At last the Rippin’ Robins project is finished. I was filling out the form to enter it in the local guild show and needed a name. Hadn’t yet thought of a name for this one. On the spot I decided “fox” had to be in the name and “Fox Trot” was the first phrase that came to me, so that’s its name.
It measures 52 x 72. I’d allowed for quilting to take up some measurement, but it didn’t change it. That surprised me enough to wonder if I had measured it wrong.
This photo doesn’t show the blue quilting well so here’s another two shots, front corner and back.
And because it is hard to see the white square in the middle right, here is a detail view.
I’ve always liked shadow blocks in quilting, and this is the first time I’ve tried it. I could have done the hourglass squares differently to get a better Ohio Star effect, maybe next time. In the other two white spaces I was less elaborate: squares extending the Jacob’s Ladder at the top and Flying Geese at the bottom.
Quilted, bound, labeled, and with hanging sleeve attached. The quilting was a challenge because instead of the easy way–clockwise, moving center to outer–I needed to quilt counterclockwise, which kept forcing more and more under the 9-inch Featherweight harp. I’ll try to remember that the next time I design a top! Other than wrestling with the bulk of it, I did two lines that ended up loopy on the back. Luckily they were shorter lines! I had inserted a new bobbin and it was okay for a line. Something happened, who knows what. I rethreaded the bobbin case and all was then well. I don’t really care what went wrong so long as it is an easy fix. I had more problems with the binding than usual, mostly operator error, but I won’t whine about them.
This was the original plan.
But I walked around the bed and decided I liked it better this way.
Luckily I hadn’t sewn the hanging sleeve in with the binding and could change the orientation. It measures 45 ” x 45 .”
I was looking forward to getting back to posting from my computer instead of my phone, but the editor didn’t open on my new computer. Sigh. I hope I don’t have to buy Jetpack to work from the computer.
Anyway the top is together except for the final border and I’ve looked at it long enough to be sure it is what I want to do.
I’d been debating whether to leave it at 40 X 60 and let the dark blue binding finish it or this border. At first I had placed the blue only in the upper right corner and it looked too dark. So I added more to get a better idea of the look. Overall I don’t think it too dark. And besides, I really wanted the larger size.
If I have enough of the cream I’ll use it for backing; if not I’ll think about what to add to make enough.
Oh, the quilt now has a name. In honor of the fox blocks, I’ll call it Fox Trot.
I got out the Rippin Robins blocks. Idea 1 was to tip them a bit—not on point, not square in a square. I laid them out to see if i needed more blocks.
I thought I might need more 3 X 3 blocks but decided to add the triangles then lay out again. So I drafted the triangles. But before I cut any fabric , I got another idea.
I’m going with this one. The layout is 40 x 60. I may border it to make 50 x 70. Either size is useful.
Now I have a huge supply of cut 1 1/2-inch squares, but they are mostly prints.
And a moderate supply of 3-inch squares. Also mostly prints.
So of course I wondered how it would work with prints–even the white background.
I made a test block.
I think it will work. I’ll have to be careful to keep the mixed light background pieces that light. And I think I’ll not sew the four together until I have a bunch and can lay them out. I think it might be difficult to control the four meeting triangles if I sew them in groups of four before I check combinations. And control the mix of prints is something I would want to do. Not a problem when working with all solids.
This will be a leader/ender project, and the pieces are tiny. So it will be a long time before you see any progress.
This top has been in the background since September. I was using the one-inch-square pieces as leaders/enders, so it wasn’t a fast process, nor was it worth a photo. Then I got to a point where I needed to start paying attention to how many light-top Vs. how many dark-top sets I needed. Once I had the sets of six, I got a little more serious about designing; this was the most random I’ve ever worked. I had a variety of light prints and two medium tans. I ignored the tans and only checked one print on each set and sorted so that the selected print appeared in each of four piles. Two tagged along without planning. That at least got each print on each side.
When sewing I did kind of try to avoid joining two like, but not completely because there was one print I had a lot more of than the others. Mostly I looked at both ends of the growing strip and placed the next set of six where it looked best. Until finally I had all the sides sewn.
The piece measured 51 x 51, so strips of 51 one-inch pieces should have fit. Nope. I removed a nine-patch from each row. So apparently that is how much off my 1/4-inch seam is. Instead of the beginning and end of the rows coming out the same, one side was light top and one dark. Well, I’d not made the nine-patches for the corners yet, so I could adapt to that. Except I sewed top and bottom rows on and then laid out the first side and saw that one had been sewn wrong, so I pulled out the seam ripper. At any rate, the border finally got sewn on.
Next time I’ll move the in-progress pile off the arm of the sofa. This top is getting too big to crop it out of the photo.
I’m debating between 2-inch medium brown border followed by 3-5 inch darker one or just a wide medium border or no more borders. The amount of fabric I have left may be the determining factor instead of a design reason.
Before I add those, I have the last set of Rippin Robin blocks to make by Wednesday. Nancy’s colors are Navy blue, Key lime, and Turquoise.
