Design Floor Friday - My PURPLE Palace

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  Today, I'm  here to share the IMPROV adventure that I went on this week.  You see, it's PURPLE month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I realized that I was sorely lacking quilted items for my Gallery Wire.  :o((

What's a quilter to do???

Make a new quilt, of course!  :o))

My inspiration...

... For this project was Debbie @ A Quilter's Table:

The last time she inspired me to make a quilt, I ended up with Dressed.  That one was only loosely inspired by her quilt called Skirted.  We both used an article of clothing from our closets to make the resulting quilts.

What did you do with those blocks, Joyful???

This time, there's a direct correlation between Debbie's quilt, Sometimes It Takes A While, and the one that I am in the process of making:

I've seen "Tunnel" blocks before.  I even saved a photo of a (vaguely) similar quilt by Lynn @ klein meisje quilts.  I was excited by the idea of the quilt, but it went nowhere.  Another version of the block found in a tutorial several years ago by Rachel @ Stitched in Color had the same affect.  I like the shape and the block was easy enough.  With that one, too, I just stored it away for a later date.  Something about Debbie's quilt spurred me to take action.  (Thank you, Deb!!)

Tunnels, Doorways, or Houses???

I started out thinking of my blocks as tunnels.  My friend LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color saw them as doorways.  Me?  I began to think of them as houses.

Once the blocks were all stacked up, I decided that I would pull random scraps for sun, sky, and garden to fill in the remaining spaces:

Then, I wondered if I might like to make a tree using Debbie's tutorial for Improv Spikes and fill in that final "empty lot" on the lower left corner.  I also called in a "gardener" to consult on the "landscaping."  I value Needleb's opinions.  (She rarely steers me wrong.)

Take a look...

Version One, garden gone wild:

Version Two, a flower sweet garden:

Version Three, more yellow flowers to balance the "sunshine" area:

Mistakes were made...

As I was puzzling the pieces together, I trimmed too much off the lilac house in the bottom row.  My first inclination was to trim down the big house and add another tree to balance out the green (and use that awesome green batik.)  I tried both angles and the tree just didn't work for me, but I didn't get a comparison photo:

Without further ado...

I present My PURPLE Palace, the quilt top:

Perhaps, this might even be quilted by the end of the month.  I wouldn't hold my breath, if I were you.  I'm running behind schedule on quilting up waiting tops (which are larger than a 10" square.)

Sharing with Alycia

for

Finished (Or NOT) Friday

and

With Cynthia

for

Oh Scrap!

Until next time...

Piecing PURPLE fun!!!