Friday, May 20, 2011

The Three Lessons I Learned From This Baby Quilt

This is the quilt I made for Ava, the 1-year-old daughter of a co-worker.  It measures 36" x 48" and is a multi-colored 1-shape tessellation.

I learned several lessons while making it.

1. I used various fabrics from several fabric swaps I participated in.  I thought I wanted a "scrappy" look, but I think too many colors detract from the single shape tessellation.  What do you think??
2. I used multiple fabrics for several of the colors (purple, red, yellow, cream, and green).  Except for the green, the fabrics were close in hue, so there wasn't much contrast.  In the lower left corner is a shape using different greens which didn't work out quite the way I expected.  Elsewhere, I used matching greens with better results.
3. I experimented with a different construction technique for the blocks.  I used a muslin foundation, but I sewed the individual pieces to it from the front, instead of from the back as usually done with paper (or foundation) piecing.  Mind you, there was no design printed on the back of the muslin; this was pretty much sewing the block together using the seam allowances as guide (just with a muslin foundation underneath). I stitched around the block through all layers in the seam allowance before trimming the blocks to size.
    I had perfectly square blocks, but the joins were less-than-perfect along the seam lines; my points did not necessarily match.  I was less-than-thrilled with the results.  I will be returning to my muslin foundations with the block printed on them with my very next project.

I feel that each quilt is a chance to learn and grow from whatever mistakes I've made.  I don't dislike this quilt, but I have learned what I need to do to improve it.

2 comments:

  1. this is beautiful.. hope the baby is cool enough for this quilt!

    Francine
    mochawildchild.blogspot.com

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  2. Thank you, Francine . . .

    The baby's cool enough (though the idea is to keep the baby warm, lol).

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