Design Floor Friday - Taking in Strays

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!  Bear with me, please.  I've got a story to tell that goes along with the quilt that is the subject of today's "article."

Over on Ravelry (a website for knitters, crocheters, and weavers), I am a member (and moderator) of the Quilter's Knitting group (there are groups for EVERYTHING.)  I co-chair the UFO Club and I am also participating in the 2015 Austerity Challenge.

THE CHALLENGE:

The Austerity QAL is now CLOSED for additional sign-ups. This challenge began on January 1, 2015 and ends on June 30, 2015 or December 31, 2015. (Challenge duration TBD.)

The cut off for buying new fabric is December 31st !!!

You can start sewing before January 1st. You can also use UFOs. Although, many people will be using their scrap pile; this does NOT have to be a scrap quilt. The quilt can be from coordinated fabrics.

Please note: You can purchase batting and thread…batting is hard to store and not everyone keeps a stash of thread. or if absolutely necessary - backing/background fabric - but try to challenge yourself!!

If you have special quilt-related trips (i.e. a trip to Bali or a National Quilt Show) planned, those purchases can be exempt.

There are no prizes. The prize is your finished quilt(s) and the satisfaction of using what you have on hand.

THE WELCOME:

Welcome to the 2015 Austerity Challenge! If you signed up for this challenge, it’s probably because you have so much fabric that you don’t know what to do with it all. We hope that joining this group will help encourage you to STAY OUT of the stores and SHOP YOUR STASH!!!

Dictionary.com defines austerity as strict economy. We are taking that to mean increasing our fabric stash by ZERO fabric for the duration of this Challenge. Please post your completed projects in this discussion thread and own up here if/when you “fall off the wagon.”

Repeat after me, “I resolve to buy no more fabric than is ABSOLUTELY necessary for the projects at hand, USING STASH WHEN AT ALL POSSIBLE. The ONLY exception to the buying rule will be special trips planned throughout the year.”

Remember that the recipient of your quilt won’t CARE if you incorporated the PERFECT fabric!! They will think it’s lovely NO MATTER WHAT YOU USE!! They don’t know how to quilt and know nothing about fabric selection. USE WHAT YOU HAVE on hand!

Are you beginning to see the pattern??? :o))

Good luck to all.

THE RESULT:

"Confessions" for near a near miss at the fabric store and such.

THE REALITY (here's the relevant part):

I recently talked about the puppies (er... the fabric scraps) that followed me home from the Donation Quilt Workshop a couple of weeks ago.  I openly "confessed" to acquiring the said scraps, since the goal of the Quilt-A-Long is to use what you have.

My main goal in participating in the Challenge is to NOT PURCHASE MORE FABRIC, with that in mind, it was determined by the group that bringing strays home is not a breech of challenge "rules." Whew!  That was a close one!

I digress.


Oh, right!  You're here looking for another installment of Design Floor Friday.

I'm actually getting to that.

You see, the curved pieced blocks on the "design floor" this week were found among the SCRAPS in the bag that I was given (refer to the REALITY section above.)  Originally, I intended to add the colors of sand and sea, along with white. Apparently, the quilt (and my fabric stash) had other ideas... it just took me a while to figure out what it DID want!

Would you like to take a look at some of the iterations that the blocks have seen this week?

Yes??  I thought you might!  :o))


Without further ado, I present the audition stage of "Taking in Strays".  (Try to ignore the basketball rug that I keep forgetting to take to Goodwill and the somewhat less-than-perfect layout that comes from throwing folded fabric on the floor to check for color/pattern compatibility.)

Two "circles" on one side (with extra "swoop" on the other side and a "hole" in the corner):

Circles in opposing corners (with extra "swoop" in another corner):

Extra "swoop" in the same corner, but turned another direction:

Extra "swoop" rotated again (in the same corner):

"Blue" circle rotated and extra "swoop" moved up a row:

"Green" circle rotate along with the "swoop" ("blue" circle remaining the same):

Large circles remaining in position and "swoop" moving back to the corner:

Moving the "light" square near the center:

After all of that...

I think it's time to head back to the drawing board... er...  back to the fabric stash to check for additional options.  That light fabric just doesn't seem to be working!

Here are a few more choices (after a lengthy search of the fabric at hand.)

Adding in a new (darker) fabric:

Adding in an even darker fabric (removing a grayer piece):

Shifting the darker fabrics to new locations:

And, finally, I think we have a winner!!

Lining up the "bluer" pieces and then the "greener" pieces, placing them diagonally across the top:

It's interesting how much a design can change from the making (or acquiring) of blocks to the final layout.  I feel MUCH better about the composition, now.  What do YOU think??

Until next time...
Be flexible!!!