Friday, May 6, 2022

Little Blue Folly

A folly, in an architectural sense, is an expensive, ornamental building that serves no practical purpose.  The little quiltlet I'm making is obviously neither a building nor expensive but it definitely serves no purpose other than using up scraps of fabric so for now I'm calling it Little Blue Folly.  As always, the colors in the accompanying photos are not truly accurate.
My original idea for this quilt was a background of blue/green/teal/mostly blue scraps of fabric, cobbled into small blocks, cut into squares, and sewn together with red circles appliqued where the squares intersect.  (At top of drawing, above.)  In my imagination it looked like red circles on a field of blue.
And then another idea popped up:  narrow black sashing with red where the squares intersect.  I'm going to have to play with this idea a bit to keep the red from overtaking the black.  Or maybe I'll go with circles.  Or maybe circles on top of the squares.  Or maybe... I'll just play for a while.

So my One Monthly Goal for May is to play, decide, and sew these squares and whatever else goes with them into a little top.  Maybe I'll get to layering, basting, maybe even quilting and a binding, but those aren't my goal.  Just the top sewn together is my goal for this month.

I'm linking this post to One Monthly Goal May Link-up at Elm Street Quilts.  Patty has been hosting this link-up for years (and years) and I'm so grateful she continues because it keeps me on track with at least one creative endeavor every month.  Thank you, Patty.  Click the link to see the beautiful quilts others are creating.

I'm also linking this post to
> Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
Thank you for hosting, Alycia, Wendy, and Cynthia.

Thanks for visiting!
--Nancy.

14 comments:

  1. looking forward to seeing what you create!

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  2. Clever idea. Hope you find exactly what you love.

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  3. This looks like so much fun! I think if you just used the red as small cornerstones, it wouldn't overpower the quilt. But if that is too traditional looking for the improv look of this piece, I would try just inserting a red square randomly into the sashing here and there, and see how that looked (you could just lay the squares on top of the black sashing pieces to audition it and see what you think). Have fun playing. I'll be interested to see what comes of your playtime. :)

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    1. Thanks so much, Janet. Thank you for sharing some suggestions for this quilt. My original idea was that the blue would be just a background and the circles would be the focus but as I've played I haven't been happy with that idea. I'm still playing but I guess I have to hurry a little if I'm to finish by the end of the month.

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  4. NO to black sashing,or any aashing. I d like to see open circles, or hoops in bright red. sort of like this, only smaller but not small. http://dsquilts.com/fabric_and_patterns.asp?PageID=83

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    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lizzy. I had to try the black sashing. I think it might have worked but at 1/2" it was too wide and I didn't want to deal with the challenges of narrower sashing. The blocks will finish at 3 1/2" and while your idea of circles/hoops is interesting I can't seem to work up the energy to make them for such a small quilt. Perhaps on another quilt, another time. Thanks again.

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  5. This is great! There's that signature blue that is so pretty. I'm curious how this will turn out. You'll just have to experiment with the red. But, red is a good color to add as an accent. I need to do some creative sewing like this instead of always just following a pattern. I bet it's satisfying.

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    1. Thank you, Robin. Yes, the blues are variations of the shades of blue I love, one that's hard to find. It is satisfying to sew like this but also challenging, at least for me. What to do, how to do it, what looks best, what does the quilt want, etc.? I considered coral and a lighter tone of one of the blues but when I tried them I didn't think they worked well. I don't know how this will turn out but in the process of playing I realized that it doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn't have to be the only little blue quilt I make. I can make others and try out other variations.

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  6. Like a patchwork of fields growing in springtime as viewed from above.

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    1. I hadn't thought of that, QuiltGranma, but I can imagine this as an aerial photograph of a field. Fun thought.

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  7. Beautiful background for something interest. Looking forward to seeing what develops!

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    1. Thanks, Joyful.  I think backgrounds like these offer lots of possibilities.  I think this quilt will be a simple one.

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I appreciate your comments and look forward to reading what you have to say. Thanks for stopping by.

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