Already while finishing Why Not? I kept english paper piecing more squares. I had been pondering an idea for a long time and wanted to get it out of my system. I wanted to make sort of a giant rectangular scrappy granny square and just kept adding fabrics from my scrap bins.
But once I reached this size I realized I didn't like it. I still liked the idea but my color choices didn't satisfy me plus the whole process was getting annoying.
I decided I was going to look at it as just a piece of fabric to work with. And what better thing than to cut it up? I made a few paper mockups to help me decide where I wanted to cut through.
Then braced myself and just did it.
At this point I put the pieces up on my design wall and evaluated different fabrics to add. I also pulled a vintage floral bed sheet and I considered it for a long time.
In the end I felt the cut up fabric was already colorful enough and I'd rather wanted to add another graphic element than more color. So rather neutral tones but with strong zig-zag prints were meant to be. Up to this point I had been thinking I wanted the pieces to be floating towards each other attempting to form a whole unit again. But with the introduction of the zig-zag a new energy came into play. A different force that was clearly rather pushing apart than pulling together. So I had to let go of that thought.
The piecing posed its challenges but with the help of some paper templates I managed to puzzle piece and fill in the oddly shaped areas.
Unpicking and resewing was not uncommon as well. In the end I was quite pleased with the finished top.
Yet I felt something was missing. More about that later.
Once the top was finished I realized the vintage bed sheet would be the perfect backing. It has a grandmother appeal reminding me of the original granny square idea, the color matches perfectly, and if one looked at the top and thought of broken old porcelain dishes there was even an additional connotation.
As in the past I resorted to paper copies of the top to help me decide how to quilt. This is always a moment in the quilt making process difficult for me. The quilting can change the look once again and even the drawings on the paper copies are only that much of a help as it's only a hint of how it will look.
Also thread color choice is not always obvious and depends if you want the color of the quilting to blend in or to show up as an additional element. And once you have made up your mind you'll never know how it would have looked otherwise. Deciding means letting go.
