New project

Last weekend the Monday Modern girls had a sewing day. I wanted to start a new project to work on. I had started collecting some cat fabrics all of which had some grey and some pink in them. The grey was intentional, the pink just kind of happened. I bought a few solids that matched the different pinks that ranged from magenta to coral. I wouldn't usually mix these colors, but I think they work somehow.

I wanted to design a quilt that highlighted the cat prints without being too simple. After trawling though the internet for ideas, I designed a block with a 4" center square for the cat prints. The center is bordered by a pink solid, accented with a black/white print, and finished with white. I'm not sure that my design is unique, but it is my own.

Another goal for this project was to plan the quilt from start to finish. Some friends were lamenting about problems with some patterns they had used from books or that they had purchased and I started thinking about how one would go about designing a quilt with the intent to publish a pattern. Usually I work quite organically making decisions along the way and I enjoy this process. When I have made quilts for others, usually with a deadline, I always plan these out from the start. I don't have any of these to look at and analyse, but I remember them as being more cohesive but also more sanitized than quilts I make and keep.

How would planning affect my creative process? I admit that I purchased the fabric before I knew how I would use them and some have come from my stash. I haven't calculated out exactly what the requirements are, although I did have to do this with the white because I did not have enough. I was surprised that I would need 1-1/2 yards for 25 blocks.

I started by trying to cut out all of the fabric and then got bored and started making blocks. This weekend I finished cutting so I have nice tidy piles ready to go. So far I've made 6 of the blocks and I'm liking how they work together.

I'm using a few different techniques for the different elements in the block - the half square triangles are made 8 at a time and the flying geese are made 4 at a time using the 'no waste' method. It takes me just over 30 minutes to make one block, so I hope to do one a day until I have the remaining 19 finished.

I'm already staring to think about how I will quilt this one. Maybe a change from my usual is in order...or maybe not.