After Bonnie's big reveal a few days ago, I was pretty excited about the mystery quilt. When I made the decision about my BIL's quilt, this kind of took a back seat. But after the quilt was finished yesterday (including the label - yea!!), I thought I'd take a quick look at these. I did a rough mock up of the two blocks.
Each one looks really great.
There are a lot of seam issues when pressing, but it is a very scrappy quilt.
So I started making blocks and when I put them on the design wall, I was a little confused when I didn't see the blue arcs really stand out.
I kept seeing a lot of green. So I looked at Bonnie's pictures and her 4 patches looked a lot more like orange and blue (I think her greens are a lot darker). I covered over the green blocks with blue and this happened....
I saw the blue arcs and the design looked a lot better.
I really like the balance of this a lot better.
Here is the layout with the green and orange 4 patches. Is it just me or does it look very chaotic?
From a distance it's a little better, but not much.
Then I saw a post from Heather about her alternate layout. She took the green "V" unit and put it facing out instead of in.
So I did one with the alternate "points out" layout -I wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference between that and the "diamond" layout.
Here's a look with all points. The two on the the top are not quite as defined as the one on the second row as they are not stitched together.
Any thoughts on which you prefer? I kind of think the "points out" layout makes the circle shape a little more defined as the light triangles meet the light area instead of the yellow area. But I think my colors are not strong enough for the this layout and that the diamond layout looks better.
I will also go on record at this point and say that these colors are SOOOOOOOO not me. I will reserve judgment until there are a few more blocks, but this may end up being a small quilt - know what I mean?
So for the moment I'm at a standstill. Has anyone else noticed that their green looks awkward? Maybe this is why I usually wait until the reveal before deciding to make the quilt. Oh well, it's been fun up to this point.
Happy stitching,
Karen
9 comments:
I love your bright and pretty colors! I am having problems with green as my border...I may do something else.
Karen, I got to the same step you did, and backed up and re-made my four-patches with different colors... it just wasn't working. I had used different colors, but it still was a bit too chaotic for me. I like it much better now. You can see at quiltingprofessor.blogspot.com if you want to look. It really didn't take too long to remake those four patches, because I had not sewn the blocks yet... good luck! Kathleen
Fascinating to see your different layouts there Karen - I keep going back and forward between them! It probably makes it difficult for you because you aren't that keen on the colours. Perhaps the decision depends on whether you want a more blended look or one with the arcs highly defined - personal taste. Have you seen Frances version on Fabdashery blogspot ?
I laid out two blocks and realized immediately that my four patches don't work - they're much too strong for my liking. So I'll be redoing those and possibly using one of the alternate settings shown in the Inklingo clue 6.
Ha, that's why I don't do mystery quilts either. I agree, the green is jumping too much and I think I prefer the version where you changed the four patches.
Karen, I didn't like my four patches either. I ended up using an alternate setting designed by Linda Franz of Inklingo. Links in my blog if you're interested.
~Jillian in North Dakota
That's one of the problems with scrappy quilts, the lines are sometimes too blended or colors seems to want to compete. You could possibly take care of some of the problem with your greens later with some heavy dk blue stitching? Love seeing these quilts come together!
I see what you mean about the green. I was really worried when I changed my blue to a teal as I was afraid there would not be enough contrast between the two. As it turned out it was a blessing in the end. Sorry to say I would probably change the 4 patches. Good luck.
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