Wunder-Mar

This sure does happen a lot. I have to put it aside and percolate on it while working on something else. Most memorably, it happened while working on two Yellow Brick Road ("YBR") Christmas gift quilts - the fabric combinations were perfect until I put the blocks up on the design board.

Below is the finished version of one of those YBR quilts. My eye didn't like the stark contrast of the light fabric, and when I asked my eye what it wanted to do, it said, "Fill in some of those spaces to blend them together for a better flow." So I picked up trimmed-off pieces from the floor and put them where my eye wanted to, satin stitched them on with a variegated teal thread and I fell in love with the results - AND, it was actually much better suited to the contemporary decor of my friend. I named this quilt "Detour on Yellow Brick Road."

And doncha know it happened again with the very next YBR quilt - hated the sharp contrast of the lights against the mediums and darks. I found some large scale floral print fabric using those same colors, so I did a broderie perse applique of large and medium sized flowers from the print and placed them where my eye wanted them to go. I didn't think to take a picture of it before wrapping it because I was still sewing on the binding in the car on the way to the recipents' house. But the broderie perse was a perfect solution to what was "off balance." The recipients fell in love with it and I had two more solutions to my design arsenal.