Nowadays, I do much of the designwork for my pieced designs using EQ7. It gives instant gratification to color changes, which is nice, thereby allowing me to discover things I might not like before I bother to cut and sew fabric. I have the center of this blooming carpenter's star done, and am in the process of piecing the 24 outer diamonds. With 8 of them finished, I layed out the pieces to see how it looked, and was a little disappointed how the colors all seem to merge. Now, mind you, this quilt is being made all in similar cool tones, so I know there won't be as much contrast as this quilt has, but still. This needs to be better defined than it is. So I returned to EQ7 to see what I could do. Booger (aka blogger) won't take my link, so here it is http://www.quiltsoflove.blogspot.com/2011/09/got-butterflies.htmlWhat I found was interesting...Having the purple sections (of the outer diamonds) towards the inside (upper left) left the boundary of the pieced 8 green squares much less defined than when the greens were towards the inside (upper right). This is much crisper to me. I need these pieced squares to be defined and not just blur into the diamonds, like they do in my actual picture above.
I also played with the placement of the center diamonds. Teals to the inside or blues??... Placing the teal to the center makes the center not appear as this bright spot, and the light blue points further help to define the 8 leafy squares. So right now, the bottom right is my preferred layout. What is your's?...and why?
Margaret,
ReplyDeleteLove your color choices! I am working on a Star of Bethlehem right now as well.
I agree, the bottom right seems to have just the right color placement - it sparkles!
I like the bottom right one too. I think the yellow towards the flower blocks looks like the sun shining behind them. I also like the more muted center of that one too. All in all I love this quilt design and the colors are just the kind I like. I can't wait to see more of it come together.
ReplyDeleteCindy
Mine is the bottom right one too. This is going to be an amazing quilt Margaret. It is a wonderful design and with your exquisite quilting, it is going to be a winner. All the very best! I just wish you'll enter it into a show I get to see - the Pacific International Quilt Festival (Santa Clara) 2012 maybe? :)
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Bottom Right is #1 followed by top left. I would be happy with either.
ReplyDeleteWow, Margaret, great process post. At first I didn't see a problem with the first layout but as you moved the colors I saw what you were saying and I heartily agree the bottom right one strikes just the right balance of flow and pop. Will be a(quilt) show stopper for sure!
ReplyDeleteYou are making me both excited and nervous about trying one of these one day!