This is Not Working

My design wall is filled with blocks for my Road Trip quilt. The concept is to have the ones with all khaki backgrounds at the center, and lighter ones going outward toward the edges. 

It's not working for me. I don't like having the light blocks at the edges, they just kind of fragment apart and the whole thing fades out. It looks like I ran out of khaki fabric and had to use something else around the edges. 

Here are the upper left and lower right quadrants. The fabrics themselves are fine, but the placement of the blocks, and maybe the placement of lights and darks within some of the blocks, isn't working. It might work better with light background blocks at the center of the quilt and darker ones at the edges, to frame it and hold it all in. Or maybe sprinkle the lights among the darks so it's more evenly spaced across the whole top. 

I think I know what to do to attempt to fix it. I printed out the photo above. I'll number all the blocks on the photo and put corresponding labels on all the actual blocks. Then I'll cut apart the photo, rearrange the layout, and see if I can get it to work better. Then I'll put the blocks back up on the wall in the new arrangement. 

I may have to take apart and reconfigure some of the blocks. I have about 1/2 yard of the khaki Grunge left but I can't get more to match - it was leftover wide backing from several years ago. I have exactly enough of the license plate print left to cut four more 3-1/2" squares, so I'll have to carefully reuse what I already have made. There's enough of four of the five colors to make more block parts, as well as more of the small multicolor print. I have a few rejected blocks that I could bring back or cannibalize.

I fully admit I have been procrastinating on this. I've been doing other sewing in the meantime to avoid dealing with this, although it would be nice to have my design wall back.  

I welcome any ideas and suggestions you might have for making this work. I still like the prints, the colors, the general concept. Please comment. 

Link Ups: Alycia Quilts (Friday),  Small Quilts and Doll Quilts (Monday)

Comments

Hello friends, 

I haven't been getting blog comments lately. They used to come into my email for moderation. I thought it was probably because I've been blogging less frequently lately, so fewer followers, and people have backed off from visiting and commenting. But it seems something changed awhile ago and the comments are there, they're just not showing up. I went into the comment section in Blogger and found comments going back as far as November. 

So if you've left a comment and I haven't responded, that's why. I'm sorry for the lack of response. Comments are always appreciated and I like to acknowledge each one. Since I missed so many, I can't go back and reply to them all.

I went into my Blogger settings and nothing has changed; I don't know why the comments stopped coming. So I will check in Blogger for comments every day and catch them that way. 

If you requested a charity pattern in a comment, please request again and I'll send it to you. Be sure to type your email address within the text of the comment so I can send the PDF to you. 

It's distressing that I didn't get all those comments in a timely manner, and again, I'm sorry I didn't reply. 

Jan

Edna's Stars, Pattern in Development

 Back in December my friend Edna made a quilt that she thought would be a good charity pattern to offer to PC quilters, easy enough for beginners and quick to make. She asked me to write the pattern for it. Here's her original, in her favorite palette of patriotic colors, intentionally very scrappy. 

I drafted the design in EQ and we reviewed it together, recoloring and adding borders until she was happy with it. I made a couple of modifications to it, enlarging the blocks to 12" from 10" and changing the construction from oblongs with flip corner triangles to half square triangles. The size came out to 56 x 68". 

We talked about how this pattern could work in other color combinations and how it didn't necessarily have to be scrappy. I showed her a couple of color options in EQ. 

To verify the pattern I made a test sample. Since I don't have much in the way of patriotic colors in my stash, I used what I had enough of. My version is one of the alternate, non-scrappy colorways I showed her, very girly. 

The placement of pink and turquoise is as she wanted reds and blues placed, with blue for the outer border. 

My test top came out fine. The pattern instructions have been written and are ready for someone else to pattern test. I did have a little trouble with some seams not nesting as I thought they would and further pattern testing could lead to suggestions for improving that. We'll offer it at PCQ's next meeting and ask for a pattern tester. It's intended as a free charity pattern and eventually I'll add it to the free charity quilt patterns tab above. 

Meanwhile, if you would like to make a test version of Edna's Stars and are willing to send me your comments on how to improve the pattern along with a photo of your top, I'll send you a PDF of the pattern. Please leave a comment, and be sure to type your email address in the text of the comment, otherwise I can't send the PDF to you. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts,  Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Friday Finish: Scrappy Celebration 3, Patriotic

Back in December the "hive" that's been making Scrappy Celebration blocks finished the patriotic ones, and Linda assembled the top. I had some yardage of wide backing in the right colors, so I passed it to her for the back. Last week she quilted and finished it. 

 

photo credit: Linda L. 

Like our other Scrappy Celebration quilts, SC3 will be a donation quilt. It's approximately 63 x 81" for a large throw. 

Did it bust any scraps? Didn't make a dent. I had so little red, white, and blue in my own stash that the girls shared theirs with me. I've ended up with more R-W-B scraps than I started with! 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.