Auditioning Fabrics for My Last Blocks!

The last time Annie and I got together to work on our quilts we made decisions about our final blocks.  It's taken me awhile, but I've finally gotten my last blocks cut out and I took pictures of the "auditions" for each of them.  This is the point at which I'm really able to see if I think the block is going to work.  I'm pretty pleased with these four.  Here they are......

First is "Ohio Star," taking it's place in one of the

remaining "brown" slots in the block arrangements.

Second is "Apple Tree," also filling a "brown" slot.

Third is "Grapes of Wrath," which is our remaining "primarily blue with some brown" block.

Fourth is "Christmas Star," and it's our final green and gold block.

Getting pretty close here!!

We also went shopping to fill in some of the gaps we had in our lights and darks for the sashing.  Nine-patch and Rails is the theme, and we have some fun pieces to work with from the leftover fabrics of our blocks, as well as a few new ones that coordinate well with the overall feel of the quilt.  More pictures to come!

Changes!

We had a great work day last week.  We were able to get through the final planning of the color placement of the blocks on the quilt top.  We figured where we wanted each of the main colors and then decided which of our remaining blocks should carry the colors we still needed.  I drafted it out and we played with it from there.

We have ten more to complete and then we'll be ready to start on the sashing!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there were some changes in the wind for some of our existing blocks.  Here they are:

"Comfort Quilt"

                     

Above (before) and right (after), in which the background was changed from a light print to a "darker light" print:

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"Rosebud"

Above (before) and right (after), and yes it is the same block pattern!  Isn't it amazing how color choices can entirely change the look of a block?!?

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"West Virginia"

Here's how it looks with the rotated center block.

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I decided to change my "London Square,"

and Annie is still deciding what she wants to do.

We discovered an interesting thing when we went to Tillamook last week

and viewed part of the antique quilt collection at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center.

Apparently pinks didn't really come into use until the 1880s.

So.  I feel good about ousting the pink in this block

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And, here is the design wall with the current placement of the blocks we have finished.

We have another work day planned for this week, so we'll see where we get then!

Busy times!

Well, after a rather busy time for both of us, what with spending time with the grand-kiddos and family gatherings and Independence Day and life in general, we're back to our blocks!

Here are a few of those we've done.

Quite awhile ago Annie made "Little Blue Basket," but I didn't have a picture of it to post.  We've decided that the background needs to be darker, so these will be remade with a sweet floral-on-taupe to replace the white and blue print.  I love baskets! Pics of the changes to come later.

 Annie also made this lovely "Underground Railroad" block.  We're trying to evenly disperse a variety of colors over the quilt tops, and this is one of our attempts to get some green -- and gold -- into the mix.

And here's another green and gold one that I made.  Its name is "Carolina Lily."

Here is "Rosebud," another attempt at green, but it isn't working for us, so changes are in the wind for this one.  I'll post the updated version when we've settled on it.

This is a fun one.  Its name is "West Virginia" and Annie made it with this awesome print in the center block that shows encamped Union troops surrounded by Scripture verses and song lyrics. In this case, Psalms 46:1 & 50:15 and Rally Round the Flag Boys.  After we put it on the design wall, we realized the center needs to be shifted 45 degrees so it will sit straight when the blocks are set on point.  :-)  So, we have more ripping and re-sewing to do.  Just part of the process, right?  But don't you just love the colors here?  That red and brown combination is rich.

And then I reworked "Lincoln's Platform" because I wasn't satisfied with how the colors worked together.  In my opinion, the blue was too bright and didn't match the value of the rose color.  So here is the result of that change.  I can live with it now.

Before

After

     

Here's a look at the design wall that shows the blocks we have so far. I've done a little preliminary figuring on where which colors might abide to best advantage.  I love living with a block arrangement for weeks, walking by it, sitting and just absorbing what is there. My eyes are constantly roving over the placements and trying to see the "best" way to arrange them.  So, here's the beginning.  There will be many changes before we're finished, to be sure.

We have a work day scheduled tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get more posted soon!

We found what we were looking for.............

Good day today!

We found ourselves at our local quilt shop with a 20% discount card and a gift certificate.  We've discovered we need some darker lights.  The shirtings we have are turning out to be too light to our liking, so after experimenting some with some of Jo Morton's fabric that we already had, we decided we needed to find some fabrics with similar values.  Bingo!  And we found a few other things, too, that we think are pretty awesome.  Here are the newest additions.  I truly wish the photo did them justice!

After our foray into the land of fabrics -- on a Shop Hop day, no less -- we had a good afternoon cutting out, revising some more, and sewing some blocks.  This is the newest block for our collection, the Barbara Frietchie Star.

Here's the layout......

.....and here it is finished.

It's looking good on the design wall!

A couple more blocks....

So after our refiguring, I made a couple of blocks, and I like them both.  One is as we planned it, the second is a revision.  And the design wall is sporting the changes.  I'm pretty pleased at this point.  :-)



This is Union Square in the planning stages........

....and finished.  The blue is hard to capture in a picture......

This is more true to color.

And then this is the revision of the New England block:

And the design wall with the tea-dyed squares and the revisions:

So, onward to the next blocks.  There are still a couple in this grouping that need some changes.  Maybe we'll tackle that tomorrow!

Revisions and Tea Dying!

In talking about our project recently, we've both come to the conclusion that the full set of blocks is just going to be too much of a quilt for us.  Annie came to that place long before I did.  I was gung-ho on doing all the blocks, with a few exceptions.  But if I did, I'd have a king-size quilt, which I don't really want to handle at the quilting stage.  So I'd thought about doing two smaller ones.  Today I decided I'm doing just one, like Annie is, and both of ours will be 31 blocks.

So, we went through our pattern books and decided which 31 they would be.

Helping us make the decisions is the realization that we prefer the more complex blocks, so we're focusing on those.  Also that we're just going to bypass all the applique patterns with the exception of the Little Blue Basket, which has an applique handle.

After that, we put all of our blocks up on the design wall.  I find living with block arrangements over time is the most useful thing in deciding if I like what I'm doing.  I am blessed to have a great place for a design wall, and a family that likes to see the progress of each quilt I make. So, as we looked at what we have going here, there were some things that stood out.

First thing we decided is that we really prefer the darker shades of lights, so pulled the North Star block (left side, row 4, because it just sticks out too much.

Then we did some tea dying on Texas Tears, Birds in the Air and Comfort Quilt Blocks (all of row 3).  We like the result much better now.

Then we pulled the Illinois Road block, bottom left, because we're struggling with the pink that just doesn't blend as much as we'd like.

The rest of the day, we spent evaluating the other blocks we have cut out and whether we want to substitute new lights.  And we made good progress on that, as well.

Here's one we've changed and like it so much better.  It's called New England and the first attempt is the top one.  Revision is below.  We tea dyed that center piece.  :-)

So, revised design wall coming in the near future!

Lots of blocks!!

Yesterday Annie and I spent the day working on our blocks.  As days go, it was a 10.  We each were able to complete 3 blocks, had good talks throughout the day, and a good supper together.  I love the way God gives us sisters in His kingdom.  Quilting sisters are just that much dearer.

So, these are the blocks that Annie finished.........

Illinois Road - Sorry the picture is so crummy!

London Square

Fort Sumpter

And these are the ones I finished..........

Louisiana

Fox and Geese

White House

We're loving these blocks!  We've been noticing that we are leaning heavily on blue, brown and red, so we're working on getting some greens in here!