Process: Designing a Quilt

Kathy and I send pictures back and forth of beautiful quilts.
Truth be told, privately we send many more pictures than we blog about. We share quilts that are wildly successful, and ones that we don’t love everything about. To me, the most interesting ones are the ones that are oh, so close, but took a wrong turn, in my humble opinion. For instance “I would not have done that boarder”.  Sometimes the risks pay off big. Other times, not so much.
But it is through this stream of e-mails and shared feedback, that we have uncovered a lot of lessons. And we have formed some patterns of what we each like, and what we are drawn to. And that kind of base has been really valuable as I work through my next quilt.
I got some GREAT fabric last summer, and it was singing to be made into something spectacular. But what?

Here is the discussion of that.
I bought a pattern at the store, when I bought the fabric, but when I looked at it, it felt to ‘random’ to me. I like it when my eye travels along, or even skips from one place to another. But I don’t like it when the over all pattern is a mish-mash.
Then I saw this
By Catherine at Blue Square Quilting.
I want to see about 40 more pictures of this quilt. I love the bold graphic. I love the colors. I love how it feels modern, and comfortable at the same time.
I felt like the HUGE squares of fabric would be better for the fabrics that I had picked. I ran this choice past Kathy, and it was quickly approved. And so I set to work before the wind shifted again.
I sketched out this

And I started cutting and sewing and pressing and cutting and sewing and pressing.
Then I laid the squares out on the floor in the pattern according to the sketch. And I shrugged my shoulders. It was so so. But not “great”.
This little slice of perfection popped up on Flickr that day

Diamond Quilt by Rose (is red)
And I was struck by its beauty. Could I switch gears?

There is my sketch.
And here is the result

I am pleased as punch with it! So far. Is it perfect? No. But I feel like I found a really happy way to highlight the big bold prints, and maintain some harmony. And the layout is not random or draining. Your eye is definitely lead around.
That satisfaction is enough to carry me through the next steps.
And this time, I am using spray batting.
But that is another post altogether.