Quiltingboard Forums - The Pumpkin Patch-Best laid plans of cats and quilters

Here's my baby, my pride and joy, my favorite quilt that I've made thus far. My pumpkin patch with paper-pieced pumpkins! Things did not go according to plan at all--but I went with it and it turned out better!

1) The pumpkins and leaves were never intended to have "frames" around them. They were ment to be surrounded by only ivory fabric with white screen printing. A nice ivory design. However, I pilfered from my stock to complete a Christmas project thinking I could buy more. I wasn't able to find it. So, I found a similar fabric with a different design and decided to make a frame around each patch to break it up. Which leads me to...

2) The leaves were all supposed to be brown. I was going to do the frames in alternating colors that I had left over from making the pumpkins, but I was worried about the perspective it would create. A yellow border would make a patch look smaller than a patch with a brown border. Some quilts are meant to be off the wall. This one was all about order. But I didn't want to do brown frames and leaves because it would be too...brown! Sometimes, the obvious just escapes me and this was one of those times. I pondered my dilemma for days before it struck me to use those gorgeous yellow, red, and orange fabrics for leaves!

3) The beautiful striped fabric that complements all of the other fabrics had actually been kicked out of the quilt. It made an 11th hour return. I bought the stripe originally for the border. Then, I decided it was too matchy-matchy and went with the leaves instead. The green ivy fabric was supposed to go in between each row as well as being the border, but...I was a few inches short! Rather than making the quilt smaller, I brought the striped fabric out of exile and I was glad I did! It looks great!

4) The leaf print is actually the third border I decided on. Before the leaf print, before the stripe, I fell in love with another leaf print, which you can just barely see in the upper left of the pumpkins. I bought a ton of it and began planning a wiiiiide border to show it off. What happened? By the time I got halfway done with the quilt, I decided I absolutely hated the print I had so dearly loved before and I ditched it for the stripe which was then ditched for the new leaf print.

It evolved wonderfully. The only thing I regret is my do-over. All of my quilts have a mistake sewn in which should have been glaringly obvious, but somehow escaped my attention and made it into the final product. I caught the mistake on this one, unfortunately. One of the pumpkin stems was pieced upside down, causing the stem to be half the size it should have been. I did a whole new pumpkin for the quest of perfection, but I wish I had left "stubby" in the quilt! Mistakes are my trademark, after all!

The first pic is the original pattern. The second two are my finished work.