False Start

After getting my monthly pedicure yesterday, I stopped off at the grocery store for Shopping Trip 2.0. I'd been the day before, but I couldn't do any meal planning for the week because I needed to see what our farmers would give us in our CSA share. Thus, another trip yesterday to supplement the trip from the day before. Besides, I love the grocery store so much (cough!) that I want to go every day! That actually isn't true, as you well know. But anyway...I could not wait to get home and get started on the Cardinal Mosaic.

Before I go on, I need to say a little bit about the other "mosaic" quilt I made a while back, and a picture is worth a thousand words. (And you know I'll happily type a thousand words to get my point across, but let's stick with the picture, shall we?)

When I made the sunflower, I sewed the pieces together two vertical rows at a time. It worked, but it was kind of a headache keeping track of everything. So for the cardinal, I actually read the instructions. I KNOW! It took me at least five minutes to do that, and so that was five minutes delay in my new project gratification...a monumental sacrifice, if I do say so myself. And I do.

So here's the recommended method. This pattern is by Jane Kakaley and she suggested dividing the pattern grid into sections. It's a little hard to explain without showing you the pattern grid, but then there's this little issue of copyright infringement. So, I'll just give you a peek at what I'm working with here.

My own idea was to number the rows both vertically and horizontally. There are 36 in both directions. So, it made sense to mark a grid 6 x 6 and work with one section at a time. As it turns out, it's a good way to stay organized. I've also numbered the color values as a method of counting how many I'll need for each. It works to tell me when I've missed something as well. As an example, I missed counting one of the lighter blocks and so the 12 ended up at the end of the third row instead of the end of the 6th row as it should have. It doesn't really matter, but it did keep me from cutting one too few of the lighter blues. (I hope that makes sense.)

Then I cut the appropriate number of pieces and lined them all up on my June Taylor Cut 'N Press board. I never use it for cutting or pressing, but it makes a handy little tray for carrying pieces from my work table to my sewing table.

From there, I chain pieced the rows together. I didn't even need to cut them apart. I could just fold them row over row and sew them together that way. Having them all tied together with thread (like a chain gang) kept things from flying around and escaping.

And then I had the first section done.

Speaking of flying around, Sadie was making quite a racket in the Clubhouse. I had to check and see what was up.

Move along...nothing to see here. (Geez. That was empurrassing.)

And then I continued on my way. As I mentioned, I worked in vertical rows when I made the Sunflower quilt. This time I decided to move horizontally since that would get me to the bird faster. And you can see the beginnings of the bird in the lower right hand corner of the second section.

Then I sewed those two sections together...

and moved along to the third section, which suddenly got a lot more complicated. There were three values of blue, four values of red, and one of black. Plus, I needed to make some half square triangles from those tiny pieces. I had all the pieces made, laid out, and double-checked when I quit for the day.

And just to make sure busy paws didn't get into the action, I covered everything with a ruler for safe-keeping.

So, do you ever work on a project and having that niggling feeling that something isn't right? That's how I was feeling about this. There was something bothering me about it. I was talking to Mike about the new project I'd started and, in the process, I showed him the picture.

When I showed him the picture, I realized what was bothering me about it. It's the fabrics...I'm using too many solids. It's going to make for a "flat" quilt if I don't use fabrics with more variation in pattern. These are the ones I'm using.

The reds aren't bad, but there are too many solids in the greens, blues, and browns. And then I took Mike down to the sewing room with me, and he agreed. I need more tone on tones...more mottling. The values are pretty good, but there isn't enough variation within each individual color.

So, not a problem. I can work with some of what I've already done, but I want to change some of it out before I get any farther along. And making that decision was all fine and dandy, except I woke up just after midnight last night, and I couldn't stop thinking about those fabrics. I knew they were downstairs, drinking margaritas, having a party, and yucking it up about how I'd chosen all the wrong things. They sure fooled me, they laughed. Well. This just wouldn't do at all...and I kept thinking and thinking and thinking until I got up and went down to the sewing room and went through them discarding this one and pulling that one. Finally, I had this collection.

I might decide to switch two of the middle blues around, but mostly, I think I've done a better job of choosing now. The blues are difficult because some of them are too purple and some too green. It's hard to find true blues. Also, I'm still not happy with the darkest of reds. I think I need a different one in the middle and then slide the current middle and it's next door neighbor to the north for a better mix of values. It's hard to find anything darker than the rusty ones I've laid out there, and so the middle one needs to be a tad lighter.

I'll get at that in a little while. For now, I'm drinking my coffee and trying to wake up after my sleepless night.

To all of you in the path of the hurricane, please be safe. You're in my thoughts.