At the Borderline

Right now this quilt-to-be is 42 x 54. 

That's way too small, in my opinion, for even a nice sized lap quilt. 

But it has been laying around in pieces since May 2013 so this top is an improvement. I'm moving forward. 

The "pieces" were these six inch Prairie Flower quilt blocks made of pansy fabrics and a few butterfly fabrics. I liked them when there were a few of them but never did like them by themselves. They were too busy for me even after I started adding solids to some blocks.  So they have lingered.

And then Kaja and Ann issued a new AdHoc Improv Challenge to play with scale. 

I don't have a design wall. I don't normally need one; however, my idea for moving the pansy blocks forward needed one. So I used the double bed in the guest room two flights of stairs up from the sewing room.  There is little room to maneuver on three sides of the bed but I managed to get things laid out. And then I had to pick up some pieces, remember how they went together, go down two flights of stairs and then sew them together. In the process I slipped on the stairs and bruised myself on one side but thank goodness I didn't hurt my back or break anything. 

And I pretty much got things sewn together properly. 

Ok. I did mention playing with scale.  Instead of using all the six inch blocks together in a quilt I added larger pieces of large scale fabric here and there  - pansy fabrics I have not wanted to cut into until now.  I added a couple of 12.5 inch square pieces of fabric of pansies in vases...

 ...and  I added some 6.5 inch pieces of fabric and tried to add them near blocks that used the same fabrics if I could.

   I also added a few pieces of 6.5 x 12.5 pieces of fabric oriented sometimes vertically and sometimes horizontally. 

 I have to admit I used some of the tips found in 9 Patch Pizzazz.  I think I bought this book at a book sale a long time ago. I stashed it away in a box of books and forgot about it. Recently when I was trying to organize the sewing space to get ready to share the space with garden seed starting I browsed through the books in the box and had an aha moment as to how to proceed on my pansy quilt when I opened up 9 Patch Pizzazz.

 I don't usually add borders to quilts but as I mentioned...I think it's too small for even a nice lap quilt. So I'll try to add some borders to challenge myself a bit more.  I was thinking of a purple/yellow solid border with some broderie perse (another challenge) pansies cut from some scraps.  I might even add a few butterflies. 

I took the quilt top pictures outdoors last Friday when the weather was beautiful and the crocus were blooming all throughout the lawn (thanks to the squirrels who continue to move them from my original flower bed and into the lawn). 

And then Saturday we were hit with 10 inches of snow and ice that clung to the trees and bushes and sparkled like little jewels. 

AdHoc Improv with Kaja and Ann.