oh dear, what to do with these diamond wedding ring remnants?

***FYI:  I've updated the main DWR post with (proper) photos***

After spending every waking (…and sleeping) hour working away on my NYCMQG dwr entry, I can promise you one thing—I've got more to show for it than this:

Much more.  In fact, five times more, to be exact.

As some of you may know, I originally envisioned this as a king-sized, 8x8 ring quilt (64 in all).  I don't know if it was tunnel vision or merely blind optimism, but until Sunday afternoon I persevered, up to that point having cut 7776 pieces from about a dozen gray oakshotts,

pieced said oakshott confetti into 648 diamond eighths to yield 81 round cut gems,

Yes, lots of the 'shotts were lost in the seams.  The silver lining?
Their thin weight actually lends itself quite well to small-scale paper piecing ;)

cut background pieces and "letterpressed" a select few of 64 centers,

(Sidebar:  The letter-pressed element was lost in the challenge quilt.)

cut 1728 A, 576 B, and 576 (of my own) C template pieces from over 200 liberty prints,

I sorted the arc wedges by value to ensure plenty of glow (with the lowest value prints bordering the diamonds).

pieced 288 arcs,

pressed 288 arcs,

Tip:  Even if you're piecing the arcs, do yourself a favor and get the solid arc template, too.
You can use it to trace "cheat lines" onto an old ironing board cover for simple, accurate pressing.

and assembled nearly every last one of 144 "melons."  At which time an unfortunate light bulb went off in my head:  there was absolutely no way I could quilt and bind a king-sized top in one afternoon, let alone assemble said top.  Gasp.  How could I have let months of planning and preparation result in such so-close-yet-so-far failure?

After all, I had known about the competition since first stumbling upon Faith's post in July during a study break from my con law outline.  And then during a September trip to England, I hijacked any sightseeing plans my husband potentially had in mind and replaced them with (my) high-priority supply trip to Liberty and Shaukat (fortunately my husband, cousin and her boyfriend were all uber-impressed with Liberty).

The fix?  Use 24 of the 144 melons (three from each colorway) to piece a 3x3 ring design, maintaining the integrity and spirit of the original concept without the excessive (albeit symbolic) number 8.

But you already knew that (hence the entry post and opening photograph).  But what you likely didn't realize before reading this is that I have 120 (24x5) pieced melons leftover from this madness (15 each in 8 colorways:  hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, violet).

Which means I can:

(1) make a queen-size quilt (7x7 rings) without have to cut into any more fabric
(2) replenish the melon supply using some leftover arc wedges and move forward with the king quilt as previously planned
(3) make several more smallish quilts to (a) giveaway as gifts, or (b) sell to recoup some of my outlandish material costs.  ...No joke.  I'm aware that all sorts of talented and lucky bloggers get free fabric delivered to their doorstep these days, but I can assure you I am not one such individual (yet).  (Hey, a dreamer can dream, right?)

So.  What do you think I should do? 1? 2? 3? None of the above?  Your help, as always, is greatly appreciated :)

Linking up with Lee!

liberty (of london) and justice for all

Without further ado, here is my entry for the NYC Mod Quilt Guild DWR Challenge {traditional category}.

Massive thanks to Amanda for helping me get these (much-improved) photos :)  AND for sharing her gray lipari F8s :o)

I actually used the EZ templates and I have to say they made this challenging design quite approachable (…and then I went and overcomplicated things by swapping the squares for 96-piece ~4" diamonds).

Simple ¼" quilting with Aurifil. (I'm waiting for AW's sewdown Nashville session before attempting anything more daring.)

The arcs are pieced entirely from Liberty of London {tana lawn} fabric (each hue represents one of the eight stripes in Gilbert Baker's original 1978 pride flag design).  And quite serendipitously, this awareness campaign was circling the streets of London during our fabric excursion to Liberty and Shaukat in September:

The background is a variety of Oakshott and text prints (but because I wanted to very much be in control of what that text was saying, I opted for fabric printed with the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln's ever-still-relevant Gettysburg address (I, too, believe Goodwin got it right.  Edited to note:  Turns out others, including the President, agree.)).

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . . 
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. . . ."

I want to add that if you disagree with or question the inspiration for this quilt, I would encourage you (as no doubt my former Law & Social Change professor would) to reflect on why it is that you feel and react the way you do.  And to those of you who see the hypocrisy of a diamond-studded quilt being paired with the notion of "liberty and justice for all," I can tell you I struggled for months over whether or not to include the stones.

But I will say that one thing that helped to allay my concerns about the conflict surrounding the diamonds was finding a fabric whose namesake prides himself on ethically sourced materials: Oakshott.

For me, knowing these shimmering gray shades were handwoven by cooperative weavers made the choice to keep the design concept an easy one.

Edited to add photos and this note:  I left out a very important detail when I posted this the other night.  Above all else I want to acknowledge my husband for his support and (enduring) patience when it comes to my creative endeavors.  (And all other impossibly zany facets of my being.)  One might say that the strength of my own marriage was the true seedling for this design.  After all, when you're blessed with the lifelong partnership of someone so remarkably genuine and thoughtful (...in his own forgetful way), it's impossible not to insist on that same opportunity for any other loving couple.

