May 15, 2011

At it again


This week I helped a co-worker finish her first ever quilt block. That's right: paper piecing! We are at it again with a group baby quilt and she found this paper pieced raccoon block on Etsy and I figured, why not go for it? We had several hours in my sewing room together and she totally picked it up. We did adjust the pattern slightly to eliminate some of the unnecessary details. And we used up just about all of that green and blue background fabric. I'm wondering if anyone knows what it's called? I really want more of it now!


Here are all the blocks. There was supposed to be a bat too, but that friend just had her third baby and appliqueing a quilt square is waaaaaay down on her list. The theme for this group quilt is "nighttime creatures". There was some concern that with this theme the quilt would be "too dark" and as it turns out, all the squares are very night-like. I think it will work though. As with past quilts, the members bring me not only their completed square but also their scraps, which I then use in constructing the quilt. Having the scraps really ties it all together and seems to cushion us from the cacophony that could result from having no predefined color scheme.
I've put together several baby quilts for/from this group of friends, but I've never blogged the process. Having just seen all the squares together for the first time on Friday, I want to sort of document the path I go down with these. So far I've played with the blocks a bit to get the arrangement that seemed to balance the various colors and values around the quilt. The only thing I'm not sure about is that the moth and the dragonfly are each flying, one above the other, at exactly the same angle. Too weird? Next I have to figure out what to do for the missing square. I'm thinking a scrappy variable star on that solid blue. Star, nighttime, it seems like it should have at least one star in there. Maybe stars in the corners too?

I still have some strips hanging around from the Cascade quilt and on a hunch I pulled them out. They really sing with these blocks. So the plan right now is, sash the blocks in white, and construct a scrappy string border. I think the border will alternate the solid blue strips with scrap strips from the block fabrics. I hope this comes together quick! (Quick in my house is two months, so I think Project Modern round 3 is out of the question, too bad but kind of a relief). I hope to have some progress to show on this in a week or two.

9 comments:

Manda said...

Great blocks, I love all the night time creatures!

Susan said...

Great night time creatures! You could do strips with stars in the corner blocks of the sashing? I did a tute on this and it might look good!

Suzanne said...

Hi Christina! Here are my thoughts...
What if you swapped the moth and the raccoon and then rotated the moth a quarter turn so it was flying toward the center square? I also like the idea of adding stars as cornerstones between the blocks to give the idea of twinkling stars. I bet you could do one of those stack and whack stars so they'd be kind of wonky. Having a center star makes a lot of sense and using all those scraps will tie things up wonderfully!

I don't know how long ago you did one of these quilts for your friends but I sure would like to see them and watch this one unfold. Please feel free to strike my comment if I've chimed in too much. :-)

grendelskin said...

Neat raccoon! That green and blue vine is from Jane Sassaman's Sunshine and Shadow line. I don't have but bitty scraps left but I bet you can find it online somewhere; if you want my pieces give me a shout. I'm totally with Suzanne on the layout and sashing.

Sallie said...

I love the raccoon block!

Mama Pea said...

Looks fun! That raccoon is pretty cute!

Helen in the UK said...

What fun! You could rotate one of the blocks 90 degrees to make it fly a different direction. Love the idea of the starry centre block :)

Anonymous said...

Umm, just to be picky, I think that is a lightning bug (which comes out at night), not a dragonfly (which is a day flier). Otherwise, this is an adorable idea and wonderful execution by everyone. I like your idea of a star for the center block. Would you want to do a constellation of stars in the center block? Maybe something that is in the sky when the baby was born? Or the astrological sign?

Suz J said...

I agree with all the comments so far... using their astrological sign would give it a lovely uniqueness. And that racoon block is just way cool - no racoons in NZ.

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