Featherstone Quiltworks

Yesterday Judy L posted the layout and fabric requirements on her Stash Quilt.  I arranged my blocks and chose my setting triangles/border fabric.  It occurred to me today that since I have some rosy blocks, and my setting triangles will be a rosy fabric, the rosy blocks on the edges will kind of disappear into the setting triangles and make the quilt look a little odd.  Or a lot odd.  So I moved all the red blocks to the interior of my layout:

Much better.  I also added in the four new blocks that will match the setting fabric, and laid out the setting fabric underneath some of my blocks so I can get a better idea of what my colors are going to look like:

So far I’m liking it!  Then I starting play with my Bears in the Farmhouse (or Bears in the North Woods) blocks (also Judy Laquidara’s pattern).  My original plan was to mix the six various motifs in each four-bear-paw block, with this green check I really liked as the center square in the sashing.  Put it all together, and . . .

I didn’t like it.  The green is too wimpy — not enough contrast.  The four varied motifs are okay, but each block takes four, and there are only six different designs.  It will be hard not to have them too close together.  Take Two:

I like the burgundy center much better (my sashings and setting blocks won’t be scrappy; they will all be as pictured above).  And I decided to use one motif per block, and rotate it like Judy rotated her stripes.  A bonus is there won’t be an up or down to this quilt.

Now that I’m pretty sure that I know what these blocks are going to look like, I feel much more confident about sewing some triangles together!

Sue