What's Your Background?

Your background will make or break a quilt. Boy, did I learn that lesson this week! I was teaching a class recently, and while discussing her flower color choices, I asked one of the students what her background was. She paused briefly, then replied, "Nursing". We both howled with laughter as she realized I was asking for her background fabric color! Haha! I guess I should have been more specific as to what background I was asking about.

This week, I was tinkering with a new idea using up scraps of Jen Kingwell’s Lollie fabrics (they have a black line to separate prints every 5”). I cut 4½” x 5¼” rectangles with the black line going the long way right through the middle. I centered the Mini Ruler over the rectangle, lining up the 4½” hexagon lines along the top and bottom. I cut split hexagons with one print on one half and the other print on the other half. I cut a pile of these with big plans to make a super cute spring colored quilt!

Next, I cut 2½” strips of background shades. I was committed to using scraps again, so I had three different soft spring shades to use: pear green, soft pink, and pale purple. I cut a heap of 2½” triangles from those strips. Here you see one split hexagon with three 2½” background triangles around it, making it a triangle unit once sewn.

Six of those triangle units make a spring flower block with the black line connecting all the way around. So far, so good, I suppose.

I made a few of these blocks in each shade of background. I laid them out together, and I started to see a problem. It was looking a little busy, and the flowers were all but lost in the noise.

I added fill-in triangles with a fourth background shade of light robin egg blue. It helped pull it together a little, but this wasn’t what I had envisioned. 

I decided to stop at a baby size and figure out a new plan for all the split hexagons I had left over. It’s a cute, springy little quilt, but those hexagons could have more impact with a different background! 

So, I started over. And whoa! Now, this is what I had in mind. I laid out a big chunk of warm/darker gray fabric and placed my split hexagons on top of it to see how it would look. This isn’t the soft spring colors I had in mind, but it is absolutely what these hexagons needed, and the flower shapes just pop right out!

Here you see the two side by side, the first attempt and the second layout. You can’t even tell these are the same blocks. What a difference the background makes! Lesson learned.

Happy Sunday, everyone,

Krista

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