Lights, Camera, Action (or try again)

Since my last post I haven't gotten much done.  We went camping for 3 days down in Tate's Hell National Forest near Carrabelle, FL.  It was a much needed break for all 4 of us. But on the days around this little break it seemed like I was on a treadmill.  So progress on backings and purging was non-existent.  

We had the power go out one night and I decided to do a little prep work by candle light.  I grabbed a project box off the stack and proceeded to review it.  The Pattern is Missouri Star Quilt Company's Super Simple Squares. I am sure this was a freebie since there is no way I paid $9.00 for this pattern.

The fabric is 6 charm packs called Greenery by Maywood Studios and a white tone on tone jelly roll by Riley Blake studios. I got one of the charm packs as a freebie. I loved the line.  The pattern called for 3 packs but with the white sashing, I didn't think the lighter colors would work. So I doubled the number of charm packs thinking I would only use the darker colors.         With project box in hand, I set out to sort the colors by candle light and that is when I hit upon some of re-discoveries.

Lights (and/or lighting) - I have been taking lighting for granted the past few years. I have four 8 foot banks of fluorescence lights in my studio.  My husband and son installed them right before I got my long arm. They are very bright and make working on anything really easy.  

When I laid out my fabric to determine which I could use and which to set aside, the candle light was misleading. The dim light didn't allow me to see the true contrast in the colors. Going by the candle light, I was planning to set aside four of the 11 fabrics that I didn't feel would stand out against the white sashing. 

When the lights came back on I was surprised to see that I could use all of the fabrics.  The light gray still showed up against the white sashing. Lighting is important.

Camera - is the next re-discovery.  I've talked about taking pictures for layouts and record keeping but modern cameras have all sorts of gadgets that we can use. Since this pattern is so simple a lot of the design depends on the contrast between the sashing and the blocks.  I knew that all of the fabric showed up against the white sashing but how much contrast did it really have. I really wanted the squares to stand out.  So I took a picture of the fabric and filtered it to black and white. 

By applying the black and white filter I get a good sense of the true values of the fabric. Some of the prints I considered light actually were a medium value and one print I thought was a medium value was actually a dark value.  But this didn't show me the contrast with the sashing so I took the picture with the lights on and applied the filter to it. 

This showed me that there wasn't enough contrast between the sashing and two of the prints. So I was going to take out all of those squares. That meant I wasn't going to use 7 charms out of each pack.  Now I had planned on not using 21 charms out of each pack so I was way ahead of the game. Now was the time for the 3rd discovery. 

Action - I define this as doing something and that includes making decisions.  I have 6 charm packs. I could make the quilt as the pattern directs and have lots of left over squares, or I could make it bigger and use up most of the squares.  Since I am still in purge mode, I decided bigger.  That meant doing math. I speak math so that's not a problem for me. I had to figure out how many squares to cut for corner stones and how many sashing strips to cut.  When I got through doing the math, I realized that I would need half a jelly roll more. So I went on line to see if I could get it. I bought all this stuff 2 years ago so of course I was out of luck.

I was now faced with ordering 2 jelly rolls or making the original quilt. I decided to go with the original. I am, after all, trying to use my stash. Then I thought about looking in my stash for white jelly rolls.  Unfortunately I didn't have two matching white jelly rolls. I did have two in black but that wasn't the look I wanted. So back to the original again. Then I realized that what I do have is a bunch of white fabric. I rolled up the jelly roll and put it the stash. I will cut my own strips. It would have been easy to just do the pattern, not thought to it, but going forward and figuring out how to use most of the squares allows me to work on another goal. Reducing the stash. Nothing gets accomplished without action. Even small steps are action.

Of course all this didn't yield a lot of progress. But it did a couple of things for me.  It reduced stress. It helped me get a two year old project off the ground. And it got me looking at my stash.  I really need to go through it all. And I really need to organize the studio so I can access it all. 

What have you taken for granted lately? What have you re-discovered?                                                     

Inch by Inch

Three weeks have gone by and I really don't have a whole lot to show for it. Covid life has been rather restrictive. Which in turn makes work life hectic.  Plus home life has not been as productive as I would like. Allergies are not being cooperative despite the meds. But I am still inching along.  Haven't done a whole lot of purging as of yet.  Being tired has put me a little behind.  But Kim has gone through a lot of things in our room.  Killian has purged some stuff in his room. Perigrine is working on her room so we are making progress but it is slow going and not as rewarding as a big push would be.

Good news! I have finally finished the HST quilt top.  It is as cute as I thought it would be.  Not only did I finish it, but I measured it, calculated the size of backing & batting as well as the number of strips to cut for the border.  On top of that I went ahead and got the calculations done for the other 3 tops I have in the to quilt pile.  All 6 tops have the needed measurements pinned to them and are waiting to be quilted.

I hope to get some of the backs made this next week.  A lot depends on what happens at work this week.  My boss will be back from vacation tomorrow, so that is off my plate. Unfortunately they are remodeling the front offices and break room.  The office remodel doesn't affect me that much, I just stay out of there. The break room remodel however is impossible to avoid.  I ended up leaving at lunch on Friday because of an asthma attack.  When I got home, I was just too tired (or maybe too weak) to do much of anything.  I am hoping that they finished tearing up the floor over the weekend and I won't have to deal with the dust this week. I don't want to spend the next 3 days all worn out.  Especially since we are going camping Thursday through Sunday.  If I am using my precious vacation time, I want to enjoy myself.

I've mentioned before that I have numerous projects that I want to do.  There are so many quilts and so little time.  I actually have decided on the next piecing project.  I also have 3 UFO's I need to be working on. The two quilt tops that need laid out and the Irish Chain quilt that needs to be made more bed friendly.  

Despite having more projects than time, I like to look at quilts on Pintrest and Facebook. A couple of weeks ago I saw a quilt that just grabbed my attention.  I studied the quilt when I first saw it. But ti stuck with me. It wasn't on Pintrest or I would have saved it to my board.  Try as I might I could not find it again. But I still couldn't let it go. There was nothing left to do but try and sketch it out.  Time to brush up on those geometry skills.

First I had to find graph paper with squares on point.  Not an easy feat.  I ended up finding an excel file that had the on on point squares amidst the regular squares.  I just deleted the lines I didn't want. 

Here is my first sketch.  It looked too much like an argyle plaid to me.  The quilt looked like stings of diamond shaped ornaments hanging down.  I finally decided that it was the sketch that was throwing me off.  I decided I needed to sketch the block so I could understand how I would be setting it on point.  

Not only did I sketch the block, I determined the size of the components and the direction to press the seams. Basically I made a block map.  Now with the understanding of the block shape and components I was able to rethink the design.  I knew that I didn't want to have partial blocks along the edge. So I would need to plan on setting triangles for the on point design.

My second sketch was much more to my liking.  But I don't think I am done yet.  I am thinking I will offset the strings a little more with plain white squares.  As well as break up the strings of diamonds with plain squares. I am thinking strings of three blocks and a plain square. I figure I have a lot more sketching to do before I eve get started on this quilt.  But that is okay.

I have also started sketching another quilt that I saw and really liked. This one is going to be a little more difficult to do than the strings of diamonds.  But I do have a sketch to come back to when I am ready to work on either of them.

This planning out the quilt in advance is a quite fun.  Who knew that designing ahead of time instead of on the go would be as satisfying. I doubt that I will ever convert completely to planned out quilts.  I have too much of a improvisational personality to be that organized but I think I can handle it for a project or two now and again.

How about you? Have you every planned out a quilt from a picture? Are you strictly a pattern person?  Do you like to just start sewing and see where it leads? Or are you some of each?