Lessons from Easy Street

I want Bonnie Hunter know how grateful I am to her for inviting us to participate in her Easy Street Mystery Quilt.  It's been an interesting and fun experience.  I love the blocks she created, appreciate her enthusiasm and energy, and am grateful for her generosity in sharing this quilt pattern with us.  Thank you, Bonnie!

Easy Street has been an opportunity for firsts for me. 

• first mystery quilt 
• first time have no idea the appearance of the finished quilt
• first time using so many (small) pieces in a quilt
• first time sewing flying geese
• first time choosing only 5 colors for a quilt
• first time choosing all the colors in advance

 
Trying something new is almost always a good thing.  It gives me a chance to learn, to see things from a different perspective, and is often an opportunity to decide I do or don't like something. So, I thought I would jot down some lessons I've learned on Easy Street, in no particular order.

• Now I know I like working toward a finished image, either mental or visual, rather than not knowing the end result.
• The more pieces of fabric in a quilt, the more chances everything won't line up in the end, even with very careful cutting and sewing.
• Having all seams pressed to one side can be difficult.  At times there were 6 layers of fabric to stitch through.
• Sometimes it's essential to pin if you want your seams to line up.  (And if the seams don't line up, the quilt  is less likely to come out square in the end.)
• It's fun to stitch many elements and then play with them.  I intend to play with the leftovers from this quilt and can already imagine more than a few arrangements.  I may decide to make another small Easy Street quilt with the rest of the blocks or do something else with them.
• When doing a mystery it's really important to notice both color and value when choosing fabric.  I heard Bonnie say this quilt was about color, and it is, but it's also about value.  When she first gave her colors, each color was in a separate photograph so there was no way to look at them together.  When she started stitching the blocks together, I wasn't thinking about value and didn't notice.  I'll notice value from now on.

Any of you who have been reading about my Easy Street progress know I thought the teal was a little strong and wished for more red.  I had thought about a red border and several of you left comments suggesting the same.  Is the red border now too strong?  I considered no border but the quilt looks bare without a border.  What do you think?

Happy stitching!
--Nancy.
.