Saturday, August 26, 2006

The Color Purple


Now that I have some confidence about machine piecing curves (after the love beads top - more to come on the related quilting dilemma with that), I decided to pick up a UFO. Hanne's purple and white quilt reminded me of mine sitting in a ziplock bag somewhere.

I lived in Romania from 2003-6 and traveled almost all the time to rural areas of the country. I thought that maybe some handpiecing would be good for the train, so I started this project. I found the pattern in an old Quilters Newsletter issue (I buy used copies donated to the New England Quilt Museum to fundraise for their library). I quickly learned that handpiecing is not for me - and read instead.

I chose purples for this with a friend in mind. She was recently married and was hoping to get pregnant after finishing her PhD thesis that included analysis of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. She's since had a little boy, so I'll save this one for another little girl.

There are all sorts of purples in here - some scraps from M.A.T.'s squares quilt, plenty of 30s, etc. I know they don't all 'work' together (there's not enough constrast between some of the lights and darks), but hopefully it has that one-color scrappy look that I like. I bought most of it in 1/4 yard pieces. You'll notice there are some mismatched blocks (lower right corner) - this wasn't part of my original plan! I made one of the templates the wrong size, so I had to recut some pieces halfway through. I have a lot of odd shaped scraps now - wonder how I'll ever use those! I had more than a 1/4 yard of the most prominant lights, but then the original stripe I was going to bind it with bled all over one of them in the wash, so after washing and washing, I had to cut around the blotchy bits. These are the blessings and curses of not being able to pop down to my LQS - I fabric shop once or twice a year in bulk when I visit my family in Maine.

I wish I had a design wall to help me lay these out this weekend! At least this way I wash my floors more often!

11 comments:

Inga said...

This top has really delicate colours. It will be very nice for any little girl from 0 to 100 ;-).

Don't give up on the handpiecing yet. It's soooo fun. Have you tried English paperpiecing? I can recommend that.

Inga

Cynthia said...

hi, thanks for stopping by my blog and welcome to Blogland. I have been blogging for only two months and have met some lovely people.
Hope you enjoy it as much as i do.

I've just read all your posts and you have made some lovely quilts.

quiltpixie said...

what a geat collection of purples! I'm still nervous about cutting curves out too far in advance of sewing them, but your right, practise make sewing them so much easier :-)

Jenni said...

My design wall is still up, so it could be an easy way to do it. The train travelling sounds great.

Melanie said...

I just put your blog on bloglines, I love your quilts. Bright colors - I can't wait to show my daughter

Susan said...

Love your purple scrappiness. Scrap quilts are the best. I always feel so good about cleaning up a corner of the scrap box! Your curves look good from here. =)

Finn said...

Hi Hedgie, *VBS* hope it's ok I call you that..*S*
Love the purple and white UFO. It's a lovely pattern, but it does look time consuming compared to straight lines..*VBS*
I see your comments here and there across blogland..*VBS*, that's so great because this is the best source of inspiration and support that can be had! Keep up the great work, see you soon. Hugs, Finn

Silverthimble said...

I love your purple scrappy quilt. Now that you have decided that hand piecing is not for you, are you finishing this by machine?

Hedgehog said...

Thanks to everyone for stopping by. My first week of quilt blogging has been a lot of fun - I'm looking forward to many more!

Yes, I'm going to finish the purple top by machine. The MQW love beads, even if I'm not having fun quilting them, really helped me learn to overcome my fear of curves on the machine. I'll post more about the purples soon.

KC Quilter said...

Oooh, such yummy colors! And what a gorgeous design.

Clare said...

Hi

Thanks for visiting my Blog and welcome to Blogland! It becomes addictive, especially where there is so much good advice and help out there.

Love your letters.