Last week I posted a number of choices for my center block in the annual Stay At Home Round Robin quilting challenge. Readers of this blog will not be terribly surprised to hear that I chose the mountain painting on fabric.
Now I am forced to consider the short-comings of my choice. First of all, it wasn’t square, having a slightly portrait layout. I sliced off the top and bottom to the limit that I was willing to sacrifice the image. It was still out of square.
My solution was to applique it to a 12 1/2 background. By choosing to applique instead of piece, I avoided seam allowance, retaining more of the painting. With a center block finishing at 12 in., I have lots of options for sizes of the rounds to come.
The second shortcoming became clear when I observed that the painting was mostly one value – it’s medium value nearly throughout. There are some darks, but no real lights. I’ll have to find a way to bring in some light, perhaps with embroidery.
Now I am confronted with a number of design decisions. I have resolved to make the entire thing out of scraps, if I can manage it. Coming up with the palette was easy. It will be an analogous one, featuring a range of colors that exist in the painting. Purple, blue, teal and cool greens will predominate, with a generous dash of reds as accent. Here are the eligible scraps, organized by color and value.
With any luck, I can avoid buying more fabric, outside of the backing.
The final design decisions that I can make prior to getting the first clue concern size and layout. I spent hours thumbing through books and looking online before I made my choices. Ultimately, I settled on a square, with an expected size of 45 inches, more or less. My plan is to add the rounds in log cabin fashion, keeping each round within a strict color range. To see how it would work I made a mock-up using colored pencil on graph paper.
I’m old school. No computerized design program assistance in my studio.
To see all the challenge participants’ center blocks, click Here.
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