Backing Up and Moving Forward

Backing up to last week's blog:

Marny….I continued with improvisational piecing and ended up with a practice piece for a larger quilt to be hung above my fireplace.  The final project will need to use larger scaled piecing and more greens to be effective on the very tall and violet wall I have, but I think I am on to some of the shapes that will work well.  The improvisational curves will be interesting against the strong geometric shapes of the walls.  The two curved “column” shapes on either side of the tulle-covered center are intriguing.  I want to see them repeated.  The fabric choices pictured in the April 20th blog seem to play well with one another.  While I didn’t use very many of them in the practice piece, I have considered them while contemplating a larger quilt.  The original little units constructed from the curved pieced strip sets still please me.    Lilacs, the source of my inspiration, are blooming profusely right now.  Their scent is filling the evening and morning air.  Hopefully time will present itself to continue working on this project.  May is a month full of promise and ninety other things we have to do! 

And now moving forward to a new topic.

We are always intrigued to see the optional fabric choices publishers share when showing quilt patterns.  Recently we created three versions of Rungs by Karla Alexander found in Skinny Quilts & Table Runners II edited by Eleanor Levie.  

Jill....my first intent was to use stash fabrics, full range of values and a polychromatic color scheme.  An interesting outcome of this pattern is the equal proportions of each fabric-with your choice of distribution.
Typically I prefer to use smaller amounts of the very light and the very dark and a more controlled color scheme.

My second attempt was a more controlled monochromatic (blue-green) color scheme with a planned punch of intensity (gold/yellow) to give it a luminous quality.  I used a more asymmetrical layout, which I personally prefer.

Marny....having seen Jill's first one on her design wall I headed home inspired to make one.  Mine is an analogous color scheme of blue, blue-green and red-violet in a range of values and textures.  The asymmetrical choice for cutting intrigued me as well.  It was a quick and appealing pattern for experimentation.

We will close with the comment that photographing the quilt makes the value more obvious.  It is a good tool for planning fabric placement.  'Till next Tuesday.