Stitches23

Nice job IceBlossom. Your quilt it turning our beautiful!

Iceblossom

I made a decision on the gray centers and am second guessing myself, but so it goes. I am using the charcoal brick that will also be the back. I also made the bias binding square (haven't drawn the lines and cut).

No decision made on what will be inner border.

But here's what my monochrome/reverse image looks like on the queen bed. Keep in mind that there are about 3" of seams to put the blocks together, plus the borders to go. Picture is Bonnie layout (lupine squares on the ends. I will be adding one more row to make it better for king sized, that will change the "balanced" layout to the extra row beginning on the Alternate block.

Today I will be switching to a few Alternate blocks. I'm around/maybe a little over half done on my blocks.

I haven't made the corner blocks yet, I'm thinking they will all be the same and I will throw in a bit of my very first test block made with the Dice fabric that didn't quite make the rules...

LOL, for many years my largest layout space in the house was the queen sized bed. Which meant I'd have to wait for the husband to get up and out of it, and I couldn't leave stuff out. Now we have the guest room and I can use the bed all day long!

granny12

Wow! Iceblossom I really like your monochromatic choice. I had considered it for a while too, but with dark browns and tans....now I wish I had gone that route. I went with brown for the purple, green for pink, blue and cream/tan for the neutral. Most of the alternate blocks are completed and only one of the star block.

joe'smom

Iceblossom, we're all going to be jealous of your monochrome quilt, it is fabulous!

granny12, your blocks are lovely!

I've had a complication from a surgery in August, and am too exhausted to sew right now, but I will continue enjoying watching everyone's progress.

pinkflowers

Iceblossom - The monochromatic look is cool, like a black and white photo. I'm intrigued to try it, but I know I would be very tempted to add a splash of color somewhere. Maybe those little center squares.

granny12 - Your colors have a nice earthy feel to them. And I'm giggling at the block with cow fannies! LOL!

joe'smom - Glad to have you ride along on this journey with us. May Lupine and Laughter be in the near future for you! For now, I hope you have much laughter, it is good medicine

I added the green fairy frost sashing strips. I like it, but I'm having a hard time with the overall design - too busy with no real distinguishable path for the eye to follow or rest. I have more blocks made or mostly made, but I wanted to keep this a smaller wall hanging that is square and not too much bigger than 60 inches. I'll sew what I have on my design wall - after I play the arrange/re-arrange game until it looks balanced. I'm having fun with it all, and trying not to get stressed over it. If so, into time out!

petthefabric

loving all the pictures. At a stall. Did get Christmas decorations out and hung winter quilts.

joe'smom

pinkflowers, I think that's lovely. I've seen some quilts with simple sashing between blocks and it does eliminate the confusion.

Iceblossom

Pinkflowers, I am really enjoying the diagonal movement my project is getting from the corner triangles, but that shows up better with the high contrast dark background. But while you are playing, maybe try just switching out the placement of the blocks, that is, start with the Alternate in the Corners instead of the Lupine... it might change some of how your eye moves across the top.

I'd agree that the design is not... heavy handed? Or part of it might be what my husband said -- but aren't the parts supposed to meet at the seams? And I told him, no that was a design decision and not the seam allowances.

I think any of Bonnie's mystery designs can be done Monochrome, there are going to be lots of sharp pointy triangles and interlocking designs, and paring it down to monochrome makes the drama even bigger. Don't think I'll be doing it again -- but I do have enough gray to use a background fabric for something!

Just for fun, here's another quilt I did, I call "Not Everything is Black and White" is from Karla Alexander from one of the Stack the Deck books. Is more "me" than this project but this project will fit the king sized bed. If you look you will see some of the same pieces in both projects.

pinkflowers

Iceblossom - I tried your arrangement idea of placing the alternate block at the corners instead of the Lupine block. I'll leave it up on the design wall for a bit and see if it grows on me. I guess I would be okay either way -both are pictured here.
joe'smom: the sashing is a good idea, too. I try to mock that up as well.

Thank you, both!

I'm not really in a rush to complete this. I may give it some time to stew. I'm itching to get moving forward on other projects that are patriotic. This is why I have so many UFOs! lol

joe'smom

That's a striking quilt, Iceblossom!