FORTY-SIX - an update

As you can tell by the date on my sketch,

this was my plan for FORTY-SIX on February first - 

with each colorful clip representing a planned tulip.

Ann has shared a tutorial for her string pieced blocks

as part of the AHIQ String Tulip QAL.

 

She plans to share her string pieced tulip process in early March.

(as I explained in this post, I'm treating "string pieced tulips"

as a "prompt-driven" rather than "quilt-along" process

so I'm moving ahead on my own)

That same week, DH made two acrylic templates

using the diagram in Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilts book.

My test block showed me that my plan to machine appliqué

each tulip blossom will work.

(the tulip right petal flips over to become the tulip left petal)

Then it was full steam ahead to create a backdrop for my blossoms

using a wide variety of light blues cut into 6" wide x random length chunks.

(shown here before the rows were sewn together

and before I remembered to flip the calendar page to February)

My vertical vine idea was "voted off the island" by the people I live with.

"Jack and the Beanstalk!" one exclaimed

which sent the other into gales of laughter

as the word "kudzu" was bantered about.

Their reactions were all it took for me to change my plan,

especially since I wasn't as in love with the look on the design wall

as I had been with my pencil sketch.

So now the green vine will run along the top and bottom edges

with leaves pointing to the right on one and to the left on the other.

(chances are they'll be cut from scrappy green made-fabric)

* * *

At this point I stalled - something about my approach

wasn't sitting well so I sewed the rows together and moved the background 

to the design wall in the other room while I worked on the top for Lagoon.   

Yesterday I realized why I had stalled.

Even though the tulips would be made from scrappy string pieced fabric,

I didn't want all twenty-one tulips to be exactly the same shape.

(that twenty-one number is subject to change -

it got stuck in my head because of the 21-gun presidential salute)

I also didn't want to cut strings from perfectly good yardage.

I quickly pulled out my crumb and resource boxes and

sorted out scraps in colors close to the previously-pulled yardage.

(shown here at the top of the photo)

In the foreground are the red, red-violet, and pink scraps.

(I also pushed myself to not be so literal about 'matching' the purity 

of the colors that were worn or displayed on January 20th)

Aqua/turquoise, blue, and blue-violet yardage (top) and scraps (bottom).

And finally yellow and cream yardage (top) and scraps (bottom).

It didn't take very long to cut up all those scraps

into 1.5" and 2" strips along with a few random-width strings.

* * *

At this point the top and back for Lagoon 

are on a hanger waiting for their turn with Max

and the light blue background is back on my design wall.

I've been studying string tulip posts on Audrey's blog 

and Lee Ann's blog, as well as lots of other online images.

Now it's time to start piecing scrappy made fabric.

I'm sure there are more strings than I'll need

but I can always find a way to use the leftovers.

Quiltdivajulie

-----------------------------------------------

“The distinct blue, red, and yellow colors …. Though they have not the kind of harmony which is produced by a variety of broken and transparent colors, have the effect of grandeur.”

Sir Joshua Reynolds