01 February 2018

Spectrum


Last year I took a break from my Christmas quilting to finish a wall quilt not on my WIP list. I'd picked up the Kona Color Chart panel on clearance, and the finished quilt helps me more accurately pick colors now when I have to order a solid to finish an ongoing project. The bonus is I love looking at the wide range of colors!

Now I've done it again with Hoffman's batik color sampler. I thought the Kona solids were cool... oh, man, am I ever in love now!!!


This was one of my favorite quilting projects of all time, not only because, as my dear friend Mrs. Micawber says, I've never met a batik I didn't like, but also because the color names were so much fun as I straight-line quilted past each one!


The unbound quilt was hanging on my living room quilt rack when my little 8-year-old neighbor came over to work on her Eiffel Tower quilt, and she was equally entertained by the color names. She spent the next hour and a half picking out names for my future cats from the colorful list. Why not? She has a little dog named...


And she knows all too well my dear husband's nickname...


Some of the color names make me scratch my head, while others make me giggle. Some of the color names make me feel the color.










Initially, I had planned to bind the quilt with black strips I cut myself, but by the time I got done quilting, I was batik-addicted once again. I cut strips from 30 of the hand-dyes in my stash, which has been nearly decimated in the last two years, which means, eventually, I'm going to have to stock up again. Oh, darn!!! Boy, is this color chart going to come in handy!!!

I measured the circumference of the unbound quilt, and Lizard helped me with the math. He came up with 5.4 inches of each strip to make a long enough binding. That seemed awful short to me, but I trusted his computations and cut six-inch lengths of each color before stitching my binding together. I didn't have much more than six inches of some of my most favorite colors, and other color remnants are only 10 to 12 inches long. Yes, I'm definitely going to have to do some shopping again. But not until I finish a few more quilts. I promise.










The binding was a lot of work, but it is SO worth it!


The binding ended up being too long, and I'm still not quite sure how that happened. It had to be me adding half an inch to each 5.4 inches I needed (you know, for seams), not Lizard's calculations. I had to remove seven colors. Had I pinned the binding on before attaching it, I would have picked different colors to eliminate. Ha ha! That will teach me.






The best part is I have enough leftovers to bind two or three more quilts. I've got several ideas in my head for striping, and no two will be alike because I've completely run out of a few colors. And the leftover triangles... oh, will those be fun!!!


I may do this exact same panel again one day, but with a large border so it can be a lap quilt. Who needs to watch TV if you can cuddle up in these color samples and dream of future projects?!?


I may have to do a third one, too, because I've seen that some people made their samplers into bags. I would proudly carry a bag made from this panel, and I think I'd free-motion quilt some fun designs into each color because the samples are so small, it would be easy to move the quilt around on the sewing machine.

This wall quilt has left me longing to work with batiks again. I can't help but yearn to finish up a specific WIP after finishing this fun project...


Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

19 comments :

  1. Can't go wrong with future cat name picking. haha February? Since when did February become a color? Looks like they just randomly stopped on sections of the dictionary for some.

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    1. I thought the color suits February pretty well, Pat, especially at 6,000+feet of elevation. Chilly! And now it looks like we get six more weeks of winter... or six more weeks of quilting!!! Ha ha!

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  2. I love the color names.....it would be ordinary to see a gray named misty, or smoke, or pebble, but February! Perfect! And now, if I every acquire a gray cat, her name will be February!! Thanks for the grin and giggle!

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    1. GrammaJudyB, you cracked me up! I think we're going to start a new trend in cat names!!! The colors in this truly are spectacular (I wish I had a fat quarter of each!!!), but the names, oh, the names!

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  3. oh wow I love that the color samples are on fabric!

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    1. Me, too, Maggie! It's so neat to be able to accurately match fabrics now by just picking from the wall quilt fabric charts!

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  4. Very pretty color chart quilts. I might have to look for a panel or two now.

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    1. I agree, Tu-Na! I hope you can find one or two, because they really are fun to work with.

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  5. Loving the batik color names! I just adore batiks but they are sooo expensive, they seem to run about $15 a yard? I have to improve my technique.

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    1. Watch for sales, Tami! That's predominantly how I pick up my stash, and although I've obliterated it in the last couple of years, I do have a pretty wide range of colors. I think the most I paid was $7 a yard...

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    2. PS: I hear Tuesday Morning regularly has a good supply of inexpensive batik pre-cuts! I will have to check that out!

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  6. What a great idea and such fun quilts! Here in the Pacific Northwest that color is perfect for February!

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    1. Thanks, Jann! It's comforting to know gray isn't just a Colorado color in February! (I guess Eagles fans would say it's a pretty hot color right now, especially when combined with green, don't you think???) Ha ha ha!

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  7. I haven't decided what I want to do with the panel that I received as a gift. Thanks for pointing out that I could make it into a quilt!!

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    1. I can't wait to see what you do with it, Joy. I know whatever you do, it's going to be fabulous!

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  8. Oh, how fun are your quilts of many colors! That rainbow binding is just over the top lovely.

    "February". They got that one right. :D

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    1. Funny how you and I both get the February zing, Sue! I think I have to do another rainbow binding... or six!!!

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  9. And just imagine, someone has the job of coming up with those names! I like the multi-colored binding. No matter how many times I measure and figure for my binding I always have too much!

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    1. Could you imagine having that for a job, Sandy?!? I thought dyeing was fun... I think I’d go into (happy) hyperdrive if I had to come up with names, too!!!

      Good to know I’m not going out of my mind with my binding measurements!

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