The greens are not quite so yellowish as this photo. Luckily she supplied fabric because she wants no solids. (I’m an outlier in the group, the only one who likes solids.) I have a batik blue that would work, but that’s all.
ETA my three blocks for Nancy.
I surprised myself when I looked at my scraps by finding an almost turquoise and enough lime green for one of the blocks. So I used only a little of Nancy’s lime green. Variety of fabrics gives a nice effect, so I’m glad I could find them.
Indecision slows down finishing. I left off here with most pieces made. Now the pieces are finished, and I’m playing with final layout. First the planned layout.
I’d planned to have purple next to the other borders and eggplant on the outer edge. I do see where I’ve placed a couple upside down.
It looked so regular compared to the skittery triangles and diamonds. Now I had had one title in mind: Containng the Chaos. (My thoughts were along “attempting to contain,” but that made an unruly title, and “Contained,” No way! This arrangement might work with “Containng. . . .” But another idea. Aternate direction and forget the layering of color.
I liked this a bit better. (It is important to give up first ideas sometimes!) But meanwhile I was having other title thoughts. Those flighty triangles kept drawing my mind to a Yeats poem, The Second Coming (text here if you need it). As the circles enlarged, there was certainly a “widening gyre.” But that wasn’t a promising title. A later line, however, was: “The centre cannot hold.” The poem has always fascinated me, and I have changed my mind many times about what it means, but it seems to fit those triangles. Now to make it fit the hexagons. Here’s a first try.
As of now I’m planning a small red-violet border and a wider blue-violet one and a dark purple binding. I’ll think on it a couple more days.
My local guild has a challenge for this spring’s show marking the 50th something–year of guild? show?–and the challenge is 50 Shades of Purple and Gold. Luckily I don’t have to use 50 all by mysef. There is a size requirement (45 x 45, 60 x 60, or a rectangle 45 x 60). What they are hoping to show is the variety of styles of quilting that members do.
So when I took three classes with Brenda Gael Smith lately, plus signed up for her Dreamline project, I had planned to use what I learned there in my quilt design. I thought maybe I should do what had been Plan A in the first quilt I made from the classes (here). I had to abandon the plan because I didn’t have enough fabric in the scrap pile I was using to make it work.
In the Geometrcks class we learned one way to make floating shapes that involved a light square and a dark square, and we ended up with two blocks, light background and dark. Perfect for a log cabin setting. So I made a sample set of blocks.
I couldn’t get back far enough to get the other three light blocks into the photo. And the center is a purple so dark that it looks black here. I’m thinking the finish might be boring. The variation in purples doesn’t seem to give it enough variation and the shapes aren’t as different as I had anticipated. My first thought is to remove the diamond. That would give me 10 inches to play with, and I’ve used the same purple for half of the hexagon. . (Luckily I’ve made only one pair of each shape except for the triangles.)
Then I though maybe a smaller center.
I think I like that better. At least that got most of the light blocks into the photo, and I’d no longer be short one dark block. That would give another 5 inches to play with. I’ll explore the Dreamline patterns and see what might complement these. Good thing I started this project early.
Class was coming up and I had blocks to make for Rippin Robins. Since the Jacobs Ladder pattern has so many 4-piece segments, I thought it would make good leaders and enders, so I could accomplish two things at once. And while I was cutting I also cut a London Roads and a Friendship Star in my colors because I’m sure I’ll need more blocks than I’ll get in the exchange.
First, Myra’s colors and the blocks already finished.
Myra chose the creative naming approach to work her initials into the choice: Modest Gray, Hello Yellow (or gold–no metallic), and Timid White. She also requested all 9-inch blocks and no prints. She nicely provided some prints and I also had a couple–the white prints thanks to having ordered them for last month’s blocks. Luckily I’d chosen two gray on white prints.
At our last meeting Myra was disappointed that so far no one had used the fabric that had inspired her color choice, so I took it as a challenge to do so. It’s a big print, so to make it work I did some fussy cutting. Unfortunately I didn’t calculate the trimmed and seamed look and lost the nice dark gray on the big flower on the bottom. The upper right block was a better use of the fabric. My goldfish fabric in the upper left reads gray in most lights, though it tends to purplish. In some lights it is really very purple. I hope she thinks the fish are cute enough to be satisfied with it.
The other leader/enders were a 6- and 3- inch block for me.
I thought by using the subtle print in the London Roads block, I might convey the idea better. That meant I had to be more careful in arranging parts that are already confusing. Yes I ripped a couple times. And I’d made tiny Friendship Star blocks for the SAHRR23, and it had been out, and while looking at it I figured it was a good one for my RR quilt.
And finally the blocks from practicing the tricks from the FUNdamentally Circles class with Brenda Gael Smith.
The blocks measure 18 x 18 inches. I’d made the left one first and adjusted the sashing in the right one so it would be the same size. All I have planned is that I want to end up with a child’s quilt approximately 40 x60 inches. Obviously I need more than plain sashing and borders. These will go into hibernation while I think on it. Suggestions welcome. I love having more ideas than I can use.
knitNkwilt 