2006 Mystery Quilt
Step One
Colors and Fabric Amounts
AS stated above, the end result here will be either one or two 48" square quilt tops, to which you will want to add 6" borders. I will leave it to you to choose your border material to match what you produce. Obviously, that can wait till much later in the project. Since I am, though pure happenstance, posting this at the start of the Treadle On fund raising drive, I suppose I might as well think of them as connected, and I will try to post regularly through this month (Feb. '06) and have the finished project up by March 1. Don't figure on holding me to that... that's just what I'm going to TRY to do.
Fabric:
The original works I am doing this from used solids, in softer but bright colors. Here is the pallette. I pulled these colors from Ann's work by scanning it, then isolating solid color areas, so all of the color samples are not the same size, nor, given the vagaries of computer color reproduction, are they as perfect as I might like. As I said, it is more important that the colors work together, and that you like them, than that they are exactly what is shown here.
I have now purchassed my own colors, after going to yet a third fabric store, and I have spent the better part of a day photographing them in different lights, trying to get them to show up as true as possible. I have inserted the scans of my fabric beneath each sample of Ann's colors from the original work. Beneath each fabric scan I have added my comment as to how true to life I think the scan is. That's the best I can do, folks. From this point, as far as color, you are on your own.
01 - light violet
Note: This one is right on.
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02 - light yellow
Note: probably looks more like cream here, but the actual fabric is very close.
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03 - light orange
Note: This one is pretty right on the color
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04 - medium yellow
Note: Pretty good...
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05 - medium blue
Note: This one is just a trifle dull compared to the needlepoint, but not bad.
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06 - medium green
Note: this one is maybe a little dull, but not bad. |
07 - mossy green
Note: This one is pretty good.
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08 - yellow orange
Note: I like this one
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09 - cream
Note: my reaction is the picture is a little grey, but, close. |
10 - dark orange
Note: This is a little toward salmon, but best I could do.
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11 - red
Note: this shows up brighter than it really is... go for a brickier tone like the needlepoint
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12 - orange red
Note: This is a bit darker than reality... actually, this looks more like 11 - red actually looks. |
13 - black
Note: This, too appears more intense here than in reality. A little duller is better. |
You will need only a little of the red, orange red, and black. You will need either one or two fat quarters, or a half-yard of each of the other colors, except for the Cream. Because you are going to need larger pieces of it, you will not be able to use fat quarters. In fact, you would be wise to buy at least 2/3 yd. or even a whole yard of this one. On a smaller piece, any mistake can leave you without enough fabric for recovery. Ann had some substitutions on the second one of her works that made it a little different than the first one... a little softer and more subtle. Basically, she used some softer shades of the blues and greens... kind of a silver green and silver blue. Not critical.
I think you could do this with very small flowered prints and good a good effect. Aunt Gracie's or similar small print 30's repros would also probably work well. I am not real good at picturing things differently only I have seen them a certain way, but I've done a lot of work with 30's stuff and I can see it in this application.
I mentioned that I would include comments re buying different amounts of fabric if you wanted to vary the size and/or proportions of the quilts. Basically, it's not rocket science... if you want to change the proportions and do the project as a rectangle rather than a square, you'll need more fabric. To go from a 4' square to a 4' x 5' square, you're going to need about 20% more fabric. The pattern itself won't be a problem. You might also want to make the project smaller... again, no problem. You'll need less fabric. All that making a rectangle instead of a square will require is that you vary some dimensions when you cut your pieces (which will be in Step Two), and I will cover that. In fact, maybe I'll make a treadle top along with the quilts as part of my instructions... a nice small approach for those who want to work small initially. Once you've made these, you'll make more!
OK... you should be able to get off and running for at least the preparation stage. I hope to get my fabric this week, and start on the nexct step quickly enough to post your cutting instructions before the weekend.
The Mysterious Captain Dick
PS: Some of you will be tempted to take down steps in advance and not do the project till after you can see what it is... don't forget the Treadleonian Dragon and what he does to folks who cheat on mystery quilts!!!! The fun of these is in doing them as you go and enjoying the unveiling of the result.
A couple of people posted me with questions about the color
selection, and I think my answer to them might be helpful, so here it is:
"Hi Captain,
just wondering if it would matter if I used completely different colour, but
used the same depth of colour? "
"Use anything you like that you think will all go together. The point is not the specific color arrangement, but to use a variety of colors that will look good together when used in a pleasing arrangement... then additional decoration will be added via fusible applique."
I spent this morning cleaning up my sewing room, so I can use it. I still have a lot of chores to do, but I hope to spend some time this afternoon or tonight writing up a discussion of size determination (in case you want to do a different size than I am using) and enough guidance that you can start cutting. I also need to get at my 30's repro stash and pull some colors to try for the treadle top version. If that works, I'll post a picture of the fabrics I choose for that, too.
Dick
Next Step:
OK... the next step is easy. Once you have all your fabrics, wash and iron them. You should be able to wash all but the red and black together. Wash them together with each other, but with noting else except maybe jeans, and I'd hesitate at that.
Dick
I'll start on the cutting instructions tomorrow. I'm beat right now and I have a crick in my neck shoulder area from hunching over the computer...
