Bali Watercolour Wraps
 

My boss gave me a gift certificate to the LQS and I went in with frivolity on my mind and bought something I've never used before. A couple packages of blue Bali watercolour wraps, which are 7" charm squares. In the back of my mind I was thinking of a quilt in which the colours blend into one another with a gradual shift overall, but don't have a pattern and can't find one. After a couple days of fruitless searches, I'm here looking for help. What would you do with the set? Do you have a link to a pattern suggestion? How are precut squares handled? Ah, the fun of exploring something new.

Here's a picture of what I have:

OK, number 1... what a great boss you have! The only patterns I know about would be for 5" charms. But I can't see why they wouldn't work for larger squares, too. Look on the Moda site at their Bake Shop. There also is a really neat pattern for pinwheels made from 2 squares that might work. I'm not sure where it is here on the board but I just saw it. Maybe in the "links" part. These squares of yours are awesome! You chose well!!! Let us know what you decide to do with these beauties!

Yummy colors!!!! What a great gift from your boss. Whatever you decide, it will be beautiful!

These are sure pretty!
Check out this pattern link you might like called cotton rainbow
http://www.cozyquilt.com/Aspx/SearchResults.aspx

Gale

Find a barely blue background and do a Carpenter Star/Wheel. Whichever name you call it, it'd be gorgeous.

I would balance out the cool blues with warm pinks in a similar graduation from pale to dark. You could do a lattice with those two, possibly similar to the "pleinweave" one on this page (scroll down to find it):
http://quiltinggallery.com/2011/02/2...modern-quilts/

I have a similar set, and I was thinking of cutting them in half and doing coins, alternating with gray or maybe black. I don't know if I have the same brand as you, but I went ahead and soaked mine first, and two of the darker blues bled and bled and bled. Just a friendly warning!

I bet you could adapt the blooming 9-patch pattern to what you described (colours blending into each other). Although a 9-patch isn't an ideal block for a 7" square as a starting point.

Lucky you!! You will definitely have lots of fun with these colours!

I had bought a number of tonal blue batiks with a similar idea in mind so I will be watching the variety of suggestions given here :). I wanted to do a pattern that was like rippling water from one corner of the quilt to the other - just as if a stone was dropped into shallow water and the ripples rotated out to the deeper depths.

Those sure are beautiful! While I can't suggest a pattern, I do have a an idea for you. If you can't find a pattern for 7" squares, you might take 2" off two sides. That would give you matching strips for a log cabin later, and patterns for 5" blocks are everywhere. It's more work, but you would get to use those beautiful pieces twice.

Whatever you make, we want to see it!!

A bargello would work well or a trip around the world pattern.

No pattern suggestions, but those sure are beautiful!

I didn't know Hoffman made 7" squares available. Is this something new?

Actually it is, if you cut it into 4 pieces you have 3-1/2" squares - perfect for a 9" 9Patch.

I'd cut each one in quarters so that I had 3 1/2" squares and do a Twister and have the colors move in and out in a gradation of color. A Trip Around The Wirld would be nice to move the colors in and out as well or a Bargello.

Check Jinny Beyer's website for free patterns featuring gradations.

The blooming 9-patch was my first thought, too!

You really got some beautiful blocks.

What about doing a French Braid. That would be beautiful in those colors.

THANK YOU for the warning. I had in mind that this might be the first quilt I make with unwashed fabric, since prewashing little squares seemed difficult. Now I know that this fabric will be wet before ever going into a finished project.

costume girl - your description of rippling water sounds just like what I would love to make. I'm very drawn to quilts in which the colours blend so well that by the time the change is really noticeable there have been several gradations between.

I agree with fmhall2. Those colors would be fantastic in a French Braid quilt.

It sounds like you're talking about a color wash quilt where it gradually goes frpm light to dark? I made one many years ago in a pinwheel. It gives it the illusion that it's got movement.

I was also thinking French Braid, however, for your idea of the slow change in colors, I don't think you can beat the Flowering 9 Patch... or in your case, I think you could call it the Flowing 9 Patch! I see no reason you couldn't start it in one quarter of the quilt and work out from there with the design rather than from the center working out to all edges equally if you wanted to. Just plan out your colors on graph paper first. You would be leaving out the floral and just going to the next color gradation as you move out. I think it can easily be done as long as you number your fabrics and your graph pattern to help keep things in order. LOL Now you have me wanting to try it, too.

Yummy fabrics, great boss, hope you find the pattern you want!

Willfreg - good reminder about soaking batiks before using! Some of my friends make fun of my obsession with pre soaking or pre washing. They tell me that bleeding only happens with older fabric and that the new ones are more colour fast. It would be heart breaking to have put in so much time and effort into a project and then have some colours bleed.

Look at Eleanor Burns' Quick Trip Water Lily from her book Quick Trip Quilts.

Whatever you make will be beautiful. I see lots of lovely ideas being suggested.

An easy way is to put them on point and use a cordnating color like browns, greens , whites ....whatever as your setting triangles

Don't know why, but I keep getting this quilt board site to display with your link!

Check out a batik TUMBLING BLOCKS baby quilt done by Miss Treated. It's beautiful. Works well with a light, a medium, and a dark component to form the 3-D effect.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...by-t35132.html

Jenny Beyer does lots of quilts in the gradations. They are done in her fabrics but it is the same thing. Try her website, many of her patterns are free. (no spell check, and I know I misspelled gradations!)

That is a GREAT idea! And you're right... she'd get a two-fer!

Me, too... weird because I've never had that happen before.

That link didn't work for me, either. I spent a fair bit of time at the cozy quilt site looking for the cotton rainbow!

There are some great suggestions here. I'd also love to see pictures of what other people have made with colour shades.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, beautiful!

The great thing about a D9P is that any size of block can be used!