A couple of questions came up about what my process of designing my latest quilt top is. The title of this post pretty much sums it up how I work. I tend to wing it quite a bit! It started like this...
Just a few random blocks that I made with no idea about how they would all fit together. I liked them arranged this way, so I stuck with it and figured it was time to start doing some planning.
My clearly amazing photoshop skills lead me to this:
From there, I made blocks based on this arrangement, just looking at the photo as I went along. The most measuring that I did was to grab my ruler and put it up on my design wall to get a sense of the size that the block I was making should turn out. Admittedly, a couple of times I had to rip out a seam to add a bigger piece of fabric to a block that had turned out a bit small. But I'd rather do that than spend tons of time measuring and cutting specific fabric sizes. I much, much prefer to just eyeball the whole thing, while erring on the side of making each block too big. It's so much easier to trim down a block than have to add to it! I also made sure that I overlapped the blocks, allowing for seam allowances, as I arranged them on the design wall.
I spent a lot of time stepping back and staring at the design wall (if you don't have one yet, really, you need one! It will change quilting for you!) and deciding which colors to add to which block. I make my decisions as I sew, block by block. I love designing as I sew. It makes the sewing feel less like the labor portion of a creative process.
This is it, now all sewn together. I made a couple of changes from the plan, but mostly stuck to it. It measures 56" x 54". Since the goal is 80" x 88" I have plenty more to go...
From there a bit more planning was in order because the quilt does have to turn out a specific size after all...
Again, my astonishing photoshop skills where put to use. Then I printed out what I'd come up with and with a pencil and some markers (I'm so high tech!) I did some simple math and bit of color planning...
And now I'm just working away at making the rest of the blocks! Should be done in a few days...
Hope that you all have wonderful Mondays!