Chosen fabrics for Cowboys Quilt
Electric Quilt sketch of quilt
Large yellow areas are for the cowboy fabric.
Small yellow squares are lasso.
Small brown squares are the button fabric.
Original Premium Star block
I removed the triangles to make the piecing easier and faster.
A few days ago I created a quilt design in Electric Quilt. I had figured that I could get four 10.5” cuts from each width of cowboy fabric, so I chose a five-patch block from which I’ll create 10” finished pieced blocks. The block is called Premium Star and looks sort of like a Bear’s Paw block. However I modified it to get rid of the “teeth” or “claws” to make the block quicker to piece. The cowboy fabric will be used in large unpieced 10” fin. blocks. The cowboys are pretty big so the large block should capture one whole cowboy. I don’t plan to fussy cut.
I bought a couple more fabrics for the cowboy quilt: the lasso fabric in tan/brown and a light purple with stars that kind of remind me of spurs. I had a lot of purples in my stash and took those along with me to the store. I also pulled from my stash a brown button fabric with multi colors in it, including a blue that I’m pretending is purple. This is the fabric I’m using to bridge the purple and yellow colors. I’m not using much of it, but it should be enough to pull the color scheme together.
Once I had my purchases at home I tried out the stash purples. I had enough of a dark for the border and all of the pieced blocks. The light purple star fabric is a constant in the pieced blocks, as well. I needed a medium to medium dark as a step between dark and light so I tried out several possibilities. I had a couple of prints that were almost as dark as the darkest purple, and as what I’m calling snakeskin and barbed wire, they fit the cowboy theme well. Two solids were great candidates as medium purples, but seemed rather boring against the solid dark. A mottled medium purple was also a contender, but seemed a little too similar to the light purple star.
I eliminated the solids and considered the prints. In the end, I chose to use the snakeskin print in the blocks that had the lasso fabric in the center. Because the barbed wire had the same swirly effect as the lasso, I chose to pair it with the fabrics that contain the button fabric. Even though there isn’t much value (light/medium/dark) difference between the dark purple, snakeskin and barbed wire, I am happy--at least for now--to be adding to the cowboy theme.
Last night I began sewing the pieced blocks. I’ll work on them some more tonight.
Main prints: star, cowboy, lasso and button
Close-up of button fabric
Trying out purples to go with dark (left) and light (right).
Like the snakeskin look for the cowboy theme, but not much value difference with the dark.
Swirly vines remind me of barbed wire. Again, great for the theme, but little contrast with the dark.
Better value difference, but solid next to solid seems boring.
Ditto
Mottled fabric has the value difference I want, but seems too much like mottled star.
Once I had my purchases at home I tried out the stash purples. I had enough of a dark for the border and all of the pieced blocks. The light purple star fabric is a constant in the pieced blocks, as well. I needed a medium to medium dark as a step between dark and light so I tried out several possibilities. I had a couple of prints that were almost as dark as the darkest purple, and as what I’m calling snakeskin and barbed wire, they fit the cowboy theme well. Two solids were great candidates as medium purples, but seemed rather boring against the solid dark. A mottled medium purple was also a contender, but seemed a little too similar to the light purple star.
Trying three "middle" favorites with the "for sures".
The Winners!
I eliminated the solids and considered the prints. In the end, I chose to use the snakeskin print in the blocks that had the lasso fabric in the center. Because the barbed wire had the same swirly effect as the lasso, I chose to pair it with the fabrics that contain the button fabric. Even though there isn’t much value (light/medium/dark) difference between the dark purple, snakeskin and barbed wire, I am happy--at least for now--to be adding to the cowboy theme.
Last night I began sewing the pieced blocks. I’ll work on them some more tonight.
Design notes
See more progress on: Make cowboy quilt
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.