Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Halfday Hmmm-ing

Sewing progress has been somewhat up and down this past week.  Housework has also been rather erratic - and don't look now, but the bench is covered (with dirty things) and I have clean washing spread all over the sun trap lounge floor in some sort of effort to air it before it gets put away.  I put another load of washing in the machine... and it started to rain.  Hmmm!!  Winter!!

But onto more important matters.

I've got a few more of Tula's blocks completed.  I love how cropping the photos makes them look so square!






I also received the four charm packs I ordered of Sweetwater's Reunion line, to join the charm pack I already owned, to make a start on Camille Roskelley's Playground quilt (which is made using a layer cake - but 5 charm packs gives me a few extra options).

My faithful grey solid was on hand, and I gleefully started making blocks.

Note in particular the second block.   Laying the blocks out it just started to look stodgy.  Am I judging it too soon?


I knew the grey would be pushing it a bit as far as achieving good contrast with all of the fabrics... but that's OK sometimes, so I pushed on, thinking it might get better.   Do you feel another hmmmm coming on?

This fine chevron is not so bad close up, but disappears completely from a short distance.  On the plus side, I love the grey with the green...


... and the red.  The concrete colour is better... but not dynamic like the original creamy background.


I didn't want to use a white or very light background, as there are quite a few light prints as well, and they are on an off white background, which can look wrong with white.  Plus, the whole range is very similar to Hometown, and I've already done that with a cream background.  Plus, I don't really want to unpick every single thing I've sewn!

OK, deep breath - what if I add a different fabric as the centre?  It gives it a bit of a lift - don't you think?

 

Hmmm???  You realise this does mean unpicking all the seams in the blocks I've already done?  Double Hmmmm!!

4 comments:

Susan said...

If it means unpicking, I'd go with that option. How about a red background? Or a navy? Yellow? I don't know how many gray prints you have, but they are disappearing into the background! I think you need to introduce another solid colour in some form. Your Tula blocks are great! I'm about to cut another couple too!

Charlotte Scott said...

Couldn't even see that chevron until you gave a close up, sorry! What about a darker grey?

Heidi said...

I have a layer cake and a few FQs of Reunion waiting to be tackled, and the gray solid is my favorite with it. I thought that I would pull most of the gray out of the stack for a different project. They are really cute blocks though and your quilting will help define those spaces too, and the extra gray adds more negative space, which seems all the rage, AND the low contrast in some areas may add visual interest so I am curious to see what you do:-)

Lynette said...

I'm with Heidi - if you love the gray color, stay with it and use quilting to highlight the feature prints that have gray. :) OH - and we do a lot of that airing out strategy here with our clean laundry. ;D