Saturday, December 20, 2008

Chores and "Checkers"

In order to avoid the unwelcome "downer" during the holidays, I've been cleaning and painting closets. sorting and organizing, and throwing out! Oh yeah - who notices closets? I do!!! Don't you love to walk by your clean, organized closet and fling open the doors to be sure all is still neat and tidy? THAT makes ME happy!

I've shown this quilt (above) previously, named "Checkers", and I definitely liked the clean lines of this scrappy pattern - simply pinwheels, and 4-patches. How easy can this get? To achieve that graphic effect, the rows of pinwheels alternate directions, and the 4-patches also alternate light in one upper left corner, and then dark in the left upper corner - very important. You must get them in the right place, although I DO wonder what would happen if I changed it? OK, next quilt!

I had a lot of kids prints and wanted the same effect. Now, you'll notice (below), some of the graphic effect is lost, due to the variety of prints. Uh ohhh ... well I still like it, but it was another excellent lesson to learn. Many of the prints had black in them so I used a small black/white check in the 4-patches. And it WAS pretty 'blah' before I added that border - the last border contains a lot of black/white stripe(bees). The thin black border definitely jazzed it up! And now that I'm looking at the photo, it doesn't look 'blah' at all!

Incidently, there were a LOT of 'possible' pinwheels, that didn't work. I spread them evenly all over the quilt, but they didn't work at all -- too distracting. There are MORE unused pinwheels on my sewing table, than what I used! LOL. Some are big prints cut up that don't show their cuteness, some go the wrong direction, some look terrible with a white background, etc. Hey, ya gotta kiss some frogs before you find that prince! (I now have a LOT of pinwheels to use for labels! - LOL )

This will be a Linus Quilt, and I'll be working on the quilting over the holidays.

17 comments:

  1. Coooool! And easy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like them both.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I meant to tell you that I love clean closets too. I have the guest room closet in good shape this week and I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Both quilts are lovely. You almost have a secondary design of a spool.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I really like the checkers! Very neat. I'd love some clean closets and may attack one or two after the new year. I've just had two adult children move back in with all their furnishings (and sometimes their kids) and right now....well, this house won't fall down, there's just no place to fall to, its so stuffed!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love your quilts. Might have to give the design a try sometime soon. Organized spaces like closets make me happy too.
    Merry CHRISTmas

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like them both. And I like a well organized closet. I recently did the linen closet, but to look at it now it doesn't even look like I touched it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like how you got the colored row effect! Isn't it fun to see how the same pattern makes up differently depending on the fabric? When I clear a spot off on a closet shelf I like to put a framed photo there - keeps the space AND makes me smile when I open the closet to see my photos in a unusual spot.
    Cheers!
    Evelyn

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am so glad you showed that top quilt again--it is so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice to hear from you again. I look for you everyday, and enjoy your posts.
    I also love organized closets. But I also like to pull my stove, fridge, washer, dryer and freezer away from the wall and clean under and behind them! Nobody knows, but it feels so good to me! grammilou
    P.S. I'm not a neat freak!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like both quilts. What an easy pattern that can be made so striking. My closets are still a mess, but today I cleaned my oven. Ugh!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love clean closets. Sometimes they call out to me in the middle of the night and tell me they are messy. sigh. :)
    I'm with everyone else...love both quilts but then I always love what you do. Have a very Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!
    dawn

    ReplyDelete
  13. If that is blah, I love blah! Great job as usual. Have a wonderful Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your Linus checkers quilt is adorable. I love that line of red pinwheels in the center - what a zing it gives the quilt. This is a pattern I'll have to try. Reading this shamed me - I have FIVE Linus tops that are waiting for quilting that never got done in the fall. Ouch! I need to get in gear after Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Find them both very appealing!

    ReplyDelete
  16. That Checkerboard is beautiful. I think I like the checkerboard border in the top one. That really sets the whole quilt off!

    ReplyDelete

I no longer will accept Anonymous comments. I hope my adjustments to Comments do not cause anyone hardships.