Thank you!

Many sincere thanks to Julierose, Raewyn, Kelly, Teresa, Vivian, Grace, Regan, Annie, and Joanne, who took their precious time to consider my border options for Dulcinea and leave me a comment.  I so appreciate each one of you!  Your opinions really did help me make my final decision.

I played around a LOT more with the triangles and framing borders, and still couldn't come up with anything that appealed to me.  This afternoon I finally put all the half-square triangle squares into the 2 1/2" box and settled on the simplest border.  The original has a pieced border, and I was trying to come up with a different one using the fabric I had left.  We all know that sometimes simple is truly the best way to go, and I think that was the case with this quilt top.  After all, it was the border fabric that drew my attention to this fabric line to begin with.

 

It's always hard to show any detail in a picture of an entire top, so here is a close-up of the border for your viewing pleasure.

 

This is the fabric I fell in love with.  And despite looking to the contrary, there are NO solids in this top.  All but the narrow border and yellow background are prints from "Posh" by Chez Moi for Moda.  The background is a pale yellow pin dot, even though it looks like a solid.  Here are closeups of a few of the blocks.

Again, thanks to my nine commenters -- your input helped me make a decision that I really didn't want to make.  If it weren't for you I probably would still be playing with a pieced border that wasn't meant to be.

Please - help me decide by leaving a comment. Thanks!

I should have known better - when I'm on a roll I can't drop a project just to use triangles as leader-enders.  So I sewed all my half-square triangle squares.  I had to use two background colors as I didn't have enough of either one for all the squares I needed.

Originally these were going to make a border directly outside the teal-turquoise border.  No matter how I placed the triangles it was just too busy.  Alternating the two backgrounds was too spotty.  I couldn't seem to make random work either.  And the number per side was 13, so they all had to go in the same direction.  So I've added another "coping border".  First the dark green, which was too dark, then the pink.  That gave me 14 squares per side, so I was able to arrange the triangles going outward from the center of each side.  The outside border was still way too busy next to the triangles so I added the green "stopper" there.


Now I think the border overwhelms the center.  and I still don't like the triangles with two different background colors.

Would it be better to just forget the triangles, toss them into the 2 1/2" triangle square box, and go with simple?  This border certainly doesn't overwhelm the center.  It is also very plain.  But maybe that's what I want, as I think the border on the pattern picture's quilt is too busy. The border is subdued due to the more lively center - I never thought I'd call this print subdued! - but maybe that's what the quilt needs.

What do you think? 

Do you like either of these better than the other?

Can you think of a different way to include the triangles in the border?

Thanks ahead of time for your input.

This is it . . . for now . . . .

My Dulcinea blocks are sewn together and the first border and cornerstones are attached.  That's all any of us - including myself - are going to see for the time being.  I'm using the pieces for the next border as my leaders and enders for the rest of the month.  I've got a general idea of how that border will look, but I won't work out the specifics until the pieces are finished.  I also have a back-up plan in case I hate how the first one looks.

This quilt is made from "Posh", a line by Chez Moi for Moda that came out quite a few years ago.  The inner border and the background are the only fabrics that aren't part of this collection.  Why I didn't buy yardage from the same collection for the border I don't know.  I imagine that yardage was probably not available for any of the fabrics I considered for this border.  It is a bit darker and not quite as bright, and now that I've sewn it together I think this makes a better "frame" than one of the collection pieces would have done.  As for the background, I was originally planning on white, but I'm running low on that and this pale yellow needed to be used.

Right now I have no idea what I'll work on next.  I have so many choices!  More piecing?  Some hand quilting?  A bit of applique (though no projects requiring applique are on my current "to do" list).  (As though I'll let that stop me if I decide that applique is what I really want to do!)

Some progress

I unexpectedly spent most of the day away from home - coffee with a friend, who suggested we make a trip to Fabric Depot.  So we did, spending almost two hours there!  A nice lunch together followed, and I made it home by 3:00.  Printed fabric and notions were both on sale, so I bought fabric for a sundress for each of my granddaughters, plus some needed quilting notions.  No quilt fabric was bought, though the scraps from the sundresses will go into the scrap box and will feel right at home.

