House plans gone awry
I worked on a UFO last week and it didn’t go well.
Not the designer’s fault, by the way. It’s a great pattern and it’s well done. But my tendency to go scrappy got me into trouble.
This is Jessica Dayon’s original design using just one red. When I bought fabric a few years back, I thought I’d use one red too. I bought a rather ordinary barn red and a sashing to complement it with holly leaves and berries.
The background is off-white with small dots and I had a white-on-white for the various sampler blocks.
But once you start making scrappy quilts, it’s pretty hard to go back to just one fabric for a dozen blocks. I couldn’t do it. So right off the bat I scrapped it up.
I added some pink to the small block and made two more houses, and then life got busy and I set the project aside. When I came back to it recently, I just didn’t like this block so I fixed it. I thought a simple Nine Patch would be fast and easy, and how can you go wrong with a Nine Patch?
Stay tuned on the Nine Patch.
I knew I wanted to go wild with the reds. See below how the hot pinks spice it up? I think it’s more interesting this way. And it’s definitely more fun to sew.
The blocks are super simple to make and they came together quickly.
But that sashing had to go. I found some Christmas peppermints and gave them a try. You don’t know until you audition!
Love the color and the print but vertical sashing looks like…peppermint columns? Not working for me.
So I put them below the houses, and now we have peppermint lawns. MUCH better! I can get behind this idea.
At this point my husband visits the studio. If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that his observations can annoy me, try me, irritate me and so on…but they’re usually spot on. He points out that the Nine Patch makes the house look weird, as if it’s not all there. The top was was actually finished (further along than the photo above) when he said this. Like I said, annoying.
But I knew he was right, so I fixed it, again. Much better.
It still seemed something wasn’t right. See that Churn Dash in the bottom right corner? The background should be dark and the Churn Dash should be light. I had swapped the pieces around. So again, I took the quilt top apart to fix it.
Here’s what I have today. Vertical sashing matches the block backgrounds. Peppermint lawns. And since I didn’t have enough background for border #1, I found something similar in my stash.
I’m auditioning the final border, considering various reds, possibly piano keys in assorted reds, and maybe a wavy edge. I’ll let you know!
Today I’m in Ponca City, Oklahoma with the Pioneer Area Quilt Guild.
There’s a trunk show this morning (Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts) and a workshop tomorrow on the Tango quilt. Pictures to come.
Have a great week! Stitch on.
This quilt will go into my Taste Test Trunk Show: Unexpected Sampler Quilts. I’d love to bring it to your group!
Tags: fabric savvy, jessica dayon, make extraordinary scrap quilts, quilt design, sampler quilt, scrap quilts, taste test trunk show
Martha
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Love this pattern. Your repairs are spot on!!!! Love this. Scrappy genious
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MaryAnn Plance
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Love this quilt. It’s a sampler, not a sampler. You really pulled the houses out.
MA
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Linda Ferguson
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Fabulous!
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Amy F
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Oh my! You have more patience than I do when it comes to fixing mistakes. If the block has been made, but not yet sewn into the top I will take it apart and fix it. If I find a mistake after the sashing’s on, it’s there for eternity!
The changes you made are great! I’m still working on trying different versions of the same color together. I’m slowly getting the idea!
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