Hi everybody -- First of all, thank you all so much for the 'Ocean Waves' blocks. The quilt will be so beautiful; I can hardly wait to see it all together! Some hardy souls sent the full four sub-blocks in and others did a wonderful job with two sub-blocks. Almost everyone sent in extra HSTs or extra squares and I so appreciate that -- the border is full of them and I hadn't really thought this through but it's so great to have the fabrics in the body of the quilt also in the border.
Today was gray, cold and rainy in Canada -- perfect day to tackle Katy's block. I have to say that I think this was my favorite project of all and so here's my recap of the experience. (Bad news is, I can't find my camera. I put it in a 'special' place -- so I could take more photos of the dog -- and apparently it's so special that I can't find it at all. Ugh. If we don't have a Bee Buzz question of the month, maybe this could be it: What have you hidden that you didn't find until years later?)
So....I went through my stash and carefully chose a beautiful balance of fabrics that hit all of the values and matched each other. BUT. I have a value finder, courtesy of Kathy Doughty at Material Obsession in Sydney. For those of you who haven't seen one of these, it's a very simple-looking square of dark red plastic. If you look at fabric through it, it removes the color and leaves you with a value reading only. Every time I look through it, I'm amazed at how my brain reads value incorrectly. "Bright" equals "dark/medium" in my mind and in fact, there are many very bright colours -- like hot pink -- that appear rather saturated to the naked eye, but will actually show up in your quilt as a very "light" piece. Anyway, after using the value finder, I re-sorted a few of my squares, then set about sewing.
I don't want to toot my own horn too much (especially with the mysterious absence of any pics!), but I am BEYOND happy with the results. I'm normally a 'matcher'. I find I just cannot tear myself away from Kaffe Fassett, because everything matches so darned well. But for this project, I stopped thinking so hard and just pulled squares from the value piles. I got some great combinations -- fabrics I wouldn't have thought to put together.
Katy, I'm sending 16 small blocks. I will sort them into two baggies -- the first 12 blocks have 'naked eye' value differences. The other 4 blocks look absolutely stellar through the value finder, but to my eye look like two mediums sewn together. Will be interesting to see if the 4 extras end up being unusable or having that wow factor. I also have called a couple of shops here, looking for a value finder to send you. The women I talked to know exactly what it is, but I haven't actually found one. I'll keep looking, but for everyone -- if you see one, it's worth the $3 or so to buy it.
Sorry for the extra long post, but I really did enjoy this month's "work":) xo Meg
Hi Meg :) I just finished your ocean wave blocks!! Sorry for taking so long. March has been crazy. I thought today was perfect for sewing. I will post photos soon. Great to read hear from you. Shauna
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone! This is my last night in Florida. I will be back in Switzerland on Saturday. I plan on hopping off the plane, getting cleaned up, and then going to the Bernina shop to pick up my machine. I have had it cleaned during my time away. Meg, I loved your post and have added your question about lost items to Bee Buzz as the March question of the month. For those you you who would like to respond to the Bee Buzz question(s) each month... sign in, and go to "pages." You can add text and photos just as you would on a regular post.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to sharing the photos of the 2012 Charity Quilt with you when I get back home. I forgot to bring my camera cord with me so look for my post later this weekend. The quilt is beautiful!
Love, Jennifer