Iceblossom

Woohoo for me, I am starting to get to the fun/magical part of this project,watching the squares and then quilt come together. I do prefer "front loading" and getting the piles and piles of tedious done so that the final assembly can go fast, but the piles aren't all that much fun.

Yesterday I got my missing count Tiny Goose units done. When I decided to make my extra row of blocks, I remembered the 4 vertical units but not the 5 horizontal... anyway, third time's the charm and they are all done.

Today is my Tuesday sewing group. I will be bringing pinning with me. Only have a short time today so should use up my pins on what I have ready. (I bought new pins but I'm using what I have through the end of this project) I have 10 sets of blocks sewn into the strips of 3. Right now I'm working on the next group of 10, or more exactly have 5 sets sewn into what I call 2-fers

Anyway, finally (or almost) enough to play with for overall design and to further consider my sashing options. Hopefully pictures tomorrow!

Iceblossom

First off, a reminder that Bonnie will be taking down the free clues shortly. You will still be able to buy the pattern as a non-mystery.

Got a ton done yesterday, have 10 blocks (enough to play with!) complete and mostly through the 2nd set (sewn into the three parts) and the last 10 (I'm making my top bigger, so 30 blocks) ready to be put into 2-fers. Small brag -- so far I don't think I've sewn any blocks wrong, but I did pin my first set incorrectly, whew! caught it in time.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased. I think I'm happier with my gold stars than I would have been with aqua. I didn't notice any issues while sewing with my wrong direction HSTs, those were Clue 4 melon/neut half squares. That I had problems with the square in a square block but was able to do the tiny geese just fine is sort of... interesting... I am not happy that some of them are skewed or more of a rectangle in a square. I decided to leave in blocks I would have otherwise redone because of my vision issues. And I'm ok with that! Between the busyness of the design and the fabrics, you really aren't going to see those imperfections. I'm actually pretty darn impressed with what I have been able to accomplish.

The melon is not too much in your face. As a fan of The Amazing Race, that immediately brought me to the "watermelon in the face" accident. Oof!
https://www.google.com/search?q=the%...o%20the%20face

Hubby is still working late shift to help train the new guy. I really don't feel like doing layout on the floor so I will wait until he's up and I can use the bed. I still have a roll of wide paper to cover the bed, but I sort of like using the gray blanket -- it hold the pieces in place and gives me a nice neutral background to work with. Today I do plan to put together some more blocks (I can do that while he's sleeping) and then play with the sashing options I've come up with. Even though I'm pretty sure of the direction I'm going, since I'm going to do a bunch of layout I will take pictures.

Iceblossom

Pix or it didn't happen! I will be doing more playing with the sashing but this shows how stuff is going together.

Picture 1 is Bonnie's corner layout -- notice the flat end of the pointy piece is next to the solid block, and that the sashing units are random. I did choose pretty similar colors for my trial 4 sets... there will be more variety later.

Picture 2 is an overall layout shot.

Picture 3 is my corner layout, all I have done is turn around the pointy pieces so they form a star around the solid block. I did them as sets with the same Gold and the same Neutral for each set. I don't think I need to add points to the other end but if I decide to do that, they will be random.

Picture 4 is the same blocks in the same order as Picture 2, but with the sashing changed. It will require a bit of layout to balance the colors and not put the same fabric in the sashing next to the fabric in the block -- but even if have to, the pieces don't touch.

joe'smom

Iceblossom, congratulations on getting so much done! Your quilt is looking fabulous!

I haven't taken the time to analyze why, but I much prefer the first (original) sashing layout.

I'm making slow progress on clue 7. My back is acting up again (due to some stupid actions on my part), so my working time is once again limited.

Iceblossom

Joe'smom, there is a... radiating squareness?? of Bonnie's design that is appealing... and I think it works with non-pointy sashing pieces too.

