Wednesday, March 7, 2012

A Productive Day at Marcia's

First order of business for me was to get a couple of good photos of the tops I did at the beach.  Genie Barnes was there and STRONGLY suggested I leave the borders off two of the quilts.  I had added them as I wanted the quilts bigger but decided she was right after looking at before and after pictures so some more ripping is in order now.


This is the quilt above but with its borders.  Do you agree with her?
Another of these quilts without the border (I cropped it out).


This has its border on.  Genie even suggested that the blue strip on either side wasn't needed but I do disagree with her there as I think it contains the quilt better.


I am definitely going to leave the border on this one.  


My biggest chore was to arrange the blocks for the very large last of the Serendipity quilts which was basically a sampler as I created block patterns as I went along building on the ones in the book but making use of whatever triangles I already had cut out for previous blocks.  I finally got an arrangement that I was okay with and have four blocks left over now as well as enough background hexagons to make a small lap quilt.


You can see here that I chose a very dark brown for my background triangles and that is helping to calm the quilt down quite a bit and pull together all the disparate blocks.


This is the beginnings of a new jacket that Priscilla was making with some of the beautiful sari fabric she bought back from her most recent trip to India.  The silk is very light weight so she has devised a way of utilizing it with another fabric so that it is more stable and suitable for jackets.  She will be teaching this at Marcia's studio in April -- $65 for two days.


Since coming home, I have been feverishly trying to clean out my sewing room of excess stuff as well as furniture.  I have hauled out boxes and boxes as well as many trash cans and giveaways but still it is cluttered.  I got so spoiled with my space at the beach which is so easy to clean with its tile floor and little clutter.  I do like to have a space clean before I start projects.  For the last year, I haven't unpacked or reorganized so stuff was hidden and remained from projects I took to the beach last year!  And the fabrics for the lion quilt -- oh my -- I will never have to buy a brown of any shade again!!

3 comments:

  1. I have been watching you make these. I had wondered what they were like in person because they are pretty wild looking online!

    I do actually agree with your friend. They are so 'in your face' already that the borders add to the confusion. and the little line you want to keep actually restricts the eye from going away from the whirling centre and coming back again.

    the last one though, seems to work because the outer border is plain and helps to calm the rest.

    I know you feel you have a good layout on the one you want to put on brown. But somehow I feel it would be better to make two tops with much more space in the centre to rest the eye on.

    I guess it depends too, where they will live. I think the room will have to be pretty minimalistic to keep other accessories from fighting with these tops.

    Of course, it is only my opinion, but you did ask if we agreed with your friend.
    Sandy in the UK

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  2. I love the first one with it's border, the second one without and the third one with! The colors really pop! Love them!

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  3. Beth, I do like the 2 quilts without borders!

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