A finish, so a start!

 I'm making good progress on my UFOs, and have finished this pinwheel quilt I started in 2005!  I enjoyed making it from a charm pack plus various light fabrics, but once it was a top, didn't really like it - a bit too 'old lady' for my taste!  But now it's done and will wing its way to Ann Hill for her Alzheimer's fundraiser, and perhaps find a good home with an old lady!

 

 

Jane gave me good advice about the binding: either burgundy or gutsy ochre was the recommendation.  The burgundy wasn't right, but the gutsy ochre was perfect (and used up one of those fat quarters I can't believe I ever bought - bonus!)

 

So now I'm allowed to start something new, and open my jelly roll!  This turned out to be a perplexing experience.  The fabrics are all gorgeous, but how are you supposed to use them?

 

 

The lights are really very light, but there aren't enough to use as background, and too many to ignore.

 

The darks are dark, and again, a strange number.

 

The mediums (gorgeous, gorgeous!) are the majority of the fabrics, but how on earth do you make these all play together?  Most of the patterns in books I have found suggest you use a jelly roll, then a background fabric.  Good idea, but what do I use with these?  A light would have to be very light to make the light fabrics stand out, and a dark would have to be similarly dark! 

 

Here is the design I chose, from Pam and Nicky Lintott's 'Jelly Roll Quilts' book, but you can see how their jelly roll was similar to mine, in having quite a range of values, with very light ones, which to me make a very wishy washy result.  (And I don't do wishy washy!)  So, my solution?  I'm using the light fabrics as background, and adding other lights from my stash.  The darks and mediums will make the stars, and I'm adding a few fabrics from my stash to make up the numbers of darks.

 

 

Here's the first block - so far so good!