Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Hourglass Solids

What gives dignity to death is the dignity of the life that preceded it.
~Sherwin Nuland~


Still in recovery. This is a quilt I made but didn't blog because I wanted to make a video. Haven't done that; probably won't now.  Still, it's a pretty quilt to share.

When I reorganized/cleaned my sewing room last year, all threads and sewing supplies went back in their respective drawers. That's not much but makes the room neater. The biggest decision was to put all the "pulled" fabric back in the stash. The partially sewn blocks are still kept together but no more endless collections of fabrics for future quilt that didn't even get cut.

Just when the stash seemed to be decreasing, I find I've simply hidden it in "plain brown wrapping." Like a naughty book or an accounting shell game, only with fabric. Ha!

A rainbow array of solid fabrics in two rows.
Solid fabric choices

For someone with few solids, I unearthed a small trove. Most are medium. This photo contains only three lights: pink, pale green, and yellow - and they look washed out.  However, they are needed to add value change. Can you imagine how badly a quilt would look with only medium values? Tucked in with these  pieces was a charm pack of solids; the perfect way to stretch this limited color range.

I cut one WOF of each fabric whatever that width was; some were fat quarters or less. Then cross-cut into five-inch squares. Then cut each into four QSTs. That took a couple of days.

Laid on the living room rug instead of the design wall.
Solid Hourglass quilt blocks

Next I matched up each of the remnant squares with one of fabrics I had in abundance {for example, the blue, lavender, and pinky-red} in order to scatter the colors as widely as possible. When that was done, I matched the remaining fabrics into pairs and started sewing hourglasses.

This time I laid them out right in front of the television. DH said he could tell it was mine because it was so colorful.

Enjoy the day, Ann

26 comments:

patty a. said...

Those are some wonderful solids, but I can see what you mean by them mostly being mediums. The quilt top is fabulous! With the quilt I am making now I also had to dig deep to find something in a solid that was a light or dark. I was lucky to find some pieces that we part of my mom's stash that were dark and light. Feel better soon!

Pam said...

This is so beautiful, Ann! Thanks for sharing.

Quiltdivajulie said...

Gorgeous -- just gorgeous.

Quilting Babcia said...

I've never worked with all solids, using them mostly for coping or stop borders. But after seeing your beautiful setting, I may just try something on a small scale. Love this.

LA Paylor said...

very effective. And the cleaning up led to a decision we've always faced,. keep pulled fabric out with pattern for possibly years, or keep them in with colors. Sorting and putting away leads to making, another point you made. I sure like the process and dynamic result

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

So nice to 'discover' a stack of fabrics! Your 'hourglass' blocks arelooking great! Love the way you have scattered the colours. How big are your finished blocks? They look quite little.

KaHolly said...

They’re looking fabulous!

Cathy said...

I have very few solids and have never made a quilt only of solids. There's such a variety of colors in solids now - not like the old days.

Sorry to hear you are still in recovery. I'm worried about you!

Janie said...

Fun with value change! There's so many possibilities with hour glass blocks and solids both.
Looks great Ann.

Kaja said...

Your pile looked mainly medium in tone but clever colour combinations means you have ended up with a good feeling of light dark too and all together these are very pretty. Did you enjoy working with solids? I consider trying it sometimes but always find myself veering towards pattern. I hope recovery is slow but steady.

cspoonquilt said...

It looks great! I like the arrangement too. nor full on rainbow but it has some organization to it and the colors are great to!

em's scrapbag said...

That treasure trove of solids made a wonderful quilt! I love it!!!

Mel Beach said...

These are absolutely gorgeous and those colors just sparkle!!

Ann said...

You are fortunate your mother collected fabric, too. I haven’t worked in solids in quite a while so it was educational to figure this out.

Ann said...

Thank you, Pam.

Ann said...

Thanks, Julie.

Ann said...

I haven’t used them as coping borders but I’m now interested in mixing solids and prints. It’s one combination I rarely use and I dislike “rules” about what goes or doesn’t go with what. Always pushes me to kick over that law.

Ann said...

It was exciting to recombine these fabrics and make a new quilt immediately. I’m sure they would have stayed in their old pile for several more years. Sometimes I just like to combine fabrics but never get around to making. Is that intention or sloth?

Ann said...

I cut the squares the same size as the charm pack and trimmed them as little as possible when squaring up the hourglasses. Maybe 4” finished?

Ann said...

Thanks, Karen.

Ann said...

I haven’t made a quilt of solids in years. Since they were fashionable in the 90s. At the time it wa difficult to find cotton solids; most were polycotton. Yuck.
I’m improving daily, just slower than I want.

Ann said...

The solids certainly make it easier to see the values. Simple blocks create lots of room for variation, too.

Ann said...

I did enjoy working with solids. Most of DH’s team members are quite young so frequent need for baby quilts. Several are Muslim which gave me a good excuse to work with solids only. I know some patterns are acceptable but this was a good challenge for me.
Yes, recovery is slow and steady but everyone is pleased with my progress.

Ann said...

Thanks, Claire. Some of my fabrics are shades and tones which breaks the rainbow effect I think

Ann said...

Thanks, Em. I’m glad I found and used them immediately this time.

Ann said...

How kind of your, Mel. I’m pleased how well they worked especially starting with so many mediums.