Julienm1

Yesterday cut up/sewed 2 jelly rolls into rail fence blocks Put them on my design wall and they are terrible. Loud, ugly and just nasty. I knew I had to add something to it to calm it down. Decided to make small flying geese that finished at 1.5x3, stacked four in a row so same length as the RF blocks in black an white...geese are black. Made a boat load (may be my favorite phrase) RF blocks back on the wall, added the FG. Now each row has 2 flying geese blocks randomly place. OMG...what was terrible yesterday is doable today. The black and white geese strip block calms down the chaos so the squares that were screaming yesterday are playing nicely with their neighbors.

Learned a lot with this quilt. In my brain scrappy is too busy. Need to have color control and something to calm it down. Now if I can remember what I did! Don't ask for pic. No idea how to upload pic.

SallyS

At least you were able to make a fix before you finished it. I hate nearly all my work once it's finished, seeing everything I wish I could change. After time goes by, I see it as a whole and can appreciate it.

juliasb

Sounds like you learned a lot about combining color and different blocks. I can't wait to see it. To upload a pic follow the advanced instructions closely. When you get to where it says add photo be sure to enlarge the screen to where it says upload. That seems to be the trickiest part. Best of luck .

SuzSLO

My most extreme example of this was a quilt I was making for my Mom’s retirement from teaching nursery school. I rushed to get a top done so that guests at her retirement party could understand how their signatures on fabric fit into the whole. I then appliquéd the signatures on and .... then .. it sat for 20 years(!). One of the large inside squares was playground equipment done with grey on white and I hated it and saw no path forward to loving it.

When I pulled it out this year, I realized I just needed to pull out the huge block I hated and substitute something that would work. So I did green and floral pinwheels near the bottom and blue pinwheels near the top. No more playground in the gulag! Finished the top, quilted it and did the hand stitching in the binding while I sat at my Mom’s hospice bedside. She was able to enjoy the quilt hanging directly in front of her for the last weeks of her life. So glad I decided to pivot and just finish the darn quilt.

Cheshirepat

I'm currently finishing a 2 y.o. OBW (one block wonder) quilt I *still* think is dang ugly, but yeah, it's going to get finished! Maybe in the rear view mirror it will have something I like, ha! Congrats on powering through and making it happen!

WMUTeach

One way I stumbled on to cure my displeasure in really scrappy quilts that scream at me is to create it in one color way. This year I have been digging in my blue bin of fabrics and scraps so lots of seriously scrappy quilts that follow the blue path. A couple of years ago it was green with touches of yellow. I absolutely agree that one color or feature, such as your geese, can bring a sense of calm and order to all of the glorious scraps and colors in a quilt. I attached some examples of how I use one or two colors plus a common feature for my scrappys. Happy scrapping and PM me if you would like my directions for uploading photos.

ka9sdn

Love all of these! Sounds like you have a system you like!@

SusieQOH

My BH mystery from last year is still in a heap somewhere. Even my husband dislikes it and he likes everything I make. It's very LOUD!
I doubt anyone would have a peaceful sleep under it!

Jordan

Julie-Glad you found a way to tone down your quilt and happy that you like it now.
WMUTeach-love your quilts. Especially like the pattern of the first one on the left. Would you please share where to get the pattern?

Maire

I made a Jelly Roll Race quilt in January while I was recovering from major surgery, very limited in what I could do but wanted to use my sewing machine. Because of my limitations it took me a few days but I was happy sewing. When I finished the top I thought it was horrible. Put the top away. Then in June I needed a quilt quickly for a charity event, got the top out and realized it was actually a nice combination of colors, I had the prefect back fabric, so made a quilt sandwich & quilted it. Patted my self on the back for a lovely quilt perfect for a teen.
Sometimes quilt tops need to mellow for awhile, and I needed time to recover from the post surgery fog.