Monday, January 24, 2011

don't underestimate the power of staring...

On Saturday, I finished piecing the main part of one of the two quilt projects I'm working on right now. It's a modified version of the Awesome Lap Quilt posted on the Moda Bakeshop back in November. I took the basic idea, and adjusted it in order to fit the final dimensions for a baby quilt of 40" x 60". The photo below shows the finished piecing, at a size of 36.5" x 54.5", which will be completed with a 2" vertical and 3" horizontal border once I buy the fabric. The fabric comes from a jelly roll of brown/tan/cream fabrics from Shibori Dragon, which I bought at a craft expo back in November. I was originally planning this to be a baby quilt, hence the size, but the fabrics turned out to be much more "adult" than I had expected, and so this will instead be a birthday gift.

It occurred to me that we don't use the hall bathroom for much of anything, and that I might be able to get a great shot of the quilt top if I just clipped it to the shower curtain. This indeed worked out quite well (as seen by the photo above!), although the quality of the light in the bathroom is not nearly as good as that in my sewing room. I am really liking having the quilt hanging there for the moment, however, as it is out of the way and safe from the dogs and is still visible so I can look at it as I decide on how to quilt the pattern. This definitely makes my decision to incorporate a design wall into my sewing room "remodel" even more pronounced!

Since the original fabric roll choice for the baby quilt didn't work out, I found another selection of child-themed fabrics at Quiltworks NW last weekend. The jelly roll had a decent amount of pink and red in it, so I also picked up a few fat quarters to ensure I had enough patterns once I pulled out the pinks/reds (as the expected baby is known to be a boy!). There are three colors of solid/dot patterns in the roll as well, which I pulled out to reserve for use for binding the quilt. The photo to the left is all eighteen of my chosen "main" fabrics that will make up the squares in the pattern, along with the pieces that will make up the middle of each square. I'm still debating if I like the arrangement that I have so far, and will probably leave these sitting still for at least another day or two before I begin putting them together, just to be sure that I like how the patterns mesh together.

Hence, the title of this post - just by taking small moments to stare at the quilt top and the cut pieces, I've already made adjustments to my plans. I've mostly worked out how to quilt this pattern, and I've adjusted some of the pattern pairings in the cut pieces as well. I'm definitely finding it quite helpful - and I'm super excited to soon have a design wall and other methods to keep my projects visible while I decide what to do with them!

3 comments:

muh said...

What are you using to quilt with (i mean, equipment wise)? Are you able to do complicated patterns with it?

Alassel said...

Pretty much all of my work is done on my Janome MC6600P machine, with some of the borders done on my older Featherweight. I can do free-motion quilting on my Janome but I've just barely started, so everything I've done so far is straight lines. :)

muh said...

All my quilting has been done by hand, or on my Kenmore (I dunno, but basic) machine. I think that, in theory, i can do free motion on the Kenmore, but i haven't attempted much. I feel really limited with my actual quilting, though, and i hope to have a chance to stretch my boundaries one of these days. I love making bed sized quilts, and its just a bit too much on the Kenmore at all (and a lot too much if it is all by hand - i'm not fast!)