Saturday, August 9, 2014

KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP

Hi everyone!!!  I'm back after my shoulder surgery.  Not much sewing then.  I tried my hand at English paper piecing and piecing by hand.  I'd rather knit.  Although I learned to quilt by hand piecing, I would rather spend my quiet sitting time knitting, because as I am hand piecing, all I can think about is how much faster I could do it by machine. 

Anyway,
I have had the idea for two miniatures in my head for a long time.  I made the first one which is Chasing Liberty.  Which I am proud to say was accepted into Houston this fall, so if you are lucky enough to go, you can see it. 
The other was a pineapple that was based on a place from a favorite book, and was going to be made with a stack of hand dyed grey gradations that I bought for another project.  It wasn't just a pineapple. The design depended on careful mapping of the colors. I mapped out the colors on the final layout, and mapped each of the 60+ blocks. 

The fabric choice works in one design, but not in another .  My pretty much defunct Log cabin with 3" blocks looks great with the greys, but the pineapples, not so much.
I thought that the shades would work.. as you can see in my preview, but with each block taking 45 minutes to an hour to make.. I had to know at what point to give up the idea.  I made several blocks that went from the light center square to the outside edge.. (not shown).  I could see by doing this that my idea would never work. 

So, the lesson being.  To keep trying is always a great plan, as long as you know when the time has come to give up and try something else.  So, it is back to the drawing board for me.

No big plans so far...
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1 comment:

  1. LarenJanuary 1, 2018 at 4:27 PM

    Hi Teri, I hope you don't mind a comment on an old post. I've just recently become obsessed with pineapple blocks. And I've just found your blog. I think you're mostly right about the gradation on the grey pineapple blocks - except for bottom, lightest one. I think that one works. For me it works because although there is gradation, that gradation still highlights the pineapple pattern (which is lost on the darker blocks. The lighter block would be even more graduated if the top two right finishing triangles were a smidge darker and the same with the pineapple points going into it (does that make sense?). Anyway, love your blog and I might even try my hand at a mini quilt, but I'll be starting with something pretty simple!!

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