my other Parisville quilt this weekend, the one inspired by Fresh Lemons' Echino Squared (as as I tend to think of it Echino2). So far so good. Used my scissors, as per my last post, and happy with the way blocks looked in piecing- at least for the most part.

These look nice, I think. I decided to mix the fabrics, patterns and colors in the blocks to create some more interest and less uniformity. I think this may be where I got off track. I did it sort of off the cuff, so then when I pieced the blocks and then started laying them out, things were looking a bit off...

Exhibit A. What the....? This looks so odd to me. Granted, I pieced it last night just working kinda randomly to see what worked and how big it looked with 4 blocks by 5 blocks and how to arrange. But still. I did not love this layout at all, and didn't love how the blocks looked together.

So this morning I went back out and tried again, rearranged a few blocks, and got to wondering why some things looked off.





Exhibit B. I like this arrangement better, but I could use some help figuring out where I am going wrong. Do I need more white space? More careful arranging of the blocks for color coordination? Do I need to cut up some of the topiary fabric to make it work better? (NB: the topiary background is more cream than white.)

I'd love some assistance.

Work in progress Wednesday: Tula Pink Parisville quilt

So, I will cheat and show the finished quilt top first, so those who have other things to do can just take a glance, and then get into the process.

The quilt is small, about 40" by 50" and it is Tula Pink Parisville in the Sprout colorway, sashed with Kona Snow. I am not sure what to call the design, as it is a little bit of a cobble-together.

I searched and searched for ideas about what I wanted to do with this quilt, looked all over the Tula Pink Flickr group for ideas, because I have never worked with big prints that seem to need to be showed off before. Finally I found this Flickr picture, but I do not know how to contact the person who made the quilt to give them credit, so hopefully this will suffice. Update: found the designer of this pattern by cruising Sew Mama Sew, via Quilt Dad: it is a Happy Zombie pattern called Rectangle Reverie.

This fabric is part of the Fat Quarter Shop winnings I received and was so excited to work with. I really like the way it turned out, but it was not what I planned.

I originally planned it to look like the quilt from the Flickr pic, but I sketched it out quickly before my son woke up one day and never referred back to the photo. So I made some notes on my original sketch, squashed a lot of numbers in, calculated what I would need to measure and cut, and then cut. I am impetuous like that, or spontaneous, or something that borders on impatient.

I didn't spot my error until I actually sewed everything together and laid it out. Do you see it? It only seems like an error (I hope) when compared with the original quilt. The sashing of the smaller yellow pieces between the large prints are supposed to line up square with the middle of the large prints. But I mis-read the photo and my sketch and made them so they do not line up at all with the large prints.

Maybe this pic makes it more clear. So what did I do to correct my error? Nothing! Laziness or ambivalence wins again, because I looked at it, thought "eh?" shrugged my shoulders and carried on. I actually do like it now, and moreover, when I calculated what I would have to do to fix it, I decided against it completely.

I wanted to share all this because the finished product looks nice (if I do say so myself) but I like what I have been seeing on others' blogs about process and showing mistakes or otherwise imperfect parts of beautiful quilts. So I am taking the process pledge and starting with that honesty now. I am a perfectionist at heart, but my way of sewing and quilting is a break from that, and my methods don't allow it!

Please see the button below for the pledge.

I, Amorette, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear.   I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.