Monday, January 2, 2012

Orca Bay Big Reveal... Parts 7/8


The grand finale of Orca Bay, Bonnie Hunter's 2011 Mystery Quilt, has been revealed.  As expected, it is a beautiful, beautiful quilt, well worth all the cutting and sewing, cutting and sewing we participants have all been doing since the week preceeding Thanksgiving.  I always enjoy Bonnie's mysteries so much... watching each individual's quilt as it unfolds.. each one is different and likewise beautiful in it's own way.

Here is a picture of my progress so far..  With all components finished, I have assembled this much of the quilt..

I am, however in a quandry about my little periwinkle blue string blocks, which form the cornerstones of the pieced sashing.  They play a big role in the way the eye "travels" around the quilt and mine are just too monochromatic, in my opinion.  I do not feel that you can actually "see" the direction of the strings because the blocks are so tonal, even though I used a wide variety of fabrics when making them.  And although I generally love periwinkle blue with red and white, I am wondering if the periwinkle is a vibrant enough color or if I should have gone with something more in the jewel tones.  What do you think??  IN ADDITION, now that I have three rows of them together, I see that although I have them all traveling in the same respective direction, as I should, they are wrong!!  The "strings" should be pointing TOWARDS the light Ohio Stars, instead of away!

So, my possible solutions.

1.  Do nothing.. which isn't going to work for me, because although I am NOT a perfectionist, I know I am not going to be happy with it the way it is..

2.  Take apart.. turn the blue blocks in the right direction and re-assemble. (Which will ease my mind because I know it is made correctly, but isn't going to change the overall appearance that much because the blocks will still be fairly monochromatic with no real contrast amongst them, so they still won't give the eye that direction of travel they should.

3.  Split the blue blocks and add a few new strings with more contrast, sew them back up, re-square them and put them back in the quilt.

4.  Make 64 NEW blocks in a more vibrant color (I am thinking greens in the teal family or gold/cheddar) and not use the periwinkle blocks in this quilt at all.

What do you all think??