As sort of a continuation of the previous post, remember that pink-and-grey pile of HSTs I mentioned? This is what it became…
Pink & Grey Pinwheel – Throw/Crib 40″ x 48″ (Approx), 2013
The pile of pink and grey HSTs was fairly sizable when I first sorted it out last Fall. I liked the combination so much that I added to that pile whenever I ran across pieces that would suit. When I rifled through the box looking for 16-Patch sets to make into pillows for the Fair, I noticed that the pile was noticeably larger and stopped to count. Some quick math, a few additions from some other piles, and there were enough for a small quilt.
Pink & Grey Pinwheel – Detail, Upper Center
(See the bird?
After playing around with the pieces for a little while, I decided to do a traditional pinwheel design and separated all the squares into 20 piles of 4. I laid each block out next to the machine, tweaked a few squares back and forth, traded a few between piles, and sewed them together. When they were done, because it was a relatively small project, I was able to lay the blocks out on the bed to see how well it all worked. After moving the blocks around for a bit, it looked like I wanted it to and I sewed the blocks together.
While I was sewing, I thought about a border. I thought a fairly narrow grey plain-ish border would frame it nicely and allow me to make the grey the more dominant color, thus toning down the pink a bit. (Note: Good grey prints are kinda hard to find, and have been so for a few years, though that could be on the upswing now. Grey is one of my favorite neutrals and I keep my eye out for them.) I knew I had a couple of grey-ish floral prints down in my stash and actually remembered to look for them the next time I went to the basement to rummage.
(Note: Most of my stash is in various-sized boxes and plastic bins in a heated basement – I have at least a dozen of them. I tend to go down there with a laundry basket every few days to put back what I’ve finished with and shop for what I need at the moment. Along the way, I always find something I forgot I had, something that sparks an idea that I have to work into the queue, and several pieces that might be just what I need to proceed with some other project(s) simmering on a back burner somewhere. Some of the bins get a bit of rearrangement and resorting, and some of the newfound loot goes in the basket to go upstairs with me. This is how my stash revolves. The bins and the criteria for sorting are rather amorphous and individual fabrics may travel between bins several times as whatever I’m working on changes. Some sorting criteria stay fairly static – I have bins/boxes for holiday fabrics, tonal prints, flannels, homespun and plaids, linens, pieces large enough for backings, etc. Others are more fluid, such as the ones for regular cotton prints – sometimes they are sorted by color/color family, or type of print, etc. – it varies.)
Whoops, sorry for such a long digression…
Anyway, I found several pink and/or grey prints that I thought would work for border and back, folded them into narrow strips and held them up to the top. I left them draped over a clothes hanger (how I usually hang tops and basted quilts) for a while and settled on the one I wanted. The background is a beige-y grey and the pink is a light rose. The print is of roses and other flora with bees hovering around. The bees are hard to notice at first – I had never realized they were there until this project, but they definitely added to the appeal. I decided on that for the border and a solid light rose pink for the back. I didn’t have quite enough of the pink flannel, so added some of the border fabric in a stripe to make it larger. I had intended to do that anyway, just so the back would have some pattern to it. (Have I mentioned before that I think solids in general, as well as whole-cloth backs are kinda boring?)
Sometimes an idea presents itself, relatively simple and using pieces already to hand. Rather than put everything related to it in a separate project bag/box, it is often just easier or quicker to put some or all of the pieces together and move it right into a place in the WIP queue. Otherwise, I have to jot notes and measurements down to remember later when I get around to picking it up again, and/or waste time trying to get my thoughts back to it when they’ve ranged on to something else, etc, etc.
I sewed the top and a back together right then and stuck it in the “to be basted” part of the queue and went on about my business with the pillow covers that were supposed to be on the agenda (before I had gotten distracted). Classic example of that rare beast (for me at least) a Start-to-Finish quilt or STF. Most of my projects take a while to simmer at various stages in the process. This is why I always have so many projects going at once. 😉
However, after the expected labels went missing, and I was down to my last 3, trying to decide what WIPs I had that could be finished in time for the Fair, this little quilt top was right there. I enjoy quilting HSTs and I snapped it up – got it and Random Thoughts quilted and bound that day. (I think it was the Thursday before the Fair.) As it turns out, I am extremely happy with both. 🙂
I just realized that these catch-up posts are great, but they won’t catch me up at all unless I also mention what I’m working on now, as well. So, my original goal yesterday was to cut out a boy quilt with a space/aliens/rockets sort of theme. I figured I only had enough of those fabrics for one quilt, but I now have 1 sewn top that needs borders, 1 cut and blocks pieced, and an additional quilt cut out and blocks pieced that I hadn’t planned at all – a Superman/Batman one. More working on those today, probably more cutting and planning on other new project ideas, such as cutting another linen quilt, designing another bird quilt, etc…