Unit 2 Instructions
Unit 2 taught me a few things. If you have been following along from the beginning, including my search for fabrics, you know that I ended up with more different fabrics than I really needed, as some didn't match up as well as I really wanted. I washed all of the fabrics and kept them on hand as I have been proceeding. A 48" quilt done in fabrics looks a lot different "on the ground" than a 7 5/8" square needlepoint! I found myself wanting to make adjustments... not liking one color next to another as well as I thought I would. I ended up getting myself in trouble, which I corrected to my satisfaction, and at the end of this unit I will show you what I did that I didn't like.
I need to make it clear at this point that I have not been happy with the oranges that I found. As I am working, I find myself giving in to this disatisfacton and shifting or substituting colors. This isn't really a problem. The only real "errors" that you can make here are to include a color that just doesn't go with the others, i.e. one that doesn't "scan", or to put two colors that are too similar next to each other. I am going to continue to refer to the colors in accordance with the original color chart, as Ann did the needlepoint, but I will point out to you where I did something different. Please read all the way through the instructions before cutting. You may want to make an adjustment to one of my cuts, or to my colors.
For Unit 2 (which will not be adjacent to Unit 1 in the finished product), you will be making two more vertical rows or columns.
For Row 1, cut the following, all from 6 1/2" strips:
Medium Yellow 13 1/2"
Blue 18 1/2"
Dark Orange 7 1/2" (Note: I substituted a lighter orange.)
Cream 10 1/2" (Note: I previously told you to set the Cream aside. You are going to need a larger, wider piece of it than from the other colors. For this piece, I cut a 6 1/2" strip going the narrow dimension of the fabric, leaving a larger piece. This probably wasn't really necessary, as there should be more than enough of the cream, but that's what I did.)
For Row 2, cut the following, all from 6 1/2" strips:
Medium Green 19 1/2"
Yello Orange 11 1/2"
Lilac 18 1/2"
Sew the pieces into columns as shown in this picture:
Row 1 is Medium Yellow, Blue, in my case a light pinkish orange, then cream (which shows as white here)
Row 2 is Moss Green, Dark Orange, and Lilac
Here I am showing Unit 1 next to Unit 2. They will not be adjacent in the finished quilt, but I wanted you to see the colors all together so I could explain the color problem that I found myself with. These colors are all somewhat toward a pastel family, and look, or "scan" together pretty well (to me). I originall made Row 2 with a darker green and a darker orange, and I just did not like the result:
Here is the same picture, with my first Row 2 laid on top of the second one. The green is, to me, too dark for the other colors, and the "orange" is too bright.
The point of showing you what I did that I didn't like, and changed, is to show you that this isn't a scientific formula. If something happens that you don't like, change it. It is far more important that all the colors you use please you, individually and together, than that they match my (or anyone else's!) pre-set ideas. There are really only three things you can do wrong here: use colors you don't like or that don't fit; put two like colors side by side, and have the seams line up. Note the lilac piece in the lower right. Its seam almost matches the blue in the row next to it. When I did it over (photo above), I made the lilac an inch longer. If I were doing it a third time (which I'm not!) I would make it two inches longer yet. So you see that you can make adjustments as you go.
These are the last two vertical rows for this quilt. Units 3 and 4 will introduce some new combinations.