"Shades" - UP Greens #6 top finished
“Shades” - Upcycled Greens #6 top is finished.
This is a case where If I was going to make such a quilt, I had to do now.
In making this one, I pretty much chopped up the rest of my solid “larger” pieces. In fact, if you noticed the border - how it is four different pieces, it’s because I didn’t have enough of any one of the darker green solids to make a complete border.
That statement is not be confused with “I don’t have any more darker greens”. I just said “solids”. I kept this one to only solids.
My greens are going down (maybe?? - maybe they are multiplying in the dark!) - but NOW my collection is a big mess. Let me show you.
It now consists of 3 tubs and 5 bags. February 5, 2021
It used to be 2 tubs and 5 bags The difference now is I have made 6 tops using some of these pieces and the bags and boxes aren’t packed well anymore.
June 20, 2020
Once again - here is the UP Greens series so far: I’ve actually finished up more of these tops, but haven’t been able to take good outdoor photos yet, so I’ve not shown you the finished quilt yet.
Let me show you the evolution of this design.
This particular quilt design came about like this.
As I am sitting in from the EQ (Electric Quilt) program, I am keeping in mind “what I have”. I want to design things that I can make with the greens I have on hand. It’s this reason I keep having to check out my boxes and see them. I have a whole box of light green solids that are virtually untouched.
I first thought of a simple Double 9 patch using light green in the background and making the dark green or black 9 patches - I decided they needed to be black as I don’t have a lot of dark green. I thought to spice it up a bit, I’d add a round of shade in a sort of diamond shape to create interest. This was a lot like the red/black/gray I made from shirts.
I actually slept on that idea for a night - but couldn’t decide WHICH color to make the contrasting color. White? Gray? Blue? I was tempted to go with blue as I know have lots of that now - and I also have white. I would have loved purple - but not sure how a bold purple would look with light sage or lemon-lime green.
Then I thought let’s add something to the corners for more interest- dark green? Hmm? How about reverse - making the lights show up dark (though I really knew I didn’t have enough dark - and needed to make a plan to use up those light greens!)
I was recoloring something and my finger slipped and I made up this (photo on the right) accidentally. Interesting. Maybe.
Then I thought - what if I make streaks of color going downhill - all different shades of green. I could probably do that with what I have.
I cleaned up the diagram a bit. I added a border with white/black/green.
I kept it that way in my head until today - when I made the borders. I had been uneasy with white - as I hated to introduce it into the quilt at the border - afraid it would be too stark - too new - too much. So, once I got the top together, I came to EQ and played with using a light green there. I even played with taking OUT the light green and just putting the black next to the center. Nah. Didn’t like that. Too much black touching the black border. I prefer something else.
So, this is what I ended up doing. I didn’t decide on the four shades of the border until I was actually cutting it out. I only had enough of ONE of the greens - and that is that bright green along the top in the final top. The other greens were enough to get one side of the border out of, but that’s it.
I timed this as I worked on it - Well, sorta. It took me about 14 hours to piece the blocks for this one (I worked on it on one day for 4 hours and 10 hours the next day - which included cutting as I cut as I went along) and 3 hours to put the blocks together today. I then added borders which took another hour and a half to decide on, cut and sew. So, to actually put the whole top together - 18.5 hours for this one. The reason the center took so long was that fiddling with all those pieced 9 patches and all the checking and rechecking of the colors. I would cut 2 rows of color at a time and piece them. I laid it out on the floor as I went along and let it grow - like this.
And there you know - my secrets.
I’m planning on working up this pattern - as hard as it is going to be. In the meantime, here is the layout should you wish to make something similar.
This is literally what I worked off of when I made the quilt. I printed this out (only the one with the white inner border) and looked at it while I sewed, pieced those 9 patches, laid it out and cut things out.
I constantly looked at the diagram to get the coloration correct. The actual colors weren’t MY actual colors - I was just showing contrasting greens. I needed 11 different ones but only the middle ones were bigger pieces. The first couple and last couple of rows of colors I was able to use shirts and pillowcases - the middle ones I needed sheets or tablecloths. I started on the bottom left and worked towards the right and up as I sewed and developed my top as shown above.
The big squares are 9.5” cut, the little squares are cut 3.5” and the little 9 patches are strip pieced using 1.5” cut strips. The little 9 patches are 3.5” before sewing together in the block. Using this layout, this top finishes at 93”x111”. The three borders are cut 2.5”, 1.5” and 3.5”.
I hope that layout helps you until I get the pattern actually written up.
Oh…as to all those light greens? Well, maybe next time I’ll use more than with this one!
Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Stay safe!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!
Here’s one of the beauties we have!