From back into a front

After I posted this photo on flickr,

Monica of Happy Zombie wrote:  "I would call that a front of a quilt - too beautiful to hide in the back!"  

Suddenly the gears in my head started turning and I realized that the quilting pattern I was designing for the front of the quilt would totally ruin the back of the quilt. 

And here I was, trying to be diligent in finishing projects on my list and I had an accidental extra quilt in my WIP's.  As I added some more strips to the quilt, I pondered.  I designed that "backing" for Henry.  The red, yellow and orange make up a "fish" in the center.  The blues are water (of course) mixed with bubbles (possibly Henry's second love after water).  If I turned it into a twin sized quilt, the scale of the center block would be too small.  So I held it up on the wall in his room and it is just right as a modern splash of color on his wall. 

So, there you have it.  Another day or two of concentrated quilting with the walking foot and it'll be ready for a binding. 

Though, you'll note that I said "concentrated" quilting.  I'm now distracted by hexies again....

A little off balance

I have set myself a huge challenge for the Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long.  I've opened up my entire stash to this project so I can sew with whatever inspires me.  I have a lot of difficulty visualizing modern fabrics while I'm looking at the dusky colors in the book, so that is an extra layer of difficulty.  I'm also figuring out the math for the block pieces so I don't have to use the templates. 

And, lastly, I'm trying to make the color and fabric combinations in my blocks not match.  This is hard work!  I have to fight my natural impulse to grab the matching fabrics and purposely make myself uncomfortable.  I have a mix of text fabric, modern designers, Japanese fabrics and 30's reproduction fabrics.  I admire the modern quilters on flickr that put different fabric lines and colors together that I'd never think of.  So I'm trying to imitate that by shaking up my own style and pushing my own boundaries.  I hope that mixing these styles in lots of different blocks means that the whole top will come together better.  We'll see....

Anyway, here is my next batch of Farmer's Wife blocks:

(I wish that reds, oranges and purples photographed better with my camera.)

 

So, that is the task I have in front of me.  How do you like to play with color?  

How do you challenge yourself?

I really am curious.

Another New Project

I'm incorrigible. I look at my WIP's and I want some of them to be finished, but I'd rather go start on a new project or dream about a new block design.

So, for my friend Tina's birthday, I decided to break out my Anna Maria Horner Good Folks and Kona white and start making some word blocks. I'm not completely clear with where this quilt is heading--more words? crazy sampler? paper pieced pictorial blocks? either way, these blocks fit her style and I look forward to what ideas come next.