Here is a recent shot of my design wall before I had to take down the blocks to make room for other things. Left to right, there’s a sliver of Tula’s Bloomers behind a flannel-backed tablecloth that I had to hang so I could keep it on the design wall in iplace, but still have a design wall for other things.
The second column top to bottom has some blocks for the newest High Cotton quilt, then some more Potato Chip blocks.
The next column has the Stash Buster Challenge blocks that I’ve been working on (reverse values from the original).
And the far right column has the double nine patch aka Painter’s Palette quilt (Edyta Sitar) in progress.
And then I fell down another rabbit hole. I haven’t actually started sewing any blocks for this quilt yet, but I’m cutting strip sets to get ready – it’s a plan-as-you-go Courthouse Steps quilt that I’ve been seeing in several quilting groups I’m a member of on Facebook. The ones I’ve seen are just gorgeous, and it makes me think about doing more than just one.
This is a mockup of the quilt, but it would have more colors than this (though this is lovely too). I don’t know of the name of it, but I’ve seen similar quilts that use one fabric (not two) to make each side of the block called “lanterns” so I may call this one Shaded Lanterns unless someone corrects me.
The block may be hard to perceive in this quilt, because you only use half of the strips in one block, and then you use the other half of the strips in an adjacent block. That’s one reason it’s probably best as a plan as you go quilt.
I plan on doing fabric colors that aren’t super saturated. Here are some that I’ve cut so far.
My quilt will have more blocks than my mockup. I estimate I’ll need approximately 24 sets of dark-, 24 sets of light-, and 48 sets of medium-value fabrics to get the look that I want. Depending on how things go, I might add a few more and enlarge it a little more.
Each set contains 2 fabrics that are cut 1½” wide by 11½”, 9½”, 7½”, 5½”, 3½”, and 1½”. A full-width piece of fabric can produce all of these out of one-1½” strip. Fat quarters generally take 2 strips (sometimes 3 if I have already cut off a piece of the width).
I’ve seen Christmas print variations, Kaffe Fassett print variations (bright and very colorful), and some have more color and value difference in the coordinating strips than others I’ve seen. They are all so lovely, and it really makes me want to experiment.
And that’s what I’ve been up to lately. Not enough block progress to post each and every one, but plenty to bring joy to each day I press, cut, and sew.