...and I'm not talking food here. I tried, I really did, to include pops of chartreuse into the half-inch strips between the wider ones but I couldn't do it. I suspect I needed a slightly darker value of the brighter ones I had, while the more muted ones just darkened the quilt more - something I was trying to get away from. So as much as I did not want to introduce more "pink" into the quilt, my gut had said all along that a nice strong dark fuchsia was what it needed.
And I admit, I was also being influenced by this fabric which will go on the back...
So I cut and arranged and pieced and measured cut and pieced some more, knowing that there were dozens of ways I could have done this. But for Pete's sake - it's a quilt for a baby and it's pretty ridiculous that I've been feeling so defeated by it. This designing on the fly definitely took it's own turn, this is so far from where I thought I would go with it. I can see where and why I got off, mostly due to the limitations of the two fabrics I started with, and my weakness for adding colors I think are contrasting but in fact tend to read too much the same and darker than I think they will. You'd think I'd learn...
I left it alone yesterday, as one must when one gets to this point of not liking something one started off so enthusiastic about. Today I was pleased to view it as not as offensive as I remembered, and sewed it down off the design wall. I know I've shown you this before, but this is my favorite method for assuring perfect 1/4" seams, a must when working with such narrow strips. That's a partial pad of small sticky notes pushed up against the side of the presser foot, a piece of masking tape as extra insurance that it stays in place. No guessing if you're keeping the edge of the seam allowance perfectly along the edge of the foot, especially at the end where you can't hold on to it anymore. Just feed it in to run against that pad.
I'll give the top a good press tomorrow and get it layered up for quilting - stitch in the ditch and maybe something else. It will be fine, just not exactly how I thought it would be.
3 comments:
I love your hint about the sticky pads...I will have to try that as I often include a thin border inside a larger one to break between the design and borders.
Donna
I think that it came out good. The bright pink does work. When does a quilt come out as we imagine in our minds? Many of them take a turn that we did not plan for. I think when this is quilted it will look perfect. Love your backing fabric.
Glad you stuck with it and worked through the tough parts of creating. Great idea with the post-its to keep a regular 1/4-inch seam. I'll have to try that!
Post a Comment