Sunday, 8 June 2008

Green and yellow

I made the mistake of mentioning to one of my colleagues that I was going to make a quilt for her impending grandchild. 'Oh, they will be so pleased! They would like green and yellow, to match the nursery.' Well, I don't do pastels and I don't do commissions either, so that information put me in a bit of a spin. How could I make a satisfying (to me!) quilt only using green and yellow? If I could have used darks, mediums and lights, it would have been fine, but using baby colours was tricky.

After some research, I decided that Irish Chain would be possible in green and yellow, with a cream background. I started by making some ninepatches. I had played around with crayons and graph paper, hoping to make the yellow go one way, and the green go the other, but the fact that one colour had to be in the centres spoiled the flow. Also, the design had a very diagonal appearance, which I didn't like at all.



Back to the drawing board (or graph paper) and then I came up with this design. The colours are alternate in each row, one with a yellow centre and the next with a green. This looked much better, and the solid blocks inbetween the pieced blocks made it grow really fast!


In no time at all I had completed enough blocks for the main part of the top. I managed to find enough pastels in my stash to keep the gentle tone.

Now I have to decide how to complete it. A small cream border to make the chain float, then yellow and bind with green? What better ideas do you have?

7 comments:

Sew Create It - Jane said...

It's so hard to work on something that is for someone else.

How about extending the chain into the border...or even out to the corners?

Helen in the UK said...

This is SO pretty! I think green is perfect for the binding, I always tend to go for the strongest or darkest colour for binding as it finishes a quilt nicely and doesn't show the dirt so much as a light :)

loulee said...

I'm with you and Helen, a nice green binding. This is very pretty. How are your embroidery skills? A little something in the cream patches?

Unknown said...

isn't it difficult making yourself finish something in someone else's colour choices - looks lovely though. I'd be inclined to do a skinny yellow border say half inch and then a slightly thicker green one then a wide cream one and bind in green - but hey what do I know?

Nancy said...

The quilt is lovely. I like Jane's suggestion to continue the chain into the border. I always like that in a quilt, as it's so unexpected, a nice surprise.

Diana said...

Any of the above finishes would be great. I like the idea of extending the colors into the borders. Do you have enough fabric for a pieced border with the squares?

black bear cabin said...

wow...you sure made that fast! but with specific color guides...what a pain! of course, my favorite color is green...so i think a green border would look great!
good luck!
lisajo