Monday 15 August 2016

SL, SD progress report linky party


Quilty Habit


The "Star Light, Star Dark" QAL is being hosted by Jessica at Quilty Habit. The blocks are really large: the sawtooth stars in the photo below each measure 18.5" square.


When I posted this photo on Friday I got a lot of helpful comments both here and on Facebook. Thank you to all those who gave their advice.

on the design wall: each block measures one quarter of a square yard!


Suggestions ranged from the simple - move the position of dark purple back to between the other two dark blocks (from Jessica) (done immediately, but no photo!) - to the expensive - remake both blocks (hallo!). Gina suggested appliqué on the centre of the stars which would certainly liven up the dark purple, and someone else, (I think in the FB group, but I can't find the comment, sorry) suggested quilting the dark purple with contrasting thread to brighten it, and to pick out the shape of the star.

So Saturday morning: took loads of b/w photos to check the values of the remaining purple fabric; finished the small green stars, and made three purple; added the other green pieces and auditioned purple fabric to complete the blocks.

I won't bore you with all the photos, but this was the best I could manage. You would never believe that in the b/w photos the background to the light stars looked (marginally) lighter than the long "dark" strip. Marginally, it's true, but LIGHTER! That's it! All my other purple pieces are more mauve than purple, or too small for the job!

So off came the purple after much online searching for suitable purple fabric to fill the gaps

And on came the yellow:



I had lots of dark yellow pieces left from Allietare!, the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt last December, so that wasn't a problem, but in light yellow I had less choice. Finally I settled for this:

Really dismal photo late in the afternoon., even with a spotlight!
and by the time you read this I will probably have the yellow blocks sorted!

As for the purple blocks, when I measured the green blocks I realised this is going to finish at almost 50" square as it is here. In this house that's enough for a lap quilt, so the purple blocks could go onto the back. On the other hand when the fabric I ordered arrives, and is what I think it is (!!!) I may be able to finish them and make this full size!

This is still very much Work In Progress.

I'm linking up to:
Quilty Habit
so pop over there to see the amazing quilts other people are making.

Happy sewing

Marly.

8 comments:

Kathy S. said...

Your colors and fabrics look great! Nice work. :)

Jessica said...

I LOVE both versions of your quilt. I actually think the dark purple looks awesome with the large green dark star above it. Your progress posts are really in depth and fun to read. I hope you find a good balance that you are happy with!

Martina said...

Hi Marly! I loove the purple very much too! And perhaps you'll change your mind again when all the blocks are laid out together, lol! It is amazing how this again changes the values and colors, at least that's what I think. But I love your yellow star to and I am sure in the end it will be a great quilt whatever version you'll choose!
Hugs Martina

Danice G said...

The color choices are really nice. Yeah, I ran into the problem of finding some lighter shades of one of my colors also (orange). Your choices look really good.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Wow!! You are taking this QAL way more seriously than I am - not a stitch sewn. Your value study is looking really good! Here's hoping that the fabric you ordered works the way you want it to.

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

Your blocks are looking wonderful!

Kaja said...

It's interesting to see how you go about getting things 'just right' and I'm really looking forward to seeing this quilt progress.

Lisa in Port Hope said...

I think the colours you are using are amazing! It is definitely difficult to balance both value and colour, but that's part of the fun of this particular quilt along.