critique please
 

I'm designing a quilt for a challenge. I'm not real happy with the middle section though. Personally I think the white may be too bright and the whole section too light. I don't have enough of the darker blue in the top section to use it for the larger triangles in the middle section. I probably could carefully take the blocks apart and change the bright white to something not as bright. There will be applique over it so that may help tone down the brightness of the white and the whole section.

What say you all?


[ATTACH=CONFIG]314191[/ATTACH]

Yes, I agree with you, the white is too bright combined with the off-whites - makes the off-white/tannish color look dull and dirty. Maybe you could take the blue panels and tea stain them? That would take everything down a notch and help them play together nicely and best of all, you wouldn't have to take anything apart. :)

What were the rules set for the challenge? ie size, required fabrics, how many fabric can you add, etc. Might help us help you better. Right now the middle section doesn't relate all that well to the bottom. Could you put this section on the top instead? Then would appear to be like a landscape with green grass on bottom, some sky with birds flying and then white topped mountains above it all. That way you wouldn't have to take out all that white!

The only rule was to do something related to the title. The title is Kansas, My Kansas or the state of your choosing. The middle blocks are Kansas Trouble blocks. Personally I think the trouble is they're a pain in the *** to put together!! The bottom blocks are Kansas Dugout blocks and the top is flying geese.

The "troubles" the KT blocks refer to are a huge part of our history so they need to stay. The dugout blocks are also a huge part of the settlement of Kansas since there weren't any trees out here and you had two choices to build a home to start with. The flying geese are because Kansas has the largest stop over in the central migratory bird route. I'm going to add wheat to the left side and a wild sunflower to the right side and a Meadowlark in the bottom section. I'm going to border it with some barn board print fabric to represent our historic barns.

That might make things worse since the white is a white on white and the pattern part would probably resist the tea. Good idea though.

I'm with the tea dying idea. Then the applique will tone it down, too. You've put a lot of thought into this and I'd stay with your original concepts.

The previous poster who was posting at the same time I was has a point, but the background of the wow should take some dye. Try it on a scrap of fabric first.

tea dye the white was my first thought.

me too :)

Hmmmm...could you re-arange the blocks? Put a row of the dugouts on either side of the Troubles and maybe make some more (or smaller) flying geese to go on the other side of the dugouts? Maybe put a sashing in between too. I really like the Kansas Troubles blocks as they are. They remind me of wind swept skies and snow drifts.

I would not tea stain it. It's too unpredictable and totally undoable. The wheat and the sunflower are going on top of the KT section, right? That will definitely tone it down. You might also audition a fairly narrow border of the white TOT inside the barn board print and next to the center section.

I think part of the reason the white looks so stark is that it's only in the center band. By adding a narrow frame of the same fabric, like matboard, you'll mitigate the "look at ME" effect of the white. You could even lap the appliqués onto the white border a bit to include it more. Certainly won't hurt anything to audition it.