...not one with perfect photos or sewing spaces

My house is never showroom worthy nor the photos on my blog wonderfully styled but I like to think that a lot of the time both are passable. Today is not one of those posts!

Yesterday morning I woke up early, not that unusual for me as I do every weekday, and given the looming Christmas deadline and the list of things I want to make beforehand I thought a tidy up of the sewing room was well in order in the quiet of the morning.

OK so this is actually the before and after picture but you get the idea. Lots of small projects on the go at the same time and this room looks like a bomb or tornado has hit it.

Initially it all went quite well. I usually start at the left of the table near the bookcases and work my way across, putting things away and sorting as I go and initially this is what I did. Then I got to the right of the cutting mat and found my stack of Prima solids from Spotlight that were waiting to be
a) sampled to add to my improv colour chart, ie actual samples cut and pasted to a printed copy that showed the colours poorly
d) cut to make the rings in a baby-sized Single Girl quilt.
In the same area were the already cut centres and backgrounds for said Single Girl and the printed colour chart from Spotlight.

It was a perfect storm. To tidy up in my usual way I had to make both items. I couldn't face stuffing them in the cupboard only to have to pull them out again at some time in the, probably distant, future.

So the stack of fabric on the floor (still there by the way despite today's early morning) is what is left after all the arc pieces were cut and the 1.5" squares were taken for comparison with the colour chart.

The colour placement was chosen with a coloured diagram and cut using these acrylic templates. Made it so fast and accurate...compared to the traced plastic templates. There are still 36 of them.

Soon I had a stack like this.

(See the stack of fabric on the sewing machine...that is one of the gifts I should have been working on.

And after a visit to a relative in hospital and a detour to Spotlight to match the colours to the chart that did not scan at all accurately I came home and stitched the last 3 quarters together.

I was surprised how quick this was to make. The arcs were all cut and the whole top together in 7 or 8 hours.  I am comfortable with curves which no doubt made it quicker than someone who is doing it for the first time and the templates did speed things up dramatically but chain piecing all the arc pieces for one quarter at once meant I sped through.

Now I have this top

and it will go in the cupboard until after Christmas when I have some time to quilt it and to work out who gets it!

NOTE: I reversed the print and the solids from how it is printed in the pattern as I had read several comments that the large amounts of negative space were a turn-off for many about this design and as this was to be sized for a baby I thought the more print to hide the inevitable mess and spills could be a benefit. I was worried about the pattern and how it would look at the centre of the circle joins but I think one spaced as this is can carry it OK.

As this was a sample before I tackle a queen size for our bed now I am wonder how I want to place the fabrics for ours.
I can think of three options
1. Prints for arcs and solids for backgrounds...the way it is written.
2. Tone on tone prints for the arcs (white or cream probably) and a single print for the background like I have done here.
3. Tone on tone for the arcs and then many prints for the centres and "corner" backgrounds (the centre of this quilt) so that area is all the same. I know what I mean, I hope you do too but it is early and the laptop needs charging...


Fabric: Rocket Scientist from Robert Kaufmann (2009)
            Prima Homespun from Spotlight in various colours