Jewels

Once Christmas gift making and baking was done, I wondered what I should get back to. I have an on-going list of knitting and quilting projects.

I don't remember how I got started on this, I was just fooling around in the sewing room one day, but I made a navy blue block from my pre-cut 2 1/2" squares. I named it sapphire.

I loved the way it seemed to shine. So I made another one. I named it Ruby.

One block lead to another. Most of the pieces were cut, it was just a matter of going through the collection of pre-cut squares and matching shade and value, varying pattern and theme.
 

Emerald.

I didn't have a plan, I was just enjoying the color, so intense, so stimulating. I made more.

Amethyst.

Topaz. This one took a little more effort, going through the yellow/gold fabrics and digging deep into the scrap box.

Aquamarine. It was amazing how closely valued squares appeared different depending on where they were in the layout, or how the block looked in morning light, room lighting or in the semi-dark. Each block became a study in subtlety.

Well now I had six, maybe I better create a plan. How about a 3 x 3 layout, set with lattice? What color should I do next? It might work if I balance the cool colors with an orange, or pink. But if this quilt was going to be called "Jewels" are there orange gems? This quilt was leading the decision making, not me.

Tourmaline.

I wanted a cool color next, so I auditioned Jade. Nope. In my entire fabric collection, this was all I could come up with in the same shade.

How about a lime green block? Not possible either.
 

Here's the layout at this point.

How about black for Onyx? Nice idea... didn't look good at all, like a black hole, no shine. I needed another warm color. I auditioned yellow. So far the fabrics in the blocks had only repeated 1-2 times. With a limited collection of yellows in the same hue, I repeated fabrics 2-3 times. It looked okay.

Citrine.

I put them on the design wall and they suggested a warm, cool, warm row alternating with a cool, warm, cool row. That told me the last block should be orange.

Spessartite.

44" x 44" at this point. It's still talking to me.

Gem names and colors can be seen here.