Some Discussion of Cutting and Project Size
At this point, you should have bought your fabric and “processed”
it, i.e. washed and ironed it for shrinkage. You’re now ready to actually
start cutting and sewing this thing. However, you have to decide exactly how
you are going to approach it and what you want to do with it.
Since we are assuming you have your fabric, we can also assume that if you
have planned any different approach to color than the bright solids I suggested,
you are happy with your choices and as far as color distribution changes,
you will be on your own. As far as structure goes, if you are going to simply
follow the instructions (what a concept!), you will have no trouble. Just
do what I tell you, no adjustments to the measurements or structure will be
necessary.
On the other hand, if you want to change the size for any reason, you are
going to have to do some math… fairly simple math, but necessary. Probably
the most likely change anyone would want to make is if they don’t want
a square lap quilt, but a rectangular bed quilt. Let’s deal with the
changes necessary to do that first… then I think you’ll easily
see how to approach making any other adjustments.
Project Concept
The basic concept of this project is a quilt of 8 vertical rows. As designed,
each row is 6” wide, making a finished top with a width of 48”.
The design will lead you to make the vertical rows 48” high (or long),
so the finished top will be 48” square. To this you add a 6” border
all round, and you end up with a 60” square finished work. Sounds pretty
straightforward, right?
My instructions will go row by row, or in some cases, 2 rows by 2 rows. DON’T
LEAP AHEAD! That’s the BASIC concept… there will be a couple of
jogs in the road to getting there.
As to cutting, most, NOT ALL, of the cutting will be based on the 6”
finished row measurement, which means you will be cutting 6 1/2” strips
to make the pieces for your row, i.e. the desired finished measurement of
6” plus two 1/4” seam allowances. If you want to make any adjustments
to your own project, this is the point at which to figure them out.
Adjustments
If you want a finished project that will be wider than the design, you have two choices… you can make wider rows or you can add rows. If, for instance, you go for a basic row size of 7”, eight rows will produce a width of 56”; 8” rows will produce 64”, etc. If you go for wider rows, you may also want to widen the borders. I leave it to you to do the math to figure out how big a bed you want to cover and how wide a top you want. Remember that you will have shrinkage the first time the quilt is washed. I’ve seen as much as 8% shrinkage!
Obviously, another alternative is to simply add additional 6” rows.
The first approach will produce a larger quilt with large, striking blocks
of color; the second will produce a more patchy looking, varied quilt. Both
approaches should look good and work well.
That covered adjusting the width. What about adjusting the length? OK…
again, easy math... Figure out how much longer your finished top (or your
bed) is than it is wide. Bed sizes vary. Generally, single beds are something
less than twice as long as wide. Figure out the dimensions you want to finish
with and the percentage of length increase you want. Just as an example, let’s
say you wanted to end up with a finished top that is, rather than square,
40% longer than it is wide. OK, using our initial design size of 48”,
we multiply by 1.40 and we get a finished length of 67.2”. That’s
kind of an odd size, and I would personally probably round it off… maybe
to 70” and figure what percentage that is, or maybe just use an easier
figure to start with, like 50% longer, and then figure I would have some extra
length to tuck under a pillow. This isn’t rocket science, so just do
your thing and make yourself happy as to finished dimension.
However, knowing the finished dimension you want is important because you
also have to decide how you want to get there. As with adjusting the width,
you have two options: you can increase the length of each piece as I tell
you to cut it, making it longer by whatever percentage factor you are using;
or, you can simply stick with my measurements but add additional pieces to
get to the length you want. As in the description for width, if you are increasing
the width of the rows, you will probably want to increase the length of the
individual pieces, to maintain a vista of nice large blocks of color. If you
increased the width by adding additional rows, you will probably want to increase
the length by adding additional pieces, to maintain the busy, scrappy effect
of smaller units of color.
That discussion should pretty well give you what you need to increase the
size of the quilt or alter its proportions. What about making it smaller?
Well, gee, math works in both directions. However, in going smaller, the effect
will probably suffer if you have fewer rows, so I would work strictly with
the idea of narrowing the rows and/or shortening the individual pieces to
produce the size you want. One very interesting possibility in the case of
runners, like for the top of a treadle, would be to make both of the quilts
I will be leading you through, adjusting the size appropriately for your purpose,
and simply join them side by side. Let’s say you were reducing to produce
a 12” high work. Putting the two side by side would give you a 12”
x 24” treadle top runner. Again, I’m going to leave that kind
of adjusting to you.
Now, before leaving this long, philosophical and scientific discussion, I
will, once again, say that everything will be a lot easier if you just do
the designed project, as presented. In other words, do it my way… I
don’t expect everyone will, but I live in hope… This project is
quick and easy, and once you have done one, your mind will burst like a breath
mint ad with ideas for variations that you want to try.
The next step will start actual cutting and assembly. We will do the quilt
top in "Units" and from this point, each step will be presented
via a new link. (Note: After originally doing the instructions, I added direct
links to the first page, but I am leaving the sequential links in place as
well.)
Captain Dick
Link to Instructions for Unit 1