So my plan to sew the June Schnibbles top didn't materialize, but I did finish 13 of the 16 blocks.  I like how they turned out, but in retrospect I wonder if I wouldn't have liked a white background better.  This will be fine - it is what it is - and I'll tuck this bit of "learning" into the quilty part of my brain where it will - hopefully! - not get lost.

9 of the 13 finished blocks

My plan for tomorrow is to finish the rest of the blocks, sew them together and then add the borders.  I don't have enough charm squares left to border the top as the pattern shows.  I'm fine with that because it seems a bit busy to me.  So I'm trying something else, and have a backup plan if that doesn't work.

June Schnibbles Parade

Be sure to check Saturday's posts on Sherri's and Sinta's blogs to see the June Schnibbles Parade.  So many wonderful Gentle Art quilts!

June's vintage pattern is Dulcinea, which I'm thrilled about!  I bought this pattern four years ago, along with fabric.  It's been stashed in a drawer since then.  It is time to bring it into the light and turn it into a quilt!

Another top finished

I'm really loving these Schnibbles quilts.  The top goes together so quickly.  They are a great size for end tables, coffee tables and across the backs of chairs.  The quilting goes quickly too, as they are small.  I love how my "Gentle Art" looks.  I like it so much better than last month's "Hat Trick".  I know what makes the difference - I used fabrics from two instead of one "line", plus threw quite a few pieces from still other lines.

I've learned my lesson - this is just my own personal taste - I find quilts made with only one like of fabric to be too "matchy", with no fabric that stands out from any other fabric.  It is amazing to me how much difference just adding a second line made in this quilt.  So when I shop for charm squares after this I will make sure to pick up at least two or three sets that look good together but aren't the same.

I'm going back to basting tomorrow.  I would like hand quilt and bind this piece before the parade at the end of the month.  I need to also baste the primitive top I'm to have done by the end of the month.  By the end of the weekend I'd like to have the other 6 tops basted also.  At least that is my goal.

I had my seam ripper ready

Which was a good thing.  Once again quilter's dyslexia struck again so the "reverse sewing machine" got a workout.  I took a picture of the blocks on the design wall, and checked it often.  Each time I was sure I knew which block came next, or which block was horizontal and which was vertical, I turned out to be wrong.  I need to develop the habit of checking the picture before every seam LOL!

I'm pleased with this top and I'm eager to get it finished.  Not today, however.  It is time I stopped sewing long enough to get some chores done.  Knitting guild is tonight, and I'm bringing some of the refreshments.  A trip to the grocery is in order.

The Gentle Art

I don't remember whether or not sewing was ever called "The Gentle Art".  It seems like it would be logical and natural if it was.  Throughout history sewing was a close second only to food preparation when it came to a wife's part of providing what the family needed.  And we have antique quilts which prove that sewing provided a way for women to exercise creativity, even when she was making do with scraps and old clothing.  Of course, many quilts were made with new materials bought especially for quilt making, but many were not.

I'm guessing these were Carrie Nelson's thoughts when she named the May "Vintage Schnibbles" pattern "The Gentle Art".  I have always wanted to make a spool quilt, and now have finally had the chance.  The pattern calls for 25 blocks, but I made a couple extra so I'd have choices when arranging the blocks.  One of those can serve as the label for the back.  In addition to the fabrics I named yesterday I pulled random charm squares from the drawer and fabrics from the shelves.  I needed a fat quarter for an inner border so that had to come from the shelves.  In order to "tie it in" with the rest of the fabrics I used the piece for several backgrounds too.

A big "Thank you!" to my friend Kim, who owns two featherweights that she rarely uses, for lending a machine to me while Miss Feather is in hospital.  This allowed me to finish these blocks so I can tidy at least one area of my messy sewing room. 

