Here they are - all 54 scrappy, three quarter log cabin blocks. Now I just have to decide if I want to keep them. I have thoroughly enjoyed making them, and individually they are pretty. The best part of these blocks has been the process. I loved picking strips for each one, playing with colors, and finding old fabric friends in the bin (which is still crammed full somehow).
It's just that together they are ugly - like so ugly I can't bring myself to post a picture of all of them here. It seems odd because I love other people's versions. So what went wrong? I believe it comes down to three things. First, I didn't limit my color palette. Even with scraps, I usually stick to a select few colors to ensure a harmony, as with my Scrappy
Trip Along Quilt.
The same calming effect might have been achieved by using more white and low volumes too, to give the colors room to breath. Each block tells a color story I enjoy, but it's just too loud for me when the blocks are together.
My second mistake was giving no thought to color placement for the quilt top as a whole. I don't mind using all the colors, if they are in some sort of color order, like the
Therapist Quilt.
Lastly, there is nothing tempering the chaos, as with a background fabric in my
Midwest Metro Link.
So, while I enjoyed the process of this project, which is frankly all I really intended, I'm not sure if I want to put any more time into the blocks or pass them along to someone who might feel differently. Another idea is to reverse engineer a color scheme by selecting blocks that do go together and making a couple of smaller quilts from those.
