The End of the Boxes!!

After completing three of the Box in a Box quilts, I am calling it quits on this type until I get back to North Carolina and an unlimited supply of already cut strips!  This picture is of the second one I did which is a bit ore controlled than the first one and thus, I didn't feel the need to insert blocks to give your eyes a place to rest.  My approach here was to only use dark browns and navies for the darks and beiges and yellows for the lights.  I also lined up the yellows, beiges, blues and browns with each other as much as possible.  I used random colors for the mediums but also tried to line up colors (like reds next to reds and greens next to greens).  It gives the eye a bit more of a place to rest than totally random scrappy.  I think overall I am a controlled scrappy quilter.  I used the reverse side of a fabric for the border on this one after trying out both the right side and the wrrong side, finding the wrong side a little cheerier!  It's not quite done here.

Here it is completed!

Here is the beginning of the newest and last of the Box in a Box or Box on a Box quilts.

This is my favorite so far.  This is a blue salt painted fabric I made some time ago.  

Here is the design wall with all the big rosettes completed and a few of the more complex rosettes also done.  I am getting to the point where I will be more selective in how I combine colors but first I had to free up my other design wall, finishing all the scrap quilts.

Here I have begun to postion and audition the rosettes I have done.  

I am also in the process of finally quilting the Great Blue Heron quilt which will definitely take me some time as it is pretty big!

While destashing, I came upon this long ago English paper piecing project.  I am not sure what I was thinking or what I planned to do with this.  Each of the petals is about half an inch.  I know I sewed them together by taping the new pieces in place on the front an then just sewing in the back so that no stitches show unlike my current project!  Of course I sewed each one of these petals down on plain paper using dissolvable thread.  Haven't decided whether I will do more with some of the pieces that are all prepared.

 

Moving Forward Still!

Got another of the big rosettes completed and relatively pleased.

This is the Passacaglia design wall as it now stands.  I am working on the fourth large rosette as well as several of the rosettes that have 8 stars around them.

After messing up the order of the hexagons a couple of times, I finally put them  into piles in the order that they are to be sewn.  This made life one heck off a lot easier!  I start by sewing the upper two on the right and add the bottom right; then i sew the two upper left together and add the bottom left.  You leave the two sides of the hexagons separate as they are sewed up in rows.

I have made it much scrappier than any other version I have seen.  I calmed it down a bit by moving some of the "sides" around so that the yellows came together as well as the beiges.  This helps the eye to rest a bit I think.  I like the optical illusion of big blocks and little blocks.

I turned it upside down and you get a bit of a different optical illusion but you have to look at the light areas more intently to get it to work.

It has been driving me a little crazy the past few days trying to figure out how to make this a little different and give your eye a bit more of a rest without making it boring.  I finally decided what to do this afternoon.  I will be taking out (maybe these blocks but who knows) a couple or few blocks and replace them with another hexagonal block.  You will have to come back to see what that is!  I also have decided yet how large to make the quilt.  I will probably trade out a couple more sides so that there are a few lights with peach on both sides.  I think keeping the same color (although not the same fabric) will help.  If I had the patience, I would probably also do this with the darks and medium but that will have to be the next quilt!  Trying to also decide whether this would be a decent baby quilt or not as it is blocks!

Finally finished and added the big blocks so your eye would have some place to rest.  Used less random placement in the following ones so didn't need this!