Quilt at the Cellular Level

The quilt is now at the cellular level, meaning that not only I have ripped the quilt into many blocks, I've now taken the blocks apart into their pieces. Daunting? Oh, yeah. Am I discouraged? Pretty much--but mostly because I can't figure out how to make a quilt out of this fabric that I think I will be happy with.


Traditional French "Indienne" fabric is printed with little designs in an ordered fashion: polka dots, if you will. (Click on the photo above to enlarge to see the designs more clearly.) And if you're going to make a quilt out of polka dots, usually it's the broad strokes of color that will be seen, as in the photo below, where you notice the red squares against the yellow squares.

I was despairing that I didn't have enough red fabric to complete my current idea and Lo and Behold my friend Tracy brought me a fat quarter of some "real French fabric" today from her trip to Spring Quilt Market. What serendipity!

I still like the idea of the zig-zaggy borders being incorporated into the quilt, so that it contains its own border. So I'm kind of hanging onto that idea for now, knowing that whatever I put in the middle with have that as its outer edges. I decided that the color combination of the blue-gray against the yellow (which I personally love) is part of the problem, so in the quilt above, I've covered up some of that blue gray with a deeper contrasting blue, helping the little squares to march across the quilt in a diagonal pattern. I wonder if I should bring in a solid, to help balance the "dottiness."

Frankly, I'm feeling a little dotty. Time to let it rest.
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So here's a change of subject. In our arbor out back, where some of the vines have looped down underneath, a hummingbird has built her nest. She's about 8 feet from our family room window and we brought down the binoculars to watch her up close. Riley and Keagan had a fun time seeing her on the nest (although the functional use of the binoculars was a bit out of reach for them). That bird just stayed there and stayed there and stayed there.

Once when she finally flew off (to get some food, we assume) Barbara made the comment that she understood perfectly: even the most diligent mothers need a break now and again.

Well now we think the eggs have hatched for the bird flies away far more often, then dips her beak down into her nest when she returns. No sign of the baby birds, though.

We'll keep watching.