Some sewing happened this week, but not much. Here's this week's stash report.
Used last week: 0.28 yards
Added last week: 10.5 yards
Used for 2012: 0.28 yards
Added for 2012: 10.5 yards
Net stashed for 2012: 10.22 yards
If you want to know why behind the addition of the 10 plus yards, read on. But be warned that it's a long, sad tale of woe that is still hoping for a happy ending.
Most of the sewing room time this week was spent wrestling with the Scrappy Stars UFO. This is the oldest UFO on the list and was started when I was still pretty much a newbie to quilting. The first shock when I opened the box was that the pattern had no picture of the quilt. I've slept quite a bit in the last 9 years, but I do have a fuzzy memory of the instructor's demo quilt. Or is it my fabric placement plan that I'm seeing in my head? Either way, I decided to scan the fabrics into the computer and do a mock up of the quilt in EQ. Oh boy, what a mess!
Three of the original background fabrics for the stars are prints, with a lot of red in them. They look fine with the fabric used in the stars, but make for a very busy quilt. Bottom line they aren't good backgrounds, that red just pops off the quilt in inappropriate places. So the first order of business was to replace those patterned backgrounds with tone on tone neutrals. So yesterday these came home:
Plus a few more florals to use in the stars since I wanted to make this a queen sized quilt.
After plugging all of the new fabrics into the EQ draft, 2 of the new neutrals and the roses with the beige background were dropped from the layout. The last result looks like this:
Which is infinitely better than the original mock up. I may drop out the lightest background fabric and see how that looks. The layout isn't exactly balanced and you have to be careful because the fabric swatches in EQ don't always translate well (since you scan such a limited repeat). But this looks promising enough that I'm going to proceed with making the stars. I played a little with other blocks to alternate with the star blocks which would add in more neutral space and reduce the large blocks of print. That approach will lessen the business a bit. Any other suggestions?
That's it for my stash report. Not exactly the direction I wanted to go at the beginning of the year, but I do want to finish up this UFO into a nice quilt as it's intended to be my Mom's when it's finished. To check out how other stashes fared this first week in 2012, check out Patchwork Times.
It will be a great quilt.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that you might drop the stars with the lightest background - what if you increased them? They seem to make the quilt pop more in contrast whereas the more tan ones seem to muddy the pattern.
But I agree with the problem of scanning fabrics in programs. You may end up making a few extra stars.
Good luck,
liz
Your additions should work well for this quilt. I think that what you have drawn up looks good!
ReplyDeleteThis looks good, Kate. I need to get more proficient with EQ. I keep learning and relearning it, and not using it for anything. Bummer to start off the new year 10 yards in the hole, but you have lots and lots and lots of time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Spinning Star, add a few more of the lighter background blocks.
ReplyDeleteThe only work I got done in my sewing room this past week was to complete two customer quilts. Getting ready to work on basting and quilting a UFO now, it's 60" square, so won't take long at all to complete.
I'll join the majority - I really like the lighter background on the stars! They definitely pop more than the others. It's a very pretty layout, though - it'll make a nice quilt. I love the borders.
ReplyDeleteWow -- uploading it all into EQ and then drawing it out must have made for quite a lovely couple of hours! I think if you get this one finished, it will be well worth the 10+ yards addition...and besides, you know most of it will be used to get the finish! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone that the addition of more light background would look really nice, just my two cents!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about adding fabric so early! You have oodles of time to use it up!
Isn't it interesting when we look back at projects we did when we were first starting out and how we would do them differently if given the opportunity. You have that chance.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be gorgeous.
I like your mock up. Even tho your numbers went the wrong way, I think the end result will be worth it!
ReplyDeleteI think the mock up looks fabulous and don't fret too much about the stash enhancement; you have all year to use it up! I think your mum will love the quilt.
ReplyDelete