More pix! Fun with sashing. I am of the "controlled" scrappy camp, while Bonnie is much of a "chaotic" scrappy. Using one fabric for the sashing can help "control" or brighten or darken your top, or simply emphasize a favorite color or fabric if you aren't in love with what you have. The pieces are also large enough to use bigger prints than show in an 1" square. Takes less than half a yard. While we are used to thinking in our own color palates, half the quilt is still neutral and colors can be added!

I didn't keep the various pieces consistent from layout to layout this time. Plus these are no pointy pieces, although I did use the tiny goose centers.

Picture 1: I think I spend too much time staring at my olfa cutting mat/work area. But I wanted to see what a green path would do, would it turn my stars to flowers? Meh, not so much... besides I'm pretty happy with the stars and prisms I am working with. This is one of the larger print concepts as well, although I added the "green" it also has gold in it to help blend in.

Picture 2: As I said, I'm pretty happy with the brightness of my top, but say I wanted to tone it down a bit more. This is a dark civil war-ish print, probably from about the same time period as the Melon. Again, it has bits of red and gold.

Picture 3: I am really tempted to take the easy way out and just use this one print for all my sashing and no pointy ends. I think though that I will stress myself a bit more with the "prisms".

JeanieG

Iceblossom - Decisions, decisions! Wow, looks like you are having fun debating which you like best!! I am sure you will come to a conclusion that will be just beautiful!!!

joe'smom

Iceblossom, I'm not sure what 'the prisms' are.

I think the first green seems too unrelated to the rest, and therefore, abrupt. The second green is more doable, because it looks like there is a bit of gold and red in the print, tying things together? I miss the points, though. Nothing wrong with sticking to all one sashing. I don't miss the points as much in the last photo, but my favorite is still the first layout photo in the previous post.

platyhiker

Iceblossom, it's nice to have so many options!

I agree with joe'smom that the first green seems out of place with the rest of the fabrics. The other two options both work, but each give quite a different mood/vibe to the quilt. Option two darkens the quilt, and makes it seem a bit more "serious" to me. Option three brightens the quilt and feels more playful and cheery. Both are good - which mood appeals to you more?

My personal preference would to go with gold in the sashing - I like the sunny vibe it gives. The fabric you used in the photo is darker and more orange than my ideal - do you have enough of one of your lightest golds for all the sashing? I also like the picture #4 in post #423 where the all four parts of each cross match. I think I slightly prefer this over one light gold for all the sashing.

Have fun with your choices! I look forward to seeing your decisions.

Gemm

While I agree with others who have said there are multiple appealing options presented by Iceblossom, my favourite is picture 4 from post 423. I also agree with the "no" to the green fabric sashing. It just seems out of place. :-)

There are so many wonderful finishes here, each with its own individual spin. Hats off to everyone!

Iceblossom

What I am calling the "prisms" are the pointy bars in the sashing, and that as I matched the star centers and points of the main blocks, I will be matching all four of the arms.

I deliberately want to reinforce the secondary pattern, to make it difficult to determine what is the block. I feel that making them coordinated instead of random helps that, as does reinforcing the overall star motif by turning the pointy bars into stars.

While I have been tempted all along to use the one Gold for sashing, I've also been pretty certain of what I want to do, and that is use the mixed golds, the decision was more on random or planned placement. But sometimes we have to try things, and sometimes when we do we find things out, and have those serendipity moments, hence the green fabrics even if they didn't work this time.

At this point, the sashing boils down to basically I don't like the tiny goose units and have come up with several alternatives -- but I made 'em and imma gonna use 'em. While I do personalize/customize these projects, I try and keep in mind that they are Bonnie's design and not mine which is part of the whole point of the project for me, to do something "else". And as I said way back in the beginning (or years ago) if I don't like something, I can go ahead and blame Bonnie!

So today's goals are to finish the last 10 blocks, the subunits are done and they are grouped into blocks and ready to go. I also want to finish cutting the random golds for the sashing, but I will continue making those in sets of 4 (because the outer edge will be random I have 16 that don't need to be in sets and can use up some more of those tiny bits left as well). Don't think I'm going to get to the rest of the neutral squares for the sashing points today, but I have the thin neutral leftovers grouped together.