More. 

:)

something hued.

#ithinkicanithinkican

Just add diamonds...

And subtract sleep.  

;o)

Linking up with Lee :)  

P.S.  Only days left till this WIP needs to work its way into a finish, so keep an eye out!

something borrowed...

Rossie's Painted Pebbles tutorial + Avenir Black Bold =

When I think about weddings, one of the first things that comes to mind is the crisp simplicity of letter-pressed invitations, announcing the wondrous news to loved ones near and far.  ...And we didn't even have letter-pressed invites ;)

Nonetheless, I could think of no better way to tip my hat to that sentiment than to add a typographic element to this Double Wedding Ring quilt using a slightly modified version of the-one-and-only Rossie's reverse appliqué method:

…To be continued! ;)

(P.S.  Rossie has a tip jar in case you, too, find yourself inspired by her creativity.)

1x1 on 11/11

Four 1x1 palettes for 11/11.  Enjoy :)

source

source

source

source

new to EQ? me too!

When I stumbled upon a marked-down copy of EQ7 earlier this spring, I couldn’t help my slightly-addicted-to-online-shopping self.  Up until that point, I’d done a bit of research and found an awesome paper piecing tutorial by Joanna of Shape Moth and quite a few helpful videos on YouTube… so really the only thing missing was the program itself :D  (One click and virtual swipe of the credit card quickly solved that!)

I started toying around with it almost immediately, but still have so much to learn to be anywhere near as proficient as the likes of Joanna and Kristy of Quiet Play.  So imagine my surprise when Heidi over at EQ asked if I wouldn’t mind sharing my two cents on the software as part of their recent “New to EQ” feature?*  To the extent that lack of expertise is a qualifying factor, I certainly get high marks :)

So, what's there to love about EQ7?  Lots.

It’s made for quilters.

As much as I love my Creative Suite (shout out to any other long-ago aspiring copywriters out there), there’s something to be said for a program dedicated to one particular thing.  Especially when that one particular thing is quilting.  I think my heart skipped a beat the first time I whipped up a layout for my ‘shott{ing} stars design.  Not only is it super easy, but it also helps to quickly pair an image with a idea that turns out to be less than intriguing in real life (e.g., “Hm, what if I set the blocks on point?” “AH! That looks terrible.”  Crisis averted.)

Customizable pattern printing.

Printing patterns can be as easy or involved as you want it to be.  You can just click print, and voila, pattern printed.  Or, you can customize the line thickness, seam allowance, and even the font of the template labels.  As a former (#oldhabitsdiehard) Photoshop junkie, I *love* that I can easily generate seam allowance-free templates and block images using EQ, and then just as easily take those files and layer them into my go-to Photoshop pattern file.  (Having developed my pattern designs pre-EQ, that seamless transition is a major plus in my book.)

Support.

Last (for now), but certainly not least, a product is only as good as the people who stand behind it.  Lucky for EQ users, they’ve got great folks backing them up.

Now the only thing left for me to do is figure out what I need to do to get it running on my new mac so I can officially lay my poor old PC down to rest …preferably before it dies on its own.  (Side note:  I did recently read that EQ will be releasing a made-for-mac version in the near future (!) but I think I'll have to hold off until they come out with an apple-friendly Blockbase).

In the meantime, keep an eye out for more EQ posts in the works about framing blocks (à la forest and starry sky), and traditional designs inlaid with mini-blocks (à la diamond-studded DWR).  Because why not mix things up?  Stay tuned!

So, do you EQ?  Photoshop?  Paper and pencil? (All of the above?!)  Tell me, what's your design tool of choice?

*****

*In the interest of full disclosure, the kind folks at EQ have offered a few books in exchange for my thoughts.  All the same, the opinions expressed in this review are 100% unswayed by said literature.

*****

something new.

After months of saving up to order fabric from England planning, the pieces are {figuratively} starting to come together...

studying + study-breaking + sketching + scheming = sparkly oakshotts ;)

So the DWR design insanity is (sort of) officially under way, but one question remains:  traditional or modern?

Lucky for me, there's nearly a month left to decide while all the (tiny) pieces literally come together ;)

And okay, obviously it's not so under way that the diamond shape is set in stone.  If by chance seeing this has changed your mind since that little old "round vs. square" poll, please (please!) chime in!  Or, if you stand by your round cut vote, speak up, too. ...If only so that I have some positive vibes to keep me going when I'm on the 40th of eighty-one 4⅛" diamonds.  ('Das right, CRAZY's in da {house} :D).

Linking up with Lee ;)  Happy Wednesday, friends!

P.S.  Thank you all for your overwhelmingly kind comments about my muted forest quilt, which mysteriously slipped through a linky loophole over at Amy's Creative Side and wound up in the Viewer's Choice vote.  (Pinch me!?)  I have massive respect for the 23 other artists whose work is hanging in that group, and I do hope you'll head on over to peruse the offerings and cast your vote for the pieces that catch your eye.

...Oh, and it's a slightly addicting showcase, so be prepared to stay awhile ;)