A series of Black & White Experiments

Sometimes I have trouble getting inspired (and then no quilts for months).  And then other times one idea leads to another. And another.  And another.  That's what happened last fall. 

I had just finished this rainbow stripes with black sashing for my husband's co-worker.  I've used this pattern before and liked the result.  I was able to use LOTS of novelties including a bunch of browns that had not been used much.

I got to thinking that the same pattern would work well with black and white novelties with bright tone on tone fabrics for the sashing.  And it turned out just as colorful as the first one, even more bright and cheerful.  And I got to use a bunch of those white fabrics that had been in my stash but were rarely used. Which got me to thinking.  What other patterns that I've made before might work well with black & white novelties. 

 How about this Wild Thing pattern that I had gotten from a Fons & Porter magazine  and made so long ago that the original quilt recipient is now in college.  The original I used black & white but only purple for the half square triangles (her favorite color).  This time I did rainbow tone on tones instead.  Wow, it really pops.  And I was able to raid my stash of bright triangles that I had been saving for some day.  I did starch all the HSTs very crisp to minimize the distortion and trim them to size just because I wanted everything to fit together right.  I used black for the large 6.5" squares so I could use a few larger prints.  I was discovering the fun of playing not only with the novelties, but with those bright cheerful solid/tone on tones.

Wild Thing

 

By now the ideas are rolling so I started putting kits together, I was having such fun planning & cutting.  What next? How about the old standby Disappearing 9-patch.  I made sure to use small scatter prints for the black in the center squares so you could still see the novelty.  It worked out well too (and very fast).  This pattern always makes me feel like I'm cheating somehow, it goes together so fast.  Getting the pictures turned the right way took some thought but still quick and easy.

 The last time I made this lattice pattern I alternated red & blue as the lattice colors and used lots of colors in the squares.  It was fun to make but I wasn't all that thrilled with how the colors worked together.  This time with the black & white, I didn't have to worry about novelty colors vs the sashing/lattice.  Piecing the pattern took some serious planning, getting the colors laid out right.  And lots of trips back and forth to the design wall, sewing each block one at time to make sure I got the right colors on the right edges & corners.  And yes I obsessed a bit about getting the colors distributed across the quilt evenly. I could not decide on a border, so ended up carrying the lattice out one more segment so each black square was completely surrounded.  It was on this quilt I realized I had actually used up some bright yellow fabric I had kept for YEARS.  Snd of course I needed one more strip for that last round/border.  After ransacking my sewing room all I was able to find was some bias left from a pieced binding.  So I starched it stiff as paper, basted the edge and used it any way.  How did I not notice I had used the last bit when I was cutting?  I still think I may find a 4" scrap somewhere at some point, probably put away folded up in a piece of red or orange. Or else it's with my silicon pressing mat that disappeared 10 years ago. Sewing gremlins?

The next idea was  to try this pattern called Hugs & Kisses.   I had found it in my Ami Sims Picture Play book, the book that started this whole novelty I spy silliness twenty (?!!?) years ago.  I had made it and swore I never would again.  But hey it's been about 14 years (that child is in high school now), maybe my skills have improved.  I decided to only do the colored squares every alternate intersection, so only half as difficult.  And I was wrong, it still wasn't that fun.  Lots of pins required as well as planning to make sure the checkerboard black & white pattern worked.  And yes I spent way too much time trying to scatter the colored squares evenly.  By the end I gave up; yes there are 3 greens in one diagonal row.

I'm not looking forward to quilting this one - it may hang in the closet for a while.  I think I'll have to do a simple all over meander, avoiding the 3-D squares.  This one is not as colorful as the others despite the colored diamonds.  I fiddled with the sashing for a while then decided since it was already so wild, I'd just run with it.  Hmm, I like the earlier experiments better, but it's still a fun quilt.

One more idea rolling around in my head.  What about Quilter's Cache Frugal Patch.  I've done that one several times using piano key sashing and it always turned out great.  But before I used colored novelties instead of black.  After making the blocks, I put them on the design wall.  But when I added the piano key sashing it was just kind of blah.  No twinkle or shine.  It needed more color somehow.  So I went looking through my binder of previous quilts looking for ideas.  I ran across a pieced sashing with 9 patch corner stones that I had used on a string quilt, using muslin with strings from the quilt.  That might work, but what color?  As I was looking through my baskets of fabrics, I noticed some rainbow striped fabric that I never found the right use.  Aha!  The perfect place and of course it needed black Kona to make it really stand out.  All of a sudden the sashing is the star.  It's very bright and very fun. And it's new owner loves it.

Phew.  My black and white novelty baskets are much empty-er than previous and it was fun trying some new things.  And my tone on tone jewel colors are much depleted as well (need to go shopping for some more orange & red & bright green TOTs).   But I miss the novelty colors.  I think I'll be diving back in the reds, greens & yellow baskets soon.  2018 - 2019 may have started out slow for novelty quilt production, but I made up for it towards the end.  So fun when the ideas start rolling