Iterations

I promised to share the evolution of a quilt here when it was done. I'm not sure that it's all the way yet, but the layout is close enough (pre-border) for you to at least get a sense of things.

I began with the idea that I wanted to build a quilt using a standard split nine patch block. Making fabric choices somewhat at random can give a nice effect, but I chose instead to put it together square by square. (Click on any of the small photos to see a photo that is large enough to see the individual fabrics.)

This was the first iteration. You can see that, with the exception of the center, this version sticks pretty strictly to the split nine patch block.



After I slept on this idea, I decided that the sharp contrast between lights and darks was too sharp. I also found the yellow "propeller" in the center to be a pretty heavy handed "X marks the spot" thing. So I made the corners consistently dark, broke up the propeller blades, started replacing some of the lightest lights (like the ice blue polkadot) with darker fabrics. Here it is in the middle of implementing those changes. Already I'd be hard pressed to find a single split nine patch in the bunch.



Here I finished implementing the changes. Another improvement: the center is no longer surrounded by chunky rectangles, but now contains a pinwheel. Ah, much better.



At this point, there were a few color issues that were still bothering me, like the isolation of the light green squares, and the need to tweak some of the light oranges. Here I've switched out the pale blue triangles adjacent to the green squares for green triangles. Still thinking about the orange options...



...to be continued

Blurry 'Belle

Little Eisa is very unassuming, and never gets possessive of my quilts. However, I left this one on the kitchen floor for a while, between the tying and the trimming, and she went to sit on it a half-dozen times.

I snuck off and grabbed the camera, and managed to snap a single, blurry photo before she became self-conscious and left. Maybe I'll try to entice her back for another session after the quilt is done. Til then, here is my blurry Dorabelle!

Reading other people's blogs

Do you ever randomly look up and read about people online whom you used to know? Would you want to know if someone looked up and read about you?

A former classmate of mine wrote in to our alumni magazine with an update not long ago. He mentioned, among other tidbits, that he and his wife now have six kids.

I remembered having heard the names of the first three kids quite some years ago, and thought at the time that the parents had a certain naming flair. Being a good name geek, and always on the lookout for unusual naming choices, I was curious to know what they'd called the three younger kids, so I plugged their names into a search engine to see if I could find out.

It turns out that the family has a blog. It's well-written, engaging, funny, touching, and has lots of great photos of kids and sewing projects. They face some interesting challenges, and reading about those has made me think a lot too. I think I'll want to follow along with this blog in the future.

But I don't feel comfortable telling them I'm reading - somehow this feels like I'd be forcing myself on them or intruding into their lives. Is this wrongheaded? Since they have chosen to write about their lives online, they are clearly okay with having people read what they've written. They link to the blog from their ebay storefront - essentially, they are inviting every Tom, Dick, and Harry to pop in whenever they like.

But are the rules different when it's a Tom, Dick, or Harry whom you know? Would you want to know if someone you knew (even someone with whom you hadn't spoken in 10 years) were reading your blog? Or would you rather remain happily ignorant?

Great Scott!

The scottie quilt is done!



Now that the quilt has been delivered and I don't have to worry about giving away the surprise, I can also show you the backing (a charming print by Heather Ross). It may be hard to tell since the scan is a little bluer than the actual fabric, but the color of the scottie's ball on the front was selected to match the color of the brown doggy's ball on the back.

Quilt kits redux

Ever wonder what happened to the quilt kits that I made as gifts for people about a year and a half ago?

(Refresh your memory here by viewing kits 1-5, kits 6-9, and kit 10)

The following kits are done:
- Kit 1 (Tabitha's)
- Kit 2 (Heather's) << updated!
- Kit 5 (Karmen's). I've misplaced the photo of the finished quilt, but here is a photo of it in progress so you can see the border/backing she chose.)
- Kit 8 (closeup of Becca's) (and another showing the backing fabric) (Completed Sept 2009)


The following kits are in progress
- Kit 3 (Deserae's)


What a good job they're doing!