When I received the Hawthorne Threads order that contained the fabric for Out of the Woods, I could not wait to dive in and piece the quilt top! I jumped right in and in 1.5 hours I had the top 40% of the quilt top pieced; the sun and sky.
Out of the Woods – Sun and Sky
I took my time and pieced half-square triangles (HSTs) carefully to keep the Sky fabric lines all running horizontally around the sun. With just a bit of extra attention to fabric orientation, the quilt was really coming along nicely.
Out of the Woods – Sun and Sky Detail
The next morning, I dove right in and made the remaining HSTs required for the mountains in the lower portion of the quilt top. And then I stepped back from my design wall and reality sank in. Instead of making 8.5-inch HSTS (unfinished), I had made 7.5-inch HSTs. Gulp.
Out of the Woods – Something Doesn’t Add Up…
After a quick scramble to calculate the amount of fabric I had left, I made the decision that the quilt was going to have to shrink a bit. I wasn’t 100% sure what that meant, but I forged ahead and finished what I had started. Instead of purely strip piecing the lower portion of the quilt, I worked to use large pieces where possible.
Out of the Woods – Figuring it out
Before sewing the mountains to the sky / sun, I added one more row of blocs to the right hand side of the mountains, effectively “growing” the dark green mountain a bit. I stuck with my original border size, and the quilt top finished out at 71-inches wide by 80-inches long.
Out of the Woods – Flimsy Finish
I am a bit disappointed in the proportion of the sun to the mountains because of my cutting error, but all things considered, I think it turned out great! Oh, and the entire quilt top was done in 4 hours. Large, graphic designs come together so quickly!
To give an idea of the progression of the design of the quilt, below are the original design (left), intended quilt top (middle), and as sewn quilt top (right). The quilt became a bit more square and the proportion of the sun to the mountains increased again between what I had intended and as finished.
I will be waiting to quilt Out of the Woods until I come back from QuiltCon. I think I am going to have quite the backlog of quilt tops to finish up at the end of February!
Linking up to Monday Makers and Main Crush Monday (buttons to the right).
Gotta love when a top comes together in 4 hours. . . Especially one as cool as this! I have had that sinking feeling on more than one occasion with the realization that I cut something too small! Why is it that it never seems to go the other way lol Can’t wait to see how you quilt this one. Lots of room to play 🙂
It works really well and I like the change in scale of the sun! Funny how things always change in the doing!
I think it looks great despite your cutting error! And I like the look of the print fabrics much more than the solids. They give the quilt more dimension so that was a great decision the 2 of you made. I can’t wait to see this quilted! Have fun at QuiltCon!
Don’t beat yourself up too much – it looks great 🙂
As someone who is viewing this top for the first time, I really like the porportions. I appreciate that you included images from your design process, but I think your final layout works really well. Good luck embracing what has emerged! (That’s one of the exciting parts of making, right?)
I love that you were so careful with the directional print. The proportions look fine to me. The sun is just a little closer to the mountains. Maybe it is earlier in the day!
Have a great week!
Very nice, I love how you took the time and extra care to make sure that the background print was all going in the same direction.
Oh I think it turned out so nice! You definitely made lemonade with your lemons 🙂
Cutting ‘oops’ or not, I still think it looks great and not at all hideous as you may think when it comes to that sun! I do love that it was given more of the floating in the sky effect rather than directly in the corner though and I think that helps with the ‘oops’. This is a really inspirational quilt for a specific someone and I love it. I am so sentimental.
I love your process. This flimsy certainly is pretty spectacular in its simplicity. Of course when you hit that snag, it probably didn’t seem very simple at all; it looks like a great quilting space for all the birds and what not! Really looking forward to seeing how you finish! Have fun at Quiltcon!
Ooooh the sky fabric is lovely! http://www.quiltartbymegan.com
If you hadn’t said anything, I’d not have noticed. When you show the three at the bottom, I actually like your sewn one better. Love that sky fabric.
Too bad about that error, but as many said, if you hadn’t pointed it out it wouldn’t be nearly as obvious! You did a great job working with what you had, and it was a quick finish to boot! Looking forward to seeing how you quilt this one! And, hope quiltcon is great fun!
I have to say I think I prefer a bigger sunshine, and as others have commented I’d never have spotted your cutting error!
Such a fast finish, you’ve got to love that! I get excited thinking about all the quilting design possibilities you have in all that open space. 🙂 Looking forward to the finish!
I hope I am not putting too much pressure on myself to save the quilting for after QuiltCon, but it should be a lot of fun to work on!
Nice simple design…. Great idea.
Thank you.
I had to travel out of state to a quilt show to get the class.