Looking better...

I think I need to keep going with this project, because these blocks are working for me.

I'm having a lot of fun with these, though they're not going very quickly. Too many decisions!

I have learned that I don't use a lot of red, surprisingly enough. The orange and turquoise piles tie for the biggest, and I have ONE string of brown. What can I say? I love brights, but I didn't think I would like them all together as much as I do. It helps that the dark purple (it's photographing black here) through the middles and the corners give your eyes a place to rest, otherwise I'd just be dizzy.

It may take a while -- this is a good one to come back to in between projects -- but it's definitely a keeper. My first string quilt!

Now I just need to keep the cat out of the box.

Even the cat is tired of all my scraps...

I have a box on the top of my cabinet to collect all my fabric trimmings. Seems a shame to waste them, and I figured someday I'd dive in and do a string quilt.

I admit it was getting a little overloaded, but I didn't think it was piled high enough to warrant a citation from the in-house fabric police.  When I came home the other day, the box was on its side, and the strings were everywhere.

I took it as a sign that "someday" had arrived..

Now I just can't decide if this is the start of something really cool or something incredibly hideous. Only time -- and a dozen more blocks -- will tell!

At last...

...both "sister quilts" are finally finished!

I made these two tops last Fall from a Modern Workshop layer cake and a few Kona solids. I'd been obsessing over triangles (still am, come to think of it), so made the first one, then made the second simple block one with the leftovers just to get them out of my kitchen.  It took quite a while to get back to them and finish them off, but they're done, and off my to-do list.

I love how you can get two totally different personalities from the same fabrics.

Though I'm not a big fan of poly batting, I have to admit that the medium loft does make the quilts extra-cuddly, especially with my wavy, random lines.

I used the same medium-loft batting and quilted zig-zags down each row of triangles instead of diagonally down the quilt. It created a really neat argyle effect on the front and a great texture on the back.

I'm not sure which one I like better, though I'm kind of partial to the airiness of "Isoceles." But there's something about the boldness and concentration of color in "Leftovers" that makes me happy.

It's a toss-up!

Questionable Values...

I did manage to finish another one up amid my bouncing from project to project. I'm still on the fence with this one.

"Questionable Values" in Kona Robin's Egg, Tarragon, Ash. Bound in Coal.

I had high hopes for this quilt. I sketched. I worked up a pattern. I even hand-painted some of the squares when I ran out of coordinating fabric. But when it all came together, I wasn't thrilled.

Don't get me wrong, I love the design, it's just that the colors, which looked so marvelous stacked on my cutting table, don't do it justice. The Tarragon and Ash are just too close in value (hence the name) so they get mushed together, making the blue pop more than I intended. Kona Ash has a tendency to suck the life out of its neighbors if they're not strong enough, and I think that's what happened here. If I make it again, I'll go for higher contrast.

So on one hand I'm happy that it's done and I can add another quilt to my pathetically short list of finishes for this year. On the other, I wish I had a little more love for it, but they don't all look as great in real life as they do in our heads, do they?

Maybe it'll grow on me.

Self-discipline was never my strong suit...

I know I said I had to finish a couple other things before I dove into my Jane Sassaman fabric, but it was just sitting there, begging to be chopped up. Taunting me, even.

These blocks (and the possibilities that this fussy-cut fabric presents) are really cool, though there isn't enough contrast for that top center one to work. That one will have to wait for another project. I'm purposely not doing the kaleidoscope effect on the black blocks because the repeat was smaller, and I think it lets the flower blocks pop a little more. Given I'm just playing at this point, that's all subject to change.

I need to do a few more of these to a) get it out of my system or b) make a complete quilt. Then I'll go back to my to-do list!

Dear Jane...

I have read your book and become inspired.

It's about time I broke into my stash of your fabrics -- I've been hoarding saving them, as Foghorn Leghorn says, "for just such an emergency," and now the wheels are turning.

I just have to finish a couple other things first.