Glorified nine patch

Here's a peek at my next project, a glorified nine patch in blue, green, brown and plum. I might be just a bit nuts to start into a new quilt with curved seams after practically killing myself on the double wedding ring (can't wait to get it back from the quilter's!). This one, however, is quite a bit easier because of the construction.

At first, I assumed that I would sew together the half-melons and then add them to the nine patch centers, much like you add the rings to the center of a double wedding ring. I quickly found out that it was much harder. All those seam allowances at the points got in the way. So -- rip, rip, rip, let's start over. I had been concentrating so hard on the curves that I didn't think about sewing the half-melons onto the centers. Then, voila, you just have 11" square blocks to join in the regular way. Much easier.

After I completed three blocks, I had to document my progress. The colors are lovely, and the design interesting enough even though it's simple. The only thing that may be harder assembling it this way is accurately joining the points. But, you know what? I'm not going to sweat it like I did on the wedding ring quilt. I will pin and be as accurate as I can, but if a point gets a little snipped off, it's not going to make me crazy. With all those seams coming together at the points, you won't see it.

(Wow, who was that person? It didn't sound like the normal obsessive-compulsive me!)

Looks like spring to me

This may not be everyone's idea of spring, but it looks pretty close to me. The sky blue, warm greens of new grass, browns of the tree trunks as they begin to be clothed in new leaves, plums of spring bulbs and tree buds. I'm generally not a pastel person. This fat quarter set, Twiggy by Moda, is an encapsulation of my current favorite color palette. Add some dark coral or terracotta in there and a little yellow, and that's me in a nutshell.

My color preferences seem to have evolved as my quilt collection has grown. At times, my color choices were driven by the colors used by my favorite designers. About ten years ago I fell in love with the collections by Robyn Pandolph, and my quilts were softer and more pastel. The muted dusky colors of the Thimbleberries line appealed to me with their richness, so you'll find those in my closet too. I almost never make anything with bright colors, and there's never a lot of red or orange. Almost no black or gray, either.

There's always a good range of blue, and I've made several blue and white quilts, both for myself and as gifts. Blue and yellow are represented too. When I became captivated by the Red Delicious BOM, I was torn because I just don't use red that much. But Esther Alui's Yahoo Group has shown me that this pattern could be wonderful in other color schemes. One quilter is making it in black and white, and it's very striking. I started thinking about my blue and white porcelain collection, and how beautiful this pattern would be if blue were substituted for red. It might become a complement to my Blue Willow dishes. There's food for thought there.

This glorified nine patch is made from a fat quarter bundle with additional yardage for borders. I decided to make blue/cream and green/cream centers and split the "melon" patches down the middle, brown on one side and plum on the other. The plum will face the blue squares and the brown, the green ones. Here's a sketch: There are 36 blocks, which comes out 66" x 66", so borders were necessary. If I had done it all nine patch blocks, it would take years! Also, since the squares come out of the fat quarter bundle, there was only enough for 36 blocks. So 36 blocks it is.