Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Delighted


That's what I'm calling this quilt top, Delighted. I followed the daily instructions on Confessions of a Fabric Addict over the last 2 weeks or so to make it. Sarah's original design, called "Rejoice," was created using holiday fabrics for her 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop. 


I wanted to make "Rejoice," but I have enough Christmas quilts, including two UFOs hanging in the closet. So I decided to try something different. All my red scraps were still sitting out from working on this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.


And I had plenty of light neutral fabrics to cut up using my Tri-Recs rulers.


By simply switching in turquoises, teals and aquas for the green in Sarah's pattern, the colors shifted away from Christmas and toward a fresh palette. Coincidentally, all those bluish greenish scraps were still sitting out from June's RSC blocks, so the need to clean up my studio might have influenced my color choices. Ahem. 


In this close up, you can see some of the scrappy fabrics that I used. The lighting is funky because it was hanging in front of a closed yet still brightly backlit set of blinds. I find going completely scrappy with a pattern to be a real exercise in trusting the process. Is this dark teal too dark? This red looks kinda orange. Breathe in, sew blocks, breath out. It's just fabric! Each individual block looked pretty mish-mashy, keep breathing...

In the end, Sarah's cool design and its secondary patterns all appeared like magic in the final layout. I may have actually squealed a little when I finished the final borders. Rejoice! I'm Delighted with the results! I'll share more photos once I get it quilted.
   

Meanwhile, back in the land of charity quilts, I whipped up this little number. The Sunshine online quilt guild has a monthly block lotto, and the colors for July are pink and green. I don't really care for pink, but I dutifully pieced up some blocks (Karen, I put pink and green postage stamp borders on those applique flowers you sent, worked great. Forgot to take photos, dang it!)


As I worked away with the lotto colors, I thought, "I have a lot of pink fabric for someone who doesn't like pink. Maybe I should sew it ALL up with some green and get rid of it." So I picked a dozen friendly fat quarters and whipped out some offset square-in-a-square blocks (Sunshine calls 'em Mendota blocks.) A few bigger chunks of pink quickly became a back and I found a piece of batting just the right size.


Inspired by this feathery print on the back, I quilted it with floppy feathers in pink thread. Hot pink in the bobbin, light pink on top. I tried the hot pink on top, but the thread broke many many times and I just gave up. Pink doesn't like me, either I guess!


When I brought it upstairs after quilting, I showed Sean the backing first. He said, "Huh. That's a weird one with all that pink and one green stripe." So now I think of this little quilt as "The Weird One With The Green Stripe." And even though it contains much pink, it hardly made a dent in my pink stash. However, the piece slowly grew on me and now I actually really like it. I might make more pink quilts, who knows! 

TWOWTGS will go to Wrap-A-Smile, where hopefully a small child won't think it's weird at all, just soft and warm and cuddly.

29 comments:

  1. Delighted is really beautiful! I love the colors, and those sharp points, my, you did a fabulous job! I don't think the teals are too dark. Is it hard to sew on a boat?

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  2. I love Delighted !!! I understand about pink---not my favorite color ether. But then neither is green, and I seem to have a ton of it !! And have no idea why :-)

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  3. Delighted came out beautifully! I still intend to make it, but I’m stuck working with all the scraps spread out on MY cutting table. I can’t help myself. I think I need an intervention! A child will simply adore The Wierd One!

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  4. What a wonderful quilt! Love the colors and the fantastic points of each block. Great work!
    I like the pink and green quilt! I am sure it will get much love and cuddles and make someone very happy!

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  5. You did good! Excellent point about the various shades of color we can use. They all work and the key is to mix them up and spread them out, what you called mish-mash style. Love that term. The loopy feathers are wonderful, open and flowing and just exactly right for the pink project.

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  6. Both of these projects are gorgeous! You make such lovely things. I can relate to your thoughts about trusting the process. It's true that something that looks "off" in a single block will usually look fine in the whole quilt. I often have to tell myself to be more adventurous with my fabric choices, knowing that it will make the quilt more interesting. Still, I have been known to change a piece or two that really bug me once a top is completed.

