Finally Found a Name For My Quilt and More Strings Play

I finished the hand quilting on my Gold and Red Qtr. Triangle quilt which has now been graced with the new name 'Dutch Comfort'. If I would have pushed myself, I think this quilt could have been finished in 2013, but who wants to do that? The binding was laying towards the bottom of my tote of reds, a perfect sized piece of fabric to cut all my binding out with about 1/2" to spare through the width. Love it when it works out like that especially since this piece of fabric is at least 8 yrs. old!

Dutch Comfort

Then I was feeling restless. None of my current projects were doing it for me and really, I just wanted to dig through the scrap bin and play. Without consciously thinking it through (although my recently purchased used 'Old Swedish Quilts' by Asa Wettre book had to be an influence), I pulled these fabrics and made three quick string blocks. Okay now what? I need (at the very least) a little tiny plan of attack!

My starting blocks

I decided my perimeters would be like this: All the fabrics I pulled from the scrap bin would have to at least blend with these initial three blocks. Every fabric used would need to be just over 5" long (no little tiny piecings) and I would sew strings together willy nilly until the blocks were just over 5" wide whether they had two strings or five.

String blocks variation #1

After I had about half the design wall filled with blocks I stood back and took a good look. Very discouraging. Everything looked blah and uninspired (sorry, did not take a picture of this step). I felt that clench in my stomach that tells me my big, fun, play day had turned out to be a spectacular bomb.

String blocks variation #2

Okay. What to do. What to do. I turned off the iron and my sewing machine, left for a bit to change the laundry over and then climbed the stairs again to check things over with fresh eyes. Hmmm... I remembered my book and thought about connections. So.. after briefly perusing through the book, it occurred to me that scrap quilts should mean something. I rifled through my dwindling little stash of fabric from my Grandma and cut two pieces into however many string shapes I could get. Then I raided my scrap bin once again and pulled darks, more pinks and more rosy reds.

I know, I know--my fallback colors. Always and forever probably.

Getting the scraps organized

Gotta go with what you love. For some reason I respond well to quilts that have a dark edginess and also, for me, the pinks and reds make everything happy again. We'll see where this quilt takes me. I think it's coming along very nicely now and there's a quiet little happiness to working on it. That spells success to me.*wink