As part of the size evaluation journey I've been taking with the various flimsies hanging around, I cast my eye on the two piles of Leader-Ender challenge blocks lurking about:
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| 120 at 6" finished |
and Easy-Breezy.
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| 80 at 8" finished |
With the E-B blocks, I had enough for an 8x10 layout for a finish of 64"x80". I tried playing around with an on-point layout in an attempt to expand the space. . .
. . . but it seemed heavy and clunky.
What was it about Bonnie Hunter's that made it look lighter, freer? Upon closer examination, I finally noticed the posts and sashes she'd inserted between the blocks.
Oh, well adding 2" to each block is a game changer! For the moment, I'm considering a 6x8 setting with 5" borders (and perhaps making another 16 blocks for a second top), or a 7x9 setting without borders, and using the excess blocks in the back. At least I've explored options (and blogged here for posterity), and that pile is resting comfortably in the POUT drawer again.
The Triple Treat blocks had been expanded from the original 90 to a total of 120 for a nicer (to my eye) layout.
So, up on the design wall went one of the pinned 10-pack of blocks, exploring the idea of 1" (finished) posts and sashes (they worked so well with the Easy-Breezy blocks!)
I really like the openness of this look and the secondary patterns emerging. What's taken me 16 months to notice, however, is the same thing you've probably picked out already. I swear--it's amazing what one's eye will just gloss right over!
As soon as I caught it this morning, I pulled the entire pile out and double-checked every block ("white-white, white-white, white-white..." 119 times). By pure good luck, I'd pulled the only mistaken block and played with it up on the design wall. I'm sure, otherwise, it would've been incorporated into the finished top without ever having been corrected along the way.
I thought "how would I make a mistake in that block?" and there was the answer looking at me. Certainly with fairisle knitting the best way I found to find a mistake was to take a photo. Somehow it gives you that extra distance to see what is there rather than what you were expecting to see.
ReplyDeleteTo be sure, the camera is your best friend! Most of the mistakes I find are because I'm preparing a blog post and reviewing the pictures I took.
DeleteAnother good way to find mistakes is to claim, in front of other quilters, that you haven't made a single one.
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The white squares look like a pathway leading to the cornerstone....so maybe the errant square is a speed bump? I do like the setting solution you came up with.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I've made note of, and printed off, nearly all the L&E challenges, but I have yet to make blocks, let alone entire quilts, out of them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was doing my completist thing and reading her blog from the pilot entry toward the current time, I yearned to participate in some of the by-gone challenges. Having done a few now (and gotten a more realistic perspective on time), I can take 'em or leave 'em. Plenty of my own minds-eye projects to turn into LE challenges!
DeleteLiterally LOLing about the speed bump,
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