A post from Kelli–
So a while back, we did a quilt block birthday for mom and today, I’m tackling the pile and working on getting the top together.
I went home yesterday to watch the Childcare kids for a bit as mom had a follow-up doctor’s appointment for her foot and confiscated them before I left. Â Mom had gone through and organized them by size for the most part, but then I kind of messed them up cause I wanted to check them all out. Â They are so neat!
I started laying some of them out, but I’m not quite sold yet. Â I’m debating between a couple layouts or ideas. Â It’s a little challenging because they are all different sizes, styles, and colors. Â I think I’m going to get some laid out and then let it sit to see how I like it for a bit to see if I want to change it all. Â I was also debating about adding some solid or small print squares in so that there’s somewhere for the eye to rest. Â But I haven’t quite made a decision yet.
Has anyone else made a quilt like this with different sized blocks? Â What are your thoughts? Â Does it look too busy when they are all laid out next to each other? Â Let me know what you think!
What about doing small repetitive blocks (in white & red since that’s your mom’s favorite) to act as spacers? I’m thinking of some of Jen Kingwell’s pieces and some other ‘kitchen sink’ quilts I’ve seen. The repetitive blocks might help unify everything. Another idea that comes to mind, while your mom seems to like large quilts, maybe do all the red blocks on one side and all the others on the back? That way you get one side that is a little calmer than the other.
The ones I think turn out the best are first sorted by colors/type. Kind of keeping the round pegs all together and not trying to force a square peg into it. Then find something consistent to fill in the spaces between different sized blocks which ties the whole thing together nicely. What a wonderful gift for your mom :)
well this is what comes of being a procrastinator, I still haven’t mailed the block I made
I really like Robby’s ideas. I have made a wall hanging of assorted sized blocks although they were color related. Using checkerboard sections as fillers and framing other blocks with solid fabrics allowed me to “fit” them together. Putting up sections and living with them for a few days will help you see what’s working. Good luck. It’s a fun process but not a quick one.
Busyness is my main complaint about Bonnie Hunter’s quilts, especially the yearly mysteries. (Although I completely understand how a mystery can easily get busy with all those clues!) I try to include someplace for the eye to rest in my quilts. One type of quilt that often has multiple-sized blocks is T shirt quilts, if you want some ideas. (Btw, I spy one of my blocks -I sent 4. It’s the periwinkle and yellow Lemoyne star.) Do, in summary, I vote for solid places to rest the eye.
I think your Mom would like the busy. I’ve seen people separate blocks with a short row or column of flying geese, or just a 2 wide length of squares…..you could do some fillers like this in just red/white which she loves.
And of course she will want it BIG….so there’s space for fillers and eye resting :-)
Quilt-along-with-pat-Sloan has a quilt along going with odd size blocks. Check out her final lay out.
You may need to include a bit of sashing here and there to make everything fit….for the sashing, I would use a checkerboard made from low volume fabrics…this let’s the eye rest, and because the fabrics are neutrals, it doesn’t take away from all the great blocks…and the neutrals go with anything… Just my two cents’ worth!! Looking forward to seeing how this evolves!!
I say choose a size that you can turn them all into, say 12″ finished. Then, if you had four 6″ blocks, those could be put together to make a 12. Ten inch blocks could have sashing added to two side. Could be strips or it could be smaller blocks (maybe use some of those 1-1/2″ squares she’s been gifted. Anyway, if you turn them all into the same size block, it will be much easier to lay them out and decide how to put them together. Looks like fun! enjoy!!