Rework

There were a couple of things that inspired this project - the first being the palette on my desk calendar, and the second, a previous project, the mini quilt Loosely Connected. Basically I wanted to play with the triangle shapes from Loosely Connected on a larger scale, and chose Kona Denim, Red, and Camellia to explore with.

Of course I started by making several striped slabs, and then cut them into long rectangles. After rearranging the triangles on the design wall again and again, I settled on a layout.

Problem is, once I started sewing them together, I lost interest completely. Like I didn't even like it completely. So after staring at it for a couple of months, I confessed that my original vision was gone, and that was ok. I very nearly took the pieces down and put them in the closet, but luckily, it came to me that I should cut them up and see what that did for me. Obviously!!

And I immediately was interested again!

I was totally happy with the initial random layout of my newly cut blocks. But I decided to see if the piece was helped at all by offsetting the blocks a bit and filling in with the background blue. Deciding to go that route, I thought a little more contrast might be good too, so I added in some Kona Cardinal here and there. And yeah, I liked that even better.

Add a simple frame, and I was done.

I found a really fun and colorful backing in my stash, and though I felt a little guilty using it as the  back, it also seemed perfect. Once that was settled, I was so ready to get quilting! At 36" x 38" I knew it wouldn't take long, nor be too stressful. I had decided while I was still piecing that I wanted to quilt a diamond grid, and went the adventuresome road by choosing a variegated thread - Aurifil 50wt #4647 [Berrylicious]. It added a spirited element of charm, don't you think?

SO. Not that I need a message here, but this project was SUCH a good reminder that if a project isn't speaking to you, consider reworking your vision for it.

 There's no guarantee it'll take you to a happy place, so be sure and celebrate if it does!