New Old Quilts

I didn't need another project, my stack of tops and my list of UnFinishedObjects (UFOs) just keeps growing! But the picture of the Double Four-patch just appealed to me. It had that old tyme look that speaks of women sitting by lamp light, piecing in their lap after the day's work is done. For me it looked like a wonderful 'no think um' sewing project. Easy-peasy. 'Cause when I get home from work, I don't want to have to fight with my patching.

This was the photo that inspired. Not my usual color pallet at all. But then why have I been collecting brick, burgundy, maroon, garnet and cherry colored cotton for so long? Time to use some of those...

This is the fabric pallet for the Four-patches.

The quilt in the photo used 70 blocks, I had about 55-60 fabric pulled out of the stash and spread all over the floor so I decided to stop.

Here's the pre-piecing line up. I call them "Four-patch puppies". They look so nice, waiting for me to come in from my day and zip them up on my machine. Easy, no think um sewing.

Here's a sample of the brown Four-patches. They're not stunning, but they seem to be the right shades of brown for 'that look' I want.

This is a picture of the Double Four-patch set blocks. I mean, if I'm finally going to make a red and brown quilt, I don't want to repeat fabrics if I don't have to! I think I like the stash diving, fabric selection and cutting phase almost as much as the assembly. Because it's at this step that the quilt is conceived. Do I want the browns to include mustard tones? No, too yellow. Do I want the reds to include rust? No, I recently used rust in a red, brown and green quilt, which turned out nice and Autumnal; but let's not repeat that in this quilt.

So far I hadn't spent more than a few nights and a short afternoon working on this. At the rate I was going the top was going to be done in a week! I was so excited. So pleased with the calm it was bringing me, so grateful for the ease of assembly. But when I sewed all the Four-patches into Double Four-patches I sewed 68 out of 70 backwards. *groan* I put the DFPs on the design wall and went Ohhh-nooo... instead of a dark chain of squares moving up and down through the quilt, I had a light chain of squares and the dark Four-patch set squares were lost against the DFP set squares.

So for the last four or five nights I've been ripping, lint picking the seams, pressing and reassembling the blocks. Live and learn. Yes, it's an easy pattern with no points to match, no set in seams and no bias edges to worry about. But thinking is required at some level. Guess I was over confident.

I think I'll start a baby quilt in pastels this weekend.