Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Rules Were Made to Be Broken-Moda Modern Building Blocks #6




The original plan was to only use fabrics with prints that would present as solids. For instance, a dark red printed on a light red background, or a subtle colored print perhaps. I was trying to not repeat prints to give a greater variety, too. And I was reading about color theory at the same time. Perhaps my timing was poor, but I chucked most of the rules I'd imposed on the project, and wanted to see what would work.

The block above was listed in the pattern as green, and I couldn't bear another green block. I hit my Cotton+Steel fat quarter bundle, and loved the combination with the fussy cut lion.

When it was time to do the next block that actually called for peach, gold, and blue, I stared at the same FQ bundles. Why not? These are from 3 different designers, but the colors are similar. They're also colors echoed in other blocks in the quilt. Yes, it's terribly busy, and you may not like it close up, but to me it is effective in the quilt. The block would have been intense in solids, too. Try squinting at it for fun!



Can you see it in the context of the whole quilt?



There is a subtle balance in this pattern with regard to color distribution. You can start to pick out triangular placement of like colors, and I think the groupings of 3 make it pleasing to the eye. For instance, see the 3 highly visible orange blocks? If I had kept the lion block green, there would have been 3 strong greens. Even though I changed it to a print with an aqua tone, it works because there are 3 strong aquas. Corner, middle, bottom. It will be most interesting for me to see how all the 6" blocks play into the overall color!



Several new blocks have shown up in the picture, and I have fabric pulled for part of the remaining 6" blocks. I'm still aiming for a Friday flimsy finish. Keep your fingers crossed--or hold your thumbs, wherever you may be!


A new sewist asked me the other day how I knew to put the blocks together if there were no instructions on the pattern. Well, I've said before that this isn't a pattern for beginners. It's mainly cutting instructions. Some of it is intuitive from doing other patterns with similar construction. If you're newer, look up flying geese, HST, and how to line up points. Or, ask someone with more experience to just show you. Most veteran quilters are happy to share their expertise with newbies. We were all new when we started.

She also wanted to know how you center HST to sew onto a square. Good question! I just fold my square in half, and finger press a little crease. Then line up your triangle point with the crease, and pin or hold until you've sewn it.



If you have a whole line of triangles, which we would then call flying geese, use the straight edge of something to line up your points. Pin, or hold, and sew. 


Most of my points and seams line up, but not in every single case. Sometimes I go back and take in or let out a seam just the teensiest bit to make things fit better, but not always. I remember the wise advice by my dear friend, Irene: 

A man on a galloping horse is never going to see that!

Your skills will develop as you sew. Don't be so critical of your work that you miss the joy of creating whatever makes you happy!



Me: Hey, Doxie girls! Today's the big day! The secret is coming. We have to check all the boxes, and make sure it's all there, and just so. We should take pictures, shouldn't we?

Doxie girls: (Big yawn. Sleepy eyes. Mild interest in me to see if I have food.)

Me: Are you all ready? Will you promise not to escape and chase Mrs. UPS back into her truck? Please don't bark through the windows, okay?! It looks bad for us. I need more coffee!

I'm off to get ready for IT!
Until next time...
Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.




Linking up with~
Quilting Jet Girl
Freshly Pieced
Sew Fresh Quilts

8 comments:

Pam @ Quilting Fun said...

Love your blocks! The colours are fabulous and very interesting all together! Wonderful!

lalaluu said...

I love seeing this pattern done with a quilter's stash instead of the kit. Everyone is so different, yet all create an unbelievable quilt!

Ann said...

I love the direction you've decided to take with this quilt - much more interesting than with just solid colours! And that is some SOLID advice from Irene! Did you get your special delivery? ;)

Jinger said...

What fantastic advice! 'Don't be so critical of your work that you miss the joy of creating whatever makes you happy!' I have such a difficult time trying to not be a perfectionist about everything, it's the type-A in me. I need to make this into a really pretty sign and put it where I'll see it when I'm working in my studio.

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

When I worked on prototype aircraft, we would always talk about the paint job of our airplanes. A good paint job was a 50foot paint job - as in it looks great from 50 feet away, but any closer and you start to see places where paint has been sanded away and things changed (prototype airplanes are pretty much never perfect the first time around). So, you start out with a 50foot paint job and at the end of the project have a 200 foot paint job... anyway, somehow your galloping horse comment really brought back those memories to me. :)

Ruth said...

Great advice I love the galloping horse analogy!

Shauna said...

I had a teacher tell me those things that aren't quite perfect are what make it art and special. I really like how it is all coming together and look forward to seeing it completed.

Unknown said...

I go this machine and love it so far but I am having a hard time cutting out some of the we r memory keepers alphabet wafer thin dies on my felt...are the dies too little? I don't have mat A yet just B. I am using card stock as a shim and I only use wool felt blends. Suggestions?
Combined cutting creasing rule