This isn't the final arrangement of the blocks - I lined them up by color to make sure I had a balanced number of color choices.  I still need to cut strips for the outside border, which I'll do tomorrow.  The blocks have already been talking to me - telling me how they want to be quilted - so I imagine I'll be hand quilting this top very soon.

The construction method for this quilt calls for squares and rectangles to form the trapezoid with corner triangles.  This is NOT my preferred method, though I know many people love doing it this way.  (I find the old fashioned way of cutting a trapezoid and triangles and sewing them together to be much more accurate.)  This way worked best for this quilt, however, as it is made from charm squares, so I didn't change the construction.  I refuse to toss the tiny "waste" triangles so I will soon have a nice selection of tiny half-square triangle squares to use in a mini quilt one of these days.  They will finish at 1/2" square!

When I make half-square triangle squares that finish at 1" or smaller, I always press the seam open.  When working with pieces this tiny the seam allowances need to be as flat as possible.  It makes it a bit trickier to match intersections as the seams can't "snuggle up next to each other"; careful pinning and stitching takes care of that problem.

Another is complete

No Scrap Basket Sunday for me yesterday.  I really wanted to finish my hand quilting. Besides, without my best girl - who is still in the shop - I couldn't piece.  I could have cut a bunch of blocks from my scraps, but I'm afraid they would get mixed up on my cluttered sewing table.  So I focused on hand quilting, which I finished around 10:00 p.m.  This morning I did the binding.  There is no label yet, as the backing is too dark to write on, but I'll take care of that soon.

I think the dark binding frames this nicely - I like it better than I did before it was bound.  Between one jelly roll strip and what I had left from a matching piece in the "dessert roll" was just enough to squeeze out a narrow, single-fold binding.  I'm glad of that, as I really wanted to bind this with a print from the collection.

This sideways shot, taken without flash, is the best picture I could get of the quilting.  It isn't up to my usual standards - I'm very much out of practice, but it will do.  I'm just thrilled to be hand quilting again.  Five years ago arthritis was making the process almost too painful, so I quit.  I guess the rest really helped my hands.  I did this with no pain at all - other than a little from my sore fingers.

I still need to give the quilt a bath and a final blocking to make it lie flat and straight.  But first I need to get dressed.  I was in too much of a hurry to finish this to do so before now LOL!

I have seven more little quilts to baste, so that's what I'm back to doing.  (And taking cleaning breaks - the need for those never seems to end.)  I hope to have all the basting finished when my girl comes home next week.  I have many piecing goals for May!

I love to hand quilt

It is so meditative and relaxing.  And time passes so quickly.  I started quilting "Hat Trick"at "Tangled Threads" last night.  I didn't want to stop when I got home so I settled into my sewing room chair, watched a couple of recorded TV shows, and quilted.  Got to bed WAY later than I should have.

Since I decided on a straight line grid for most of this, it would have been easy to finish with my Pfaff and its walking foot.  But I love the way hand quilting looks, and I love doing it.  I nearly finished this hoopful; at this rate I should have no trouble finishing this month.

It is hard to get a good picture of quilting, but this shows the stitches fairly well.

We have a quilt top - minus the outside borders

I did persevere and I'm happy I did.  I made still another block, which resulted in two more nine patches in the orphan block drawer.  I took all the blocks off the wall and started from scratch with the arrangement.  I made a slight mistake when sewing them together - one row got turned around - which resulted in two identical outside triangles being next to each other.  And that is the way it will stay.

I will finish the piecing today, but won't show the results until the end of the month, as that is the "reveal day" for the people participating in "Another Year of Schnibbles".  It wasn't until I saw this picture that I realized that many of my fabrics are similar colors to those in the pattern.  It certainly wasn't intentional - and that quilt has no plaids.

* * * * * * * *
Gratitudes:
1. A glimpse of blue sky after an all-day downpour
2.  Real and "virtual" quilty friends to share projects with
3.  Leftovers for dinner.

