Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Making up my mind

Sometimes I design a quilt in EQ or on paper and the finished quilt looks exactly like what I designed.  Other times, there are changes along the way.  My Rainbow Scrap challenge definitely falls into that second group.  Here's what it looks like so far.

RSC Butterflies on the design wall November 7th, 2017

I took the time to remake the yellow butterfly.  The fabrics in my original one were just too quiet compared to those in the other butterflies and it just faded away.  This new one in bolder yellows can hold its own better. (You can find my butterfly block tutorial here.)

The layout bears very little resemblance to either of the layouts I planned in January when I designed the butterfly and made my first block.

RSC Butterflies layout 1

RSC Butterflies layout 2

When I decided to stop at 9 blocks I had to rework things a little.  I thought I might add some Spring Bloom blocks to help grow the quilt to a usable size.  The green triangles were going to be prairie points.

RSC Butterflies layout 3

Yes, this was it.  Definitely.  Yet by the time I made the last butterfly block, I wasn't sure about those coloured blooms.  How about white blooms, like dogwood?

RSC Butterflies layout 4

Much better.  But what about this one?


RSC Butterflies layout 5

Hmm.  Nope.  I like the blooms in the corners better.

But wait.  By the time I was ready to start assembling the top, I was in a more traditional mood and wanted to frame things with a border, and I didn't want blooms anymore.  Without the blooms, those corners were awfully empty, not a very traditional look.  The nine-patches came out to play.

RSC Butterflies layout 6

Layout 6 was the layout I shared in October. This weekend I started actually assembling the quilt and in full size in fabric on the design wall, I felt there was too much blank background so I tweaked things.  I polled the household and everyone was in favour of coloured cornerstones too.

RSC Butterflies layout 7

This last variation is what is taking shape on my design wall.  It is far enough along that I am committed to it now. The final border will have a little extra something to spruce it up a bit too.

Here's the thing.  As I was looking through my EQ project file to extract these layouts to share here (there are dozens of iterations in that file, some of which are definitely in the "what was I thinking?!" category)  I realized my mood has shifted back to the more minimalist, modern look and the lighter feel of the light borders. Today I am gravitating to design 4 above, or maybe even this one:

RSC Butterflies layout 8

It is definitely time to finish this quilt! 

Linking up with
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts