Color Selection: Sometimes You Just Need To Start Over

I've been working on a block of the month quilt in blue and yellow colors. In fact, I've been working on the quilt for so long that the last "month" in the block of the month was (cough) two years ago. I set out to make a scrappy quilt from the beginning as a companion to the official "color-way" for the block of the month set. In quilter terms, a "color-way" is a set of fabrics that are designed to go together by a manufacturer. In this case, the official fabric collection is called "Dargate," after a book of fabric samples called the Dargate book. You may hear me refer to the Dargate quilt in this blog.

But I digress. The point of this particular post is that it is important to be willing to take things apart and start over if the block just doesn't work. Seam rippers are important tools! I picked out two colors from my scrap bag that looked good together, but when I put the block together, it looked terrible on the whole.

Here is the original block. It is a design called "Jacob's Ladder" or "Railroad Tracks."














Normally my rule is that once it is made, it's done. I'm much more of a Jackson Pollock "create and don't look back" quilter rather than one who will constantly revise it. (My only exception is that corners must line up, which I will redo.) As you can see, it just doesn't work. Now, believe me when I say that it looked even worse in real life. I knew that for once this was so bad, that I had to do something. But what? I knew that I wanted to keep the half-square triangles. They have a very subtle winter scene going on in the background that I love. So the four-patch blocks would have to be replaced.

I was left to determine which color I should swap out and what should replace it. As I mentioned before, the theme of the quilt is blue and yellow. I've mentally been titling the quilt "Champions of the West" as a tribute to the University of Michigan school colors. It is nominally a "scrap quilt" since I am using many different fabrics. (But all the fabrics that I use are new, except for two that are indeed scrap fabrics.) My strategy is to carry over one or two (but not more) fabrics from a previous block and introduce one or two new fabrics to tie everything together.

I sorted through a lot of my yellow and blue stash to find the right replacements. I think that part of my problem was that the light blue and the yellow were the same "value" of light and dark- there was not enough contrast. They also had pattern conflicts- they were both busy patterns. So, I knew that I needed a light/dark contrast, and only one busy pattern. Ultimately, I ended up swapping out for a dark blue wave pattern used in a previous block, and a strong yellow tone on tone. The yellow definitely "pops," but in a good way. Before they didn't pop, or maybe they did pop, but in a bad way. This is the result:














I think you will agree that this is much better. The pattern of the block is much more visible, as well. I am going to keep the old four-patches, but I haven't decided what to do with them. This new combination seems very nautical to me.