Rip it



The week before last, I was minding my own business, trying to wrap up the knot garden quilt I had no business working on (because I have actual deadlines this month, some of them are even quilt deadlines so who knows what my problem was) & I was about to put the two large pieces together to make the top....or that center of the top (I might add a border.  I almost never do but apparently I am really avoiding something else.  I wish I knew what).    &  that's when I spotted it, right there in that corner block. 

It takes a minute (it took me months, as I obviously sewed it into the quilt like this & never noticed). 

As it happens, this was one of the swapped blocks & I even remember who sent it (I rarely do, especially with the big swaps) because she is a quilter whose work is far above mine, quality-wise.  everything of hers I have ever seen is lovely.  Which just goes to show this can happen to anyone.  Including me. 

It is an unhappy truth that it is easier to rip out the work of an experienced sewer, the person less likely to make a mistake.  It is not fair, but there it is.  This is because it is easier to rip even, smooth, straight stitches.  Stiches that bump & bubble & get really small because they are hung up on a seam are the absolute worst to rip.  Pulling this block out of the quilt top (thankfully it was in a corner, but I would not have let it stop me if it wasn't) was a piece of cake.  Ripping & rotating the flipped four square went quick.  The whole process took maybe an hour, maybe a bit more but as I did it in pieces (ripping while watching tv, sewing the straight seams in the middle of chain piecing something completely different).  The top is assembled & now I am rolling around a border idea that may or may not work out.  You'll know when I know.

Several months ago I finished a quilt top that I had made for myself, was really looking forward to having completed & using when all of a sudden, the steam just went out of it for me.  I could not figure out why. I would look at it & be unable to decide how to quilt it.  Then I worried about the white not really suiting me....  I am not suggesting my sub-conscious was at work here or my private eye or whatever it is.  All too often I get all fired up & stall.  So often that -unless there is a paycheck involved- "fire up & stall, repeat as necessary" is pretty much how I get things done (or not) on large & small scales.

The stall turned out to be helpful, because after a while gazing at the quilt top & then pictures of the quilt top, I spotted an error that would have made me nuts if it was already quilted (the before picture is here if you feel like checking it out). 

The oranges were not in the right places; the dark orange was where the light orange should be, etc.  It did not help that the dark & the light were more like a dark medium & a light medium.  I could have left them, yes, but why?  Once I saw it...& it's not like it was already quilted.  So out came both offending blocks, I reversed them & dropped each back in where the other had been, borders & all.

Let me say again, it is much easier to rip out what is well stitched.  Let me add that it is easier to rearrange blocks that are exactly the same size...which is really just another way of saying that first thing.   I think I can safely say I have ripped at least one major seam in every quilt I have ever made.  I have never regretted ripping what didn't make me happy; I have wished I could go back & rip out now what I should have ripped out then.  Yes, very philosophical, but still.

Rainbow wind down

This year in the Facebook Quilt Bock Swap group, we have had an every other month Rainbow Connection block swap.  It does require a sign-up; it was the only way to guarantee only one of each red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple.  There have been some bumps which were more or less to be expected (you can expect them & still not be able to prevent them), but mostly it has been successful.  It is also losing popularity; not completely there are still people interested, but filling a month takes a little longer each time & I don't feel bad making January 2014, the 6th Rainbow Connection the LAST Rainbow Connection.

The Rainbow Connection swap came out of a couple of different ideas.  While we have had long-term swaps before there was always a bump in group membership following one of the special sign-up swaps & the new members were often disappointed as they had joined hoping to participate in the swap that just ended.  That it was all over was never happy news.  & I thought a more limited swap (6 people MAX), along a single theme but year round might better. 

Then there were the beginners.  There are more people who think of themselves as beginner quilters every year & they come in all shapes & sizes & skill levels.  I can think of two regular swappers who describe themselves as beginners who have more years quilting under their belt than I do.  & I don't mean on a calendar, I mean in front of the machine, the ironing board, the cutting table.  How to keep those self-describe beginners from getting bored while still making a space for the person who started last month?  We still have the year-long more advanced swap, & I think having the Rainbow Connection has meant I could go completely off-the-wall with that one (insert Bird Trap reference here), but that is a good&bad thing.  Unless someone wanted to travel down that rather sketchy road, the beginner swap was the only place to be.  So it had to be either very rigid or quite flexible to keep everyone on the same page.  So many questions!

The question no one has ever asked is "Why rainbows?"  Don't worry, I am prepared to answer it. 

I had for a while been looking at the traditional block Rolling Stone, trying to come up with a way to rainbowify it for one of our standing every-other-month.  I tried & tried to fit six colors into four corners, four side strips & a single center square.  You don't have to tell me that won't work, I can see that NOW.