I persevered . . . and was reminded of a "suggested quilting principle" I'd forgotten.

I hesitate to say "a quilting principle", as that sounds like a rule.  And as we all know there are no rules and no quilt police.  I guess it would be better to say a "quilting guideline".  This guideline has always worked well for me in the past, but it has been so long since I thought about it that I completely forgot about it.

"In a scrappy pieced quilt, one should have about 20% maverick blocks, and no more than 25%.  A maverick block is one where the color arrangement is different, or pieces are turned differently, or a non-theme color is included, or low contrast fabrics are used.  Maverick blocks bring interest to a quilt and cause the viewer to look more closely at what is going on".  

If I remember rightly I learned this from Darra Duffy Williamson when I took a scrap quilting class from her in Houston in the fall of 1992.  After class I spent a lot of time examining photos of scrappy quilts I loved, and the best always included about 20% maverick blocks. 

That explains what bothered me about "Hat Trick".  I'd made 11 blocks, and 5 qualified as low-contrast maverick blocks.  That was WAY TOO MANY for the number of blocks I had and the pattern was getting "lost".  So this evening I made 10 more blocks, all with high contrast.  I made sure to balance the number of brown, green, and red blocks.  The greens were all mediums, so I used the lightest contrasting fabrics I had with the greens. 

Once I finished I started playing with them on the design wall.  What a difference it made!  20 blocks, with either 4 or 5 "mavericks".   I've still not settled on a final block arrangement, including which block to leave out, as I still haven't found an arrangement that says "this is it".  So I'm going to play with them through the weekend, taking pictures of each arrangement.  I've no arrangement has "spoken" to me by Monday I'm just going to pick one and sew it together. 

A huge thank you for all of you who gave me suggestions - they really helped me not give up.  As it turned out I didn't add any fabrics - I just made better use of the ones I had.  I know I'll be happy with the quilt, no matter what arrangement I eventually choose.

Each picture is different from the others, with a change or one or more blocks and/or alternate squares.  If I'd not changed the placement myself I, too, would think at least two or more of them must be the same.  And I'm not ruling out the idea of making a couple more blocks either, so I have more to choose from.

I think I will start over . . . maybe . . .

Please help me decide!

I am not happy with the way my Hat Trick is progressing.  As before, I find using just one line of fabric in a quilt results in "too much sameness" for my comfort.  The only darks in the collection are brown.  I need a darker green and a darker red.  Neither exist in this collection.  I will probably see what I can pull from my stash to solve the problem, but I just might start over completely using 30's fabrics instead of these.

Interesting - wait a minute - now that I've taken the picture I think I will persevere longer.  Obviously these blocks need rearranging - even though I've done that at least a few times already - but there is more contrast than I thought there was.

What do you readers think?  Are you liking this so far?  Should I keep going or start over?

Rearranged again.  This is better but not great.  Why didn't I take a picture of each arrangement before I changed things?  Live and learn . . . .  Maybe this is worth rescuing.

Finishes

The yellow single is spun, and the pair of socks I was working on at the knitting retreat is finished.

You might notice that the toes look different from each other - they are.  Remember that I had to completely redo the second sock because I knit the wrong size?  I also followed instructions for the wrong size when I decreased for the toe on the first sock.  I thought it fit a bit oddly compared to the other pair from this pattern, but since it was comfortable I didn't worry about it.  Now I know why!

I must spend part of tomorrow cleaning, doing laundry and running errands.  I got a call today from the machine quilter - Emily's quilt is ready for me to pick up, so that is one of the errands.  I should be able to spend half the day sewing.  I'll doing the machine stitching on Emily's quilt's binding so I can do the hand stitching at quilt group in the evening.  The rest of the day will be spent cutting out "Hat Trick", this month's Vintage Schnibbles pattern. 

 I'm using  charms from Chelsea Boutique by Blackbird Designs (I love all their stuff!).  I have both the print pack and the plaids and stripes pack, as well as a print pack of large rectangles.  I know I'm going to love this quilt!