Trailing Along

Here's the Snail's Trail at twenty-five, 5x5. I have more blocks, but I don't have anymore design wall. :D

When working with 12" blocks, aren't a lot of quilts 4x6? If I were making that size I'd be done by now... But this is a good study in perseverance.

When I was five years old I attended Blue Birds... the forerunner to Brownies. We stood in a group at the opening of the meeting and recited the Blue Bird motto which included, "I will try to finish what I begin..." I don't remember anything else from that motto, but there it is, impressed on my mind at a tender young age.

I've been making quilts since my youngest son was just a twinkle in my eye; he's now 24. I've made a lot of quilts - bed quilts, wallhangings, placemats, baby quilts, lap quilts, donation quilts, the list goes on and on. And still I find I learn something from every single one I make. This one has already spoken to me twice. Originally I was going to use my teal, jade and aqua fabrics that I've been collecting since the early 90's when they first came out. I thought I'd do a jade with teal and then a teal with jade sort of thing, the combinations would be easy and I could be systematic. Having a system emerge always makes the construction of a quilt go faster. But that plan didn't work and I bogged down. Then I added clear blue and worked with less jade and I started liking it again.

After about 15 blocks it went blah again, I considered making it into a lap quilt, putting borders on it and calling it done. But I listened to the inner voice telling me to stick with it, see where it goes, try to make it work... and you don't want *another* UFO. So I listened to what the quilt was saying, it told me the colors were too close in value, it was all medium and therefore low contrast. Well that helped identify the problem... I really like HIGH contrast. But high contrast wasn't suitable for the original vision of this quilt. I introduced some light-mediums in among the medium-mediums and this is where it is now.

Sometimes quilts evolve beyond your original vision for them and you listen to what the quilt says it needs. Other times you just make minor adjustments along the way and you find you can keep working. I think this one is the latter.

I'm passed the half-way mark, 27/48 blocks, it's getting easier. But I remember why I don't make many King or Queen sized bedquilts. There are too many other ideas calling to me. It's hard to stay focused. :D