Tuesday, November 4, 2014

The Evolution of a Quilt Top

About a month ago I was watching Cindy from Live a Colorful Life put together a quilt top with some Bonnie and Camille fabrics (Miss Kate) and the pattern was called "Charm Parade".  It was a pattern that Cindy had published a few years ago.  I really liked it, told her so and the next thing I knew, that pattern was mine!
 I immediately started thinking about which charm pack I should use.  It would have to be one that I already owned (remember, no fabric purchases for 6 months).  I looked through the pattern and saw that it was recommended to have matching pairs of charms for the blocks.  I finally decided on some Kaffe Fasset (rhymes with safe asset) charms that I bought on impulse a year or two ago. I had two packs - one red, one blue - and they each had 30 charms, 15 pairs.  Perfect.
 So I set about making blocks, adding the solid green centers, navy blue triangles and grey strips to the Kaffe fabrics.
 So now I had 15 blocks.  Which makes for some odd layouts.  Can't do 4x4, short one.  3x5 is weird and long.  But 4x5 would require more blocks!  I had some offers from very sweet ladies of some scraps to fill it out, but I really wanted to step up to the challenge of using what I have and no new fabric.
 So I decided to make 5 blocks with just the navy blues.
 Here are the blocks laid out, the light and focus isn't the best, but you get the idea.  I haven't actually pieced the top yet, soon, though.  I just thought you'd like a little story of what I'm working on lately.

And I'll tell you this: If you had told me 5 years ago that I would make a crazy scrappy quilt like this, I would have told you you were crazy!  Funny how things change.











2 comments:

Mindy said...

Loving the color mix!

carolaj3 said...

I love both versions. I need to start using my Kaffe instead of hoarding it. A super pattern.
The gray work fine. I heard Kaffe say he never uses white or black because it makes a "hole" in your design. I thought that was interesting