Quilt progress #1

So this post begins my series of quilt progress reports.  I will probably report back about once a month. 


As you can see, I'm off to a pretty good start. I have ten inner block assembled in about two weeks, but we know I can't sustain that as soon as I get busy again. But, this is supposed to be something I work on while traveling mostly.

I want this to be a queen sized, but the only two options in the pattern I'm using are full or king. And as soon as I started to try and figure out how to make it a queen size I figured out why. Just one extra row of hexagons can't be added, two rows have to be added to keep it symmetrical.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm ...

What to do, what to do?  

Well, I made copies of the diagrams from the pattern and experimented adding blocks to the sides, top and bottom and realized if I turn the whole thing sideways I could get the dimensions I want, so here is my plan. The zig-zag edge will now be on the sides instead of the top and bottom, which I like better anyway.

I now know how many of the circular blocks I will need (46) and how many half blocks I will need (6). And I can figure out how much connecting fabrics are needed, all the yellow and green in the example photo above.

Every one of these inner circle blocks is going to be a different color. Remember the roll of dark colors I bought? Theses ten blocks I've sewn up to this point are actually some of the brighter colors in that roll ... see.

I think a brighter color will work best as a contrast to go around each of them. Also, I like the look of stripes and dots. But, I can't have a very straight and perfect stripe, because the dots on the inner circle of each block are very irregular. I need a stripe that looks hand drawn.

So, after looking and looking and looking, this is what I'm getting. The wiggly dark yellow stripe to go around each of my inner blocks. The black and grey dot to connect all the blocks. It will be sewn right next to this yellow stripe. (the green part of the pattern quilt) And lastly this dark red batik print for the inner border. See the photo from my pattern above. It will take the place of the dark pink.


I guess I'm really just making a dark color version of the quilt from the pattern, but I'm not using florals and other prints, just dots and stripes.