Friday, July 17, 2015

sweet and sour

A few weeks ago while scrolling through my blog feed I was stopped in my tracks by this Pickle Dish Variation quilt from Red Pepper Quilts.  Two days later Rita followed up with a tutorial for the two blocks that make up the pattern and I immediately pulled out my “triangle in a square” ruler and some paperboard to make a drunkard’s path template.

I’ve played around with curves before but never with enough success to make an entire quilt.  Rita’s instructions were to make an oversized block then trim it down.  Voilà!  A successful practice block!
Earlier this year I pre-ordered a complete bundle of Denyse Schmidt’s new Franklin collection.  With 24 different prints in 2 color ways I figured I would have enough variation to use this line for a Pickle Dish Variation quilt of my own.  My highly coveted Denyse Schmidt stash is growing and since my practice block turned out well I decided this quilt would be worthy of cutting into the bundle.
My bundle was fat quarters and I had plenty to make all the curved blocks from the warm colors and the spiked blocks with the cool colors.  I divided each set of 12 into 4 lights, 4 mediums, and 4 darks.  Some were borderline but I thought I had enough contrast to create the light/dark variance that Rita described.  I was wrong.


Here is my finished top.  What do you think?  Sweet or sour?
Unfortunately, there was not enough contrast for the pattern to emerge.  Also, I didn’t pay enough (or any) attention to the scale of the different prints. 
On one hand I’m disappointed.  This was a lot of cutting, piecing and trimming and I lost the pattern in the fabric - sour.  On the other hand, this fabric is beautiful and even more so all cut and pieced together - sweet.

This was an excellent lesson for me in color, pattern and scale.  Learning from our mistakes is always a good thing.

Special thanks to Rita Hodge for inspiration and instruction.

Linking this Friday finish up with Crazy Mom Quilts.








15 comments:

  1. Thanks for your kind comment in my blog!
    I just LOVE your work!
    I understand that it´s not exactly what you had been hoping for, but it´s great!!!
    Low wolume and so fine!!!

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    1. Thanks so much Maja. I just love the Finish it up Friday link ups for finding new blogs and inspiration.

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  2. I sometimes doubt my quilts at this stage. Then I quilt them and love them. I think that's how this one will turn out.

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    1. I'm hoping that happens! Thanks for stopping by.

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  3. Too bad that it didn't end up as nice as you wanted, but I like it a lot. Quilt it up and see what you think then. Visiting from FIUF at crazy mom quilts.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. I do think quilting will help the pattern emerge.

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  4. Such a pretty quilt top and congratulations on conquering those curves! This quilt and your thoughts are bringing on a deja vu moment for me.... I made a quilt using a Kansas Dugout style of pattern with the exact same results. Envisioning the finished project using prints is something I struggle with and is one of the main reasons I bought EQ7. With EQ7 I can see how the design will look using the fabric swatches before you even begin cutting into the actual fabric. Looking forward to seeing your top all quilted up!

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    1. Thanks Lorna. I've been looking into quilting software for awhile now. I hesitated with EQ7 because I think it's probably overkill for me but this week Massdrop offered it for a pretty good price so I went for it. I'm excited to get it installed and start learning. Hearing that you use it has me even more excited. Thanks so much for your input.

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  5. I think your quilt is beautiful the way you put it together. Some nice soft quilting will make it all the more beautiful. Great Job!

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  6. I think it's really cute! The fabrics and colors make you look for the pattern of the blocks- but I don't think that's a bad thing! :) well done!

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  7. It is really beautiful but I agree it's not as obvious a pattern as in the practice block. Maybe if you quilt to emphasise the central lozenges it will pop more?

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  8. I say sweet because the fabrics still shine, regardless of the pattern not emerging the way you wanted without contrast, I really see pleasing movement when you look at 4 large blocks as a unit (16 small)...I really like the swirl the eye sees in that!

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    1. Hi Kris. Thanks so much for stopping by and for your "sweet" comments!

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