I delivered the Cocoa Leaf mini-quilts about a week ago and spent some time with my customers discussing design options for the larger, queen size quilt. I drew up some pretty nice hand sketches and colored them with colored pencil, and I am kicking myself for not photographing them before leaving them with the customers. Oops. So I pulled out my colored pencils and re-created the leading concept this afternoon. A bit more preface: I have been really drawn to the quilting detail and “pop” that a solid gives a quilt, so the idea is to have relatively large, single color objects to use for quilting fun.
Concept Hand Sketch
I explored some other quilt designs and layouts, but it turns out that due to the inspiration piece we are all drawn to the idea of a medallion quilt. In terms of sizing, I would like the edges of the rainbow colored border that transitions the round medallion center back into a square/rectangular quilt to go to the edge of the queen size mattress, so roughly 60″ by 60″ at the edge of that border.
Cocoa Drum Lamp – Inspiration for Quilt
We carefully color matched with my Kona color card to the drum lamp in the natural light of the room, and we have selected the following 15 colors:
For the background colors, we are working to decide between 3 shades of off-white:
In order to help us decide, I tried to re-create the medallion in EQ5. I struggled to get the center medallion to work for me; the lines kept disappearing in my custom block design, so I altered the pattern that I think we are going to go with (as seen in the hand sketch above) in order to get something to work. I also really miss seeing some of the veining / quilting detail in the leaves. So my takeaway is that quilting detail will make or break this quilt design.
Cream
Eggshell
Champagne
Another thought would be to remove the center rainbow border around the cocoa leaf medallion and let there be a lot more negative space:
Cream Border
At the moment, I am personally leaning towards keeping the rainbow border in the center, and I am slightly preferring Champagne over Cream for the background. I also know that there needs to be some space between the rainbow border and outer cocoa leaf border (again, more like the hand sketch than the EQ5 rendering). My customers are thinking all this over, and when I see them again in a few weeks, we are going to take a look at the stained glass window over their headboard (previously not seen due to window shades being drawn) to see if the stained glass window offers up any other design elements we would like to include.
I am enjoying the laid back nature of this project, and I am excited to see how it is going to continue to evolve!
This looks like so much fun! It’s cool that you have time to just let the design take shape. I like the champagne background the best and I love the design. You’re right, I think the quilting will really make the quilt. Have fun!
Oooh what a fun design! It’s going to be so pretty. I have like…5 yards of Cornflower I bought at a sale, but now realize I probably won’t use, so let me know how you need and I’ll send it to you! Seriously, it’s taking up a lot of space and I will probably destash it…eventually.
Sounds like I just found the perfect backing! 🙂 Seriously, though, that sounds great, and in a month or so I might actually know the yardage I need. Maybe I can just pick it up in early November when we visit!
I like the eggshell and I like it with the border – love how this morphed from a leaf to a whole quilt design!
I am loving it! Really great Yvonne! You are right, while it would make a great quilt without the detailing of the leaves, that ultimately that is the draw-in factor originally and it is hard to see it as something different. I disagree about the Champagne. As I originally was agreeing, while looking at all three of them I imagined the line details in the leaves, and I think that if you were able to have the lines in those drawings, you might see Champagne would work best. The bohemian theme is normally quite tan due to palm trees, branches, etc. of ‘exotic’ nature. I am not finding (with my visualizing) that the Cream would fit well with the detailing; that or it is on the complete other end of bright which would fit the Eggshell. On the other hand, without the detailing I agree that the Cream works best, but then I would be stuck about Eggshell. I guess for me that would depend on the room itself and which fit it better and most certainly the feel and look the customer is going for. Again, just putting in some thought… by no shape or form does this mean I’m right or I have the same style as others! LoL ;o)
I like the Champagne, but ultimately I need the customer’s to like it. I think with light walls in their bedroom it will pop a bit more, but they are also considering painting their bedroom, so it might depend on what they decide to do there, too!
So neat to be able to design like that! I’ll look forward to seeing your quilt and the choices you make.
LOVE where this is going!! So interesting to read about your process in working with the customer and coming up with various designs. This quilt is going to be a treasure for sure! 🙂
It’s going to be gorgeous, and I’m sure you’re right about the quilting detail making it. And I love the scrappy binding on your plan too, I think that will look great.
Thanks for showing us the process. I love the rainbow inner frame and I would vote for champagne or eggshell for the background.
What a fun project I be working on! I love your design and like it with and without the border. I prefer the eggshell too, it makes the solids pop a little mor.e. It’ll be great to see how this progresses 🙂
* to not I, stupid phone!!
This will be interesting project to watch in progress 🙂
This is going to be gorgeous!