Anyway.

When I am in block swap block picking mode, I generally make the blocks a few times.  It helps with the technical writing, the How-to part & also I can decide whether I think it is drop dead beginner, not new beginner, easier than it looks or just as complicated as it looks.  We don't do anything really advanced because people just don't want to swap a block it took them a weekend to make. 

So I started making Rolling Stone blocks in different colors of the color wheel that I happened to have in the scrap basket.  & the original version of this quilt was born.  Right around the same time I was approached about a fundraiser for a GLBT event & I thought a rainbow quilt ought to fit nicely.  I sent the top off to be quilted & never saw it again except in the background of a group photo including the friend who asked me if I could contribute to their silent auction.  I liked that top so much, I casually started making another set for myself.  & since it was spread out over years, I toyed with changing the blocks this time around, mixing them up sampler-wise.  I didn't of course, but there it was, the answer to all the questions about the Rainbow Swap:  How to keep it interesting for a year (ask for block-of choice, no repeating the same block even if you sign up for more than one month), how to make sure the blocs all work together (color + white & nothing else & no requesting the same color you have requested before).

The result has been big, high contrast, graphic blocks that can work together in a quilt or a fabric book or whatever.  Over at Block Lotto, the question du jour or rather du month?  des mois?  My French is not great.  Also there is no question.  Let's try that again.  Block Lotto is looking for blogs about color.  This is mine about how I picked those colors for that swap.

& in the way these things go, last week I came up with a way to make a ROYGB & P prism-type block.  Next year, I suppose.

Rainbow connection quilt block swap for beginners

Last year, well this year but it's almost up, I did not do any bigger swaps.  That is, we had no longer lasting than the every other month, nothing needing a sign-up or much in the way of planning.  Well this year, we will have two.  The first, this one, is on the easy side. & so, here are the rules:

FIRST- pick a color red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple.  Every participant MUST sign up for their color in the Quilt Block Swap group on Facebook.  I'm sorry but I have wracked my brains & cannot think of any other way to keep it straight.  After the first round of ROYGBP has been claimed, I will open up another set & once that one is filled, etc..  You can sign up for as many colors as you like BUT only one in each set & you cannot sign-up for the same color more than once.  Every time one set of six has been filled I will open a new set & I will do this right up until Thanksgiving, so there will be as many chances as there are people who want to swap, I hope.  Also, there will be a rolling deadline, approximately 2-3 months after a set opens for sign up, through-out all of 2013 & into 2014.  As each new set is opened the deadline will be posted; the deadline for the first set is the last Saturday in March, March 30, 2013.

SECOND- choose a block, any block.  The final block should be 12.5" unfinished but there is nothing wrong with choosing a 10" block & then adding a border to bring it up to 12.5".  

THIRD- get your fabrics together.  You will need at least one fabric in your color choice.  You can of course use more than one fabric, so long as the color you chose & only the color you chose (with maybe, just maybe a bit of black &/or white but NO OTHER COLOR) is in the fabric.  The easiest thing to do is to limit yourself to read-as-solid, but a tone-on-tone pattern is also perfectly acceptable.  You will also need a background fabric; please limit yourself to white (muslin is fine) or a white-on-white print.  This is the same fabric you would use to "border up" if you make a smaller block & need to bring it to 12.5".  You can also use black or a black-on-black print if your block requires something to make it pop, but black should be used very sparingly if at all.

FOURTH- make six blocks.  Keep one for yourself & send the other five in with a stamped, addressed return envelope.  Once ALL the colors from your set have arrived, you will get back one each of the other five colors (yes, I know the traditional spectrum is actually seven colors, but I decided to merge indigo & violet into a single purple).

& that is it.  Naturally, when choosing & working on your block, you should make the blocks you wish to receive, quality-wise.  This swap is open to (designed for, even) beginners who want to challenge themselves, so please reach beyond the usual 4- or 9-patch.

I have included a picture (the traditional rolling stone block) as an example of what you could make.  In this case, the color is obviously BLUE.  The color fabric has several shades of blue & the slightest bit of black but no other colors & the background is a white-on-white pattern. This particular pattern block is already 12.5" unfinished so it would not need any additional background to bring it to size.  As it happens, this block is NOT part of this swap, so don't go looking for it in the blocks you get back; this is just an example of the kind of thing you could make (& honestly, as it is a pattern any advanced beginner should be able to tackle, you could use it as a guide to the kind of pattern you could make).

If you think this swap might interest you, please go to Facebook, find the Quilt Block Swap group & ask to join