Sunday 14 October 2012

Swoon Trouble

I have been working hard on getting my swoon quilt finished these last couple of weeks. Trouble is I just don't love it. I adore the pattern, it was on my list of quilts to make for so long. I spent ages collecting the fabrics for it and although I like all the fabrics individually and thought they would look good together they just refuse to play nicely. I am really disappointed because I so want to love this quilt but it just isn't working. Worse still I can't see what I need to do to make it work. I am very frustrated with it.



SIGH!!! So now I am in a dilemma over what to do.

Option 1 - abandon it, stick all the blocks in the cupboard and ignore them. Not my preferred option but then at least I could get on with the other projects I am itching to make. This bundle of gorgeous marmalade arrived in the week and I am desperate to start on it.

Option 2 - remake some of the blocks. This is what I think I will probably do. Trouble is I cannot for the life of me see how to make it better. Some of the fabrics just look wrong. At first I thought the addition of a solid to some of the blocks would make it work, and it has helped but the blocks with two different fabrics still either look too busy or too similar to me. It is hard to see this on the photo above so I made a mosaic that better shows the problem.



The blocks that are causing me trouble are the three corner blocks. I just don't think they work. I am thinking of remaking them in different fabrics. Probably not solids but I am not sure what to choose.  I need a fresh pair of eyes to look at them. What do you think? Any suggestions would be very welcome as I feel totally stuck on this one.

7 comments:

  1. I see what you mean about the busyness - maybe having 1 print and 1 solid per block will work. My initial reaction is actually too much white the prints on white get lost with the white background maybe a more calico colour would tie them together better.

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  2. Top middle and bottom middle are the most effective visually. Keep on truckin' and smiling :) It will be beautiful when you finish it - however you finish it!

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  3. I think Swoon is all about contrast and so the blocks with 2 sets of prints are the ones where the pattern doesn't stand out as much. As you are using fairly muted colours and no huge contrasts in colour, the only contrast you will get will be between print and solid, and those are the blocks that work best here.

    Also I have read many problems on Swoon to do with prints lining up - mainly geometric prints - because you have gone with florals you don't have this problem too much at all.

    The way I would fix it (if you can bear it) is to take out the 'busy' corner blocks and set them aside for scatter cushions. Then I would make new blocks with blue as the centre star / small points colour and something quite different as the outer star feature colour. Red or pink maybe?

    I would keep the background the same for all blocks but as Danielle says I would avoid too much white in your prints as otherwise they will merge into the background.

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  4. I have nothing to add, I think Lisa said it best :) Hope that hangover has gone now!

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  5. Really really hard to tell - Gertie more or less said all. But I'm not sure about the blue center star. I like the ones with the blue outer ring and the spikes taking up the center print. I would go with that.

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  6. I have been having the same problem with my swoon - sometimes using the fabrics from just one line makes them too coordinating. I've brought in some other prints and also ones with a completely different scale and that has helped. I think the only ones that really aren't working are the middle block and the top right.

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  7. Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and mail them to me, I'm not sure what the problem is, I absolutely love your Swoon blocks and the layout, antique and delicate looking.

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