Tuesday, July 12, 2016

My First Pattern (design and production)

Main Crush Monday.....Tuesday Edition.

Never done it, might as well get the first of this out of the way too. Fortunately, I have an in-house expert Tish, to explain all these things to me. All the abbreviations and what not....Ya'll have your own dialect.

So, I am really not crushing....per-say on anything.  However, I did start another project. The project is my first personal design.  I designed it this past week (end) and started the project on the weekend. I put a glimpse of it on my Stash Blog.

I designed my block, and decided to color it with colored pencils. I love bright colors and I am a big fan of  contrasts as well as primary colors. I went through scraps and jumped in with both feet.  Being that I feel pretty good with 2.5" strips I figured I would work off that size and she asked me how big the final post would be. Using my design, I figured it to be a 20"x20" block.  I had already done some preliminary designs on some supplemental blocks which are to come.

I picked my colors, and asked a few preliminary questions which lead to about a 15 minute discussion on cutting my original block sizes as well as resizing after HST were complete....(LOOK!!! some of your-alls jargon). I admit...being a guy, I didn't listen very thoroughly, so I had to ask her again already into the process to verify I understood her directions and the measurements correctly.  HEY! At least I didn't just drive on and pray to God it would work out and I would arrive at my goal.




That first picture....that has Tish's new (used Demo) machine that we got for a heck of deal at Elkins Sewing Center . Sue is the owner and she is in the bottom picture with the red vest. Right now they have a slide show on the page and she has a blue vest on in one picture.  She really is a wonderful person and fun to work with. Most likely when we commit to our purchase of a sit-down longarm, we will be buying it from Sue.

"Back to the lecture at hand"- Snoop Dog..... I began sewing and within short order I managed to sew a few pieces together wrong....


I got to "doin" what I do best....deconstructing.  I quickly got back to it...I had to set aside time though as we had to go and take my first big quilt to Morgantown to have it quilted at Country Roads Quilt Shop (some pics in YELLOW here). I will be doing a full post on it later...Especially when it is finished. This took me away from my new project.  A short backstory on me...I am a little OCD and I like to not start things and let them go...Little did I know also that I would be helping my buddy build a metal building for his dad on Sunday...Tish helped too!!!!  But before all this I worked on it Friday and Saturday...








I was regularly reminded to take pictures to document/detail my processes. So, I did....like Forest Gump....

Yesterday, I came home from work and went to the "Quilt Guild" meeting with Tish. I did a show and tell of my two first projects. And felt somewhat out of place, but overall it went well.  Needless to say, when I got home, I finished putting my last three rows of blocks together and started sewing the strips together.



After sewing it all together I found one major mistake....AAARGH!!!! Yes, I am pirate at heart...."Why is Rum always gone?"- Jack Sparrow...and yes I love Rum and Cokes.




So, really all there is left to do with my first designed is to decide....add a black border or just "sandwich" (more of that jargon) it and quilt followed by bind....help me make a decision with comments!!!!

Needless to say, my first design is done.  My original design called for the black to be flopped with the gray and I am thinking I wish I had done that and made the black section white or gray....I am still thinking through that process.

Now that my pattern is complete...and yes there are no instructions written down....at this point (nor did I have them during the build). It is time to go MODA MARBLE in the same color set. As always I used Aurifil to piece this together and will use it for the final set.  Ultimately the other designs are also 20x20 and when I am done...with sashing I am expecting it to be 45x45.

Today I am linking up with Main-Crush Monday and Linky Tuesday

Hope you enjoyed the post.

13 comments:

  1. Great geometric design. Lots of fun angles and pieces for a fairly new quilter. But the end result is definitely worth all the work and the deconstruction time.

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  2. Wow, that takes my eyes all round, super fabrics, and never mind the ripping undone, it must happen to each of us sometimes.

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  3. You are one brave dude to attend a quilt Guild meeting! My husband would probably agree although he goes with me to quilt shops and we will leave in a few weeks to travel the whole state of Minnesota on the MN Quilt Shop Hop...that's 73 shops of shopping pleasure. Last year my fabric bill was greater than our combined gas, food, and lodging for the 11 days and 4343 miles that it took. Great design. I do that too, wish I would have used the other color or other fabric.

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  4. It's a great design and a great post! Personally, I would add a black border (not too wide) and then colored narrow binding in your accent colors for each quarter (so that one color goes from the middle of one side to the middle of the next side - hope I make myself clear). It's also very instructional to know what kind of quilts men like in case I will be making a quilt for a man))

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  5. Great block! I really like its contrast and geometric design.

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  6. This is a great design. I would add a black border to it, I think it would tie it all together.

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  7. What a very awesome design. I like that it has a 3D feel to it, and the coloring also makes me think of comic books and super heros. :)

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  8. Dave, you are blowing me away with your quilting prowess! And making me bust out laughing... "LOOK!!! some of your-alls jargon" SNORT! You're hilarious. And super-talented. I disagree with your comment about switching out the black; why don't you do a border following your colours, so, yellow, black, orange, black, etc? Mitre the corners, or as 'y'all' in the US would write it, 'miter' the corners and then I think it would make the design float even more. I LOVE how the grey sections float.

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  9. I think your design has a very modern look and feel to it...I also noticed as I was about to doze off just now ---as my head was drifting down to the table top....that you design is quite nice on point as well (there's some more of "our-all's" jargon). You might think of adding a narrow border around...maybe in the grey you used, and add large triangles in black to the 4 corners. Even if you don't want to do that, I would suggest...imho...that you do add a narrow grey border...perhaps with 4 cornerstones of each of the 4 colors you used, and then a larger black border. Whatever you decide on, the block rocks!

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  10. It's awesome Dave: I'm really impressed with all those angles. I'd go with the black border myself. Looking forward to seeing it finished, which by your description of yourself, wont be long.

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  11. This is pretty amazing! I really like this design. Is it something you are thinking of writing up and selling? I would love to make one of these. I can already see my fabric choices in my head. :)

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  12. Congrats! It's a great design. You should create a pattern or a tutorial to share.

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  13. Super impressed with your quilt design Dave! You did the colors just right. Soon you'll be spewing out the jargon as naturally as the rest of us, LOL.

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