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Blue Batik, continued…..
This blogpost continues my work on a quilt inspired by Kathy Schmidt’s Cell Block Blues pattern from her bestselling Rule-Breaking Quilts book. (Check here for my book review.) At first I thought all my blocks (and I had no idea how many I would make or how large this quilt might be) would have bright hand-dyeds (all made by me!) as the stems and veins. As the quilt took shape, though, I decided a bit of subtle would be a good think and make a good transition to the outer edges of the quilt which, in my mind, would be the remaining squares and rectangles from the original ten fat quarters of batik.
Another set of blocks, adding some blues to the bright mix
At this point, the design wall was getting crowded, so I removed the other “stuff” so I could spread out my blocks into what might become the final quilt. It is fairly unusual for me not to have a final image inside my head before I begin, so I was enjoying working this way for a change. It definitely won’t become my “new favorite” way, but I sure had fun with this one. You’ll notice in the photo above that there are blobs of white-white fabric and dark-dark, and it got tricky getting the direction of the stems correct and preventing same-fabric from touching the same-fabric in another block! In this case, contrast is good.
The quilt grew and grew; finally, I decided I had enough blocks.
By this point, I had as many blocks as I thought I needed. My design wall is 6 feet wide at the widest point, and I had just about reached that size, which I decided was plenty large. As the blocks went up, I scattered the colors and the direction of the blocks as if they were swirling upwards in an autumn gust. The bright colors are clustered in the center with the blue-vein blocks on the edges. Now it was time to fill in the pieces. To my dismay, I didn’t take in-process photos until after the whole thing was sewn together.
Filling it in to become a rectangle
The top is now about 40×60 inches. This is what is left of the initial ten fat quarters, with a 6×12 inch ruler for scale:
what's left out of 2 1/2 yards of fabric (ten fat quarters)
Not much! Seven of the ten original fabrics are pictured here. The rest is totally used! The white one on the right and the dark blue on the left were purchased for value-range (i.e. light-light and dark-dark) and were essential, but they really grab your eye almost too much so I stuck to the medium-dark to medium to medium-light fabrics for most of the work.
When I went to the Batiks by Design website it appeared some of the fabrics I used were sold out, so I called the store and thankfully they still had some of them, so my outer border and binding will not have to feature prints not used in the center. I’m so glad they were willing to custom cut some pieces for me to match what I already had. Here’s to good quilty service…thanks ladies! I’m planning on a narrow inner border of the bright colors all the way around the top shown above (probably a finished 3/8 or 1/2″ wide multicolored strip), with a wider (3-5 inches?) of squares and rectangles of the blues, with a slightly darker blue batik for the binding. What do you think? Suggestions? I’m thinking maybe some of those larger rectangles on the outer edge need to get sliced up with some of the medium-value pieces set into them. Maybe with some angles? Let me know what you think!
November 9th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
It’s looking pretty good there! I would not cut the outside pieces into smaller chunks. That would only make things more congested. You need to give spots for the eyes to rest and big pieces of same stuff does that. You are making good progress and the bright narrow border is a great idea. Don’t over think this…it’s supposed to be fun!
November 9th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Love the quilt and the border plans. I probably would cut the border pieces into the small chunks like you are planning but I’d lay out Kathy’s suggestion first to see how it looks. I tend to over-complicate everything and always tend to favor more piecing.
November 9th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Oh, my! That is getting to be seriously glorious, Sarah. I love the multicolor narrow border idea. I think I’d make an outer border with just the darkest blues. Can’t wait to see the grand finale.
November 10th, 2010 at 9:11 am
Wonderful piece! I must be in the minority here but I’d make the border “calmer” than the interior. Maybe just one fabric, more solid, kind of like a frame… I know you’ll audition your options. Looking forward to the final look.
November 10th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Sarah, it is wonderful! Can’t wait to see it finished. The border ideas, multicolor narrow then a wider one sound good. Don’t know about angles. It might diminish the swirl that you have created. Binding–darker blue than that used elsewhere.