Accidental Cohesion

Today is a Friday that just doesn't feel like Friday at all.  My kids had a 1/2 day yesterday and no school today -- something I don't look forward to ever.  It's hard enough keeping up with the demands of a business when you work from home and they go to school 5 days a week.  Since Thanksgiving, however, I think there has only been one 5 day week.  They have had a couple half days for snow, a few holidays, and a couple of "teacher workdays".  Come on, teachers...do you really work on these??!  Yesterday after they got home, my boys took off unexpectedly with my mom for the night.  What mother doesn't welcome the loss of a couple wild boys for a day??!...Then my mom called this morning to see if might be alright to keep them until  tomorrow.  Oh seriously, are you kidding??!  Why would I give a second thought to that pair maybe wearing dirty underwear?!  Of course they can stay.  This happened all on the cusp of my husband (who took the day off too - he's got vacation days to burn...seems he stopped accruing them months ago and needs to burn down the balance.  What a fate!  That doesn't happen to a work-at-home mom!).  Anyhow, he was on his way out with my daughter, taking her skiing for the afternoon.  Joy...5 straight, uninterrupted hours of sewing.  I was getting a quilt UPS today that needs to be done next, so I didn't have another client quilt to do all day.  You know what that means.  Yup, sewing just for me.  My favorite.

I have been muddling right along with my silk top.  Until today, that is.  Go figure.  Whenever I have too much time to sew, I always find a way to mess that up.  I had it all together up to the dark brown octagon, and was starting to make the triangle pieces.  They were supposed to be a pieced/scrappy look from 3 tan and gold fabrics.  I stitched a bunch of these together to discover how very much I hated the scrappy look and the tan fabrics with the quilt.  Wouldn't you know!... So, initially I figured I'd be ordering/purchasing more green fabric to do the triangles in green (when all else fails, think green.  Green fixes everything!), but I couldn't remember which green I had.   Being frugal, I didn't want to order 2 shades of green to find out which one I had a half yard of!  Then I realized I had light blue, and it seemed like I even had enough of it.  When I staged the light blue next to the chartreuse smaller triangles, I was unsure that I liked it, but since I had the fabric, I was going with it anyways.  Turns out, I do need a quarter yard anyhow, but I did manage to get 6 of the 8 baby blue/chartreuse triangles made.  Lucky for me Lady Fingers sells quarter yards!  That's easier than trekking around town looking.

In the end, I think I may have stumbled upon a color combination that I like better than any I  have auditioned.  It's more cohesive.  I must admit, I am not a fan of blue and brown together, but the yellowy greens temper that feeling.  The other plus is that the quilting will be so pretty on the soft and light blue.  Quilting is always prettier and more evident on lighter colors.  Like I needed a reason to purchase a couple cones of light blue silk thread :-)

It is coming along, as you can see.  The jury is definitely out on whether or not to interface.  While the fabric still feels soft and silky, the joints are a tad thicker.  I had a few that I needed to really match well, and several others that I am covering with decorative diamonds (so I can cut away the bulk from behind).  The interfacing does not keep the pieces from stretching if they are bias because it is a knit interfacing. Once the blocks are made, though, it does help them to hold their shape.  The thing that the interfacing does that annoys me is this.  It makes it hard to press the seams without wanting to use too much iron heat.  The polyester doesn't want to press down like the silk does.  Small challenges. 

All in all, it is outside of my typically-chosen and preferred color palate, but it is growing on me.  I love green and gravitate towards it and purple.  I think the green will win me over, even though it has brown on it!