No name yet - UP Greens #14 top finished
I’ll admit. For whatever reason, so far most of the tops I’ve made from this UP Greens series have been relatively easy.
They’ve been not too involved as an individual top.
Or maybe this was just my imagination.
Anyway. The same can not be said for this one.
These were the blocks I used for this quilt. Thankfully I only had one block to make.
The burgundy in these blocks was a duvet cover or maybe a sheet. But it has a bit of something on it that seems to want to grab all threads around it. It’s very warm feeling, though not a flannel. Maybe more of a brushed cotton. As a result, once I finish this quilt, it will need a serious rolling with one of those lint rollers. I may do it before I quilt it as well. I normally just shake out my tops from my balcony upstairs and let the misc. threads all fall to the ground below - and hopefully get absorbed into the dirt. :)
They seemed to take me FOREVER.
I know that this is an overstatement.
An exaggeration.
Maybe it is because I really hate trimming up HST (half square triangles) and actually dreaded it tremendously all the time I was making the other blocks.
I am leaving this photo big shown above because I want you to be able to see the fabrics I used as the background fabrics - all white or off white background and hopefully something light - or something that will show up as light in a photo on the white/off white.
The big green splotches left me feeling uncomfortable, but I decided to attempt to use them anyway since I had them…and I can’t figure out where that particular design will be easy to use!
Upon looking at my boxes of UP Greens and what I had left, I realized I had a lot of what really wasn’t that “green” - but really just low volume quilts with some green in them.
My sis who had helped me sort my fabrics back in 2016, had somehow decided that they belonged in the “greens boxes” and I left them there. Most of those had more than one color in them and they might as well be in the greens as anywhere else.
But I needed to use them. (I do still have more of such fabrics.)
I had previously made a couple of this type of scrappy quilt - going very scrappy with my background design - and trying to use a strong enough color to stand out amidst the background colors.
Here are a few of the ones I’ve made like this - especially “scrappy” backgrounds. I do use a lot of scrappy because that is what I have - not always because I’m particularly trying to make everything so very loud/busy!
But with the first two, I chose to make them that way - as they are both all upcycleds. Actually all four of these are. The last 2 are from the Up Blues series. The key with all of them was to make sure the bold colors were nice and bold so as to stand out. An example of one of the blocks that didn’t work that great is in the second quilt shown - the bottom block with the almost neon green. That one didn’t work all that well.
Sadly with my greens, I’ve about used up all the darker greens I have - esp. my solid greens.
Here’s the block I used.
In this top, I pulled out some “solid greens that had a lot of white in them” and used them as a dark green. That made them a bit harder to see. I feel badly about that. It’s what I have and this series is about using what I have and seeing what I can do. However, I could have used a bit more of the same of the darker greens with more print in them than the lighter solid greens.
It’s okay. I’m okay. I know the blocks could have been better and the design stronger had I done that. However, I didn’t. And I’m not usually one to redo something just to make a change in the colors. What I usually do with that kind of mistake is just think, “Next time I’ll do better!”
Here’s the top!
No sashings. No cornerstones!
I like it just fine without a border as well. But I needed it bigger. These blocks finish at 9” and I did a 10x10 layout. I needed to do them in groups of 2 to keep the design - so an 11x12 layout wouldn’t look right. If I had gone to 12x, well, that’s just getting a bit too big.
I think without a border would be really just fine as well - just use a burgundy binding. Would be nice.
Here it is without a border.
Here it is in a close up so you can just study the background fabrics I used.
I know that many of you are wondering what mistake I made with this one the other day that I mentioned.
I should have made that little square different from the other two in the block. I made them the same design. I needed that little spot to be light and not dark.
Let me show you by showing you the blocks and then with arrows I will point out the difference it made.
It just made it “muddy”. I didn’t like it.
I was really upset with myself for not doing the blocks right as I had the right coloration on a print out above my sewing machine - I just thought I had forgotten to color in the block in the version I printed out. That is what I thought until I laid out the blocks on the floor and took a photo and suddenly remembered that I had changed the coloring and I should have followed my layout!
DUH!
I was so upset, I just left it all lying on the floor that evening. I tackled the changes the next morning. I put something interesting on to listen to on You Tube - mostly Judge Judy, I think, and started picking.
Thankfully the problem spot was possibly the best spot to make a mistake in these blocks.
When I laid out the blocks and took a photo, I just couldn’t stand it. I was so discouraged. I just felt like crying.
I put in arrows so you can see where the dark corner pieces fell.
I had already spent hours and hours on these blocks - as they all seemed so involved. Even cutting the plain squares was not particularly fast since I was using upcycleds! I did manage to use up a lot of them in this quilt top, however.
My 3 boxes still look pretty much the same, however. No noticeable changes, even though I have the NEXT one after this already all cut out. Well, almost all cut out.
This one meets my husband’s approval. But I’ll tell you a secret. He likes burgundy, so just about any quilt with burgundy in it is a winner for him! (as long as it isn’t asymmetrical- he doesn’t like those!)
And so now you can see where we are in this series - from the beginning!
And now…
For whatever reason, I’m feeling like I need something.
Let’s do a give-away. I’ve found they cheer me up a bit!
I’ll send someone one of those Polish shopping bags - 2 people if we have over 50 people answer, 3 if over 100, etc. 4 if over 150, etc. - if you tell me which of these UP Greens tops you like the best so far.
Please put your answer in the comments below!
I’ll close it in one week and get them on their way. If you “play along”, please check back in one week because I won’t know how to contact you if you have won. In previous contests, I’ve had as many as 1/4 of the people not check back when they won so I redid it and chose more winners later. Please put something in your answer besides “Pam” or “Denise”. I will need something like Denise from TX or Pam last name in order to identify you!
Thanks!
So…to enter for the bag - just answer below…which UP Greens top so you like the best so far? I’ll choose a random number from random.org and put it in next week’s Monday’s blog post. BE SURE TO CHECK BACK next Monday for the winners!
Thanks for reading and coming along on my quilting journey!
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’s one of the beauties we have!