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  7. Your non Christmas quilt is really delightful! Wonderful job, glad you ignored your concerns along the way it turned out so good. And pink really does look great too, cute pattern.

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  8. Oh, Louise, I love your Delighted quilt! Is this one a keeper for you? I'm not much of a pink fan either, but I have more pink in my stash than I used to. Haha! At least it's bright, bold pink, so I can tolerate that! I think that pink/green quilt will make someone very happy!

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  9. I love how your scrappiness looks, it came out fantastic!!
    When using your pink just think of tons of little girls out there that LOVE pink!!

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  10. I never liked pink until I started quilting. Now I love it. Delighted is indeed delightful and a beautiful way to use up the scraps.

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  11. So true, with scrappy quilts you really have to trust the process. Your red and turquoise quilt came out beautiful! "Delightful" is a very apt name for it. Glad you're keeping this one to enjoy yourself. And your cute pink one, I'm sure some little girl will love it and be happy to have it.

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  12. Louise, I just love your red and aqua color combo!!! And yay! for scrappy!!! Your pink quilt sure got finished up quickly. Nice job!

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  13. Your choice of teals was a great idea. The scrappiness worked out very well, probably because of the contrasting colors. What it comes to baby Quilts there is always a need for pinks and you’ve made some sweet ones.

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  14. Beautiful! Your colours came together wonderfully, thank goodness you trusted the process! Love your pink quilt, there is never enough pink!

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  15. I'm DELIGHTED with your blue red combos. LOVE IT!!!

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  16. I LOVE your Delighted quilt! It's wonderful! And guess what? I took your advice on what sashing to use with my red blocks. It turns out that was the best option out of the fabrics I had enough of. And I love it! Now I need to decide if I'm going to add any borders. Blog post about that one in the works. I had to laugh when you talked about having a lot of pink. That's what I thought about the red in my stash. I decided to make big 10" blocks to try and get rid of it and it hardly made a dent!!

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  17. Louise, am I still showing as a no-reply commenter?

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  18. Louise, your Delighted quilt is wonderful! I love the change of the green to aqua - such a pretty color combination.

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  19. I would have squealed too! Delighted is beautiful. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has to work at letting go when making a scrappy quilt. It usually works out in the end. Yours certainly did! Plus it helped with clean-up. Another win!

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  20. I am DELIGHTED with your beautiful scrappy version of this year's quilt-along quilt! You've really taken it to new heights. Thanks so much for sharing!!

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  21. I love your red/teal version of the Christmas quilt. In fact, I think that’s one of the modern Christmas color schemes. You nailed the scrappy variety of reds and teals. Giggle giggle about the name of the other quilt. I never think I like pink either. But some of my favorite quilts I’ve made in recent years have pink in them, so you just never know. I think TWOWTGS will be adored.

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  22. Your Delighted quilt is really stunning. All those fabrics look like they were made to go together. And the pink one is nice. I'm not usually a pink person either but I think the pink/green combination works really well and you finished quilt looks lovely :)

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  23. Delighted is amazing! I love the interplay.

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  24. The trirecs blocks are always tough for me even with the rulers. I square up each one before piecing into tbe overall design. Love your color choices and the scrappiness of it.

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  25. Your not a Christmas quilt turned out beautifully! Your "Weird One" turned out nicely too. It's always entertaining when my family comes up with the names for my quilts, I really like the one your guy came up with.

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  26. You make me want to run and grab my reds and turquoises because I have a wee collection and sew Sarah's quilt up right now! I wish I'd been able to fit it in, but I was behaved (for once) and didn't chase her squirrel. I absolutely love scrap quilts done that way and I do exactly that with the oh dear, and I don't know, and then invariably YESSS! Love the pink sweet quilt too, lovely work!

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  27. Delighted is certainly delightful!! Thanks so much for sharing this scrappy version. Now I have options when I get those rulers and get around to making a version of Sarah's quilt! Thanks for sharing! The pink quilt is really sweet too!

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  28. "Delighted" turned out great! It's so cool how we can make changes in the color way and end up with such a different outcome! Funny how those least favorite colors end up in the stash isn't it? I'm not a fan of purple, but I can never seem to get rid of them!

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