Beginning Piecing and Quilting: Part 1

Last Thursday was week one of my quilting class. Each week we will make a few squares - each of which will involve a different technique. By the end of 6 weeks we will have made a sampler quilt top. Last week in class we started on the first block shown below. Before I knew it, two hours was up and we had to do all the rest from home. It was a lot of work to do at home (or so it seemed at first) and I thought it would take forever.

And the first block didn't help that impression any. It, for some reason, was really tricky and took a long time. By the end of it, I thought "I don't think I can get into this piecing thing." But the next one was so easy and turned out pretty and so I got my enthusiasm back. The rest didn't take nearly as long as that first block and so I went back to class tonight satisfied and ready to learn more.






Related to all of this is the amount time I spent picking out fabric and the absolute buyer's remorse I experienced as soon as I walked out of the shop with my selections. I had visions of doing this project in various shades of blue against a stark white background. But, when it came to actually making my selections I got nervous about how that scheme would work. I needed 8 fabrics, some light, some medium, some dark. I tried to come up with a different color scheme...but I just couldn't. I'm bad with color. And I think what I mean by that is that I'm bad at visualizing color - especially when prints are involved - and how it will look together. My wardrobe pretty much consists of solid color pieces because I really have a hard time with prints. It's not because I don't like them. It's something about pairing prints that throws me for a loop. I wish this were different. Anyway, I made the choices you see above and left the shop feeling like I didn't make any choices that I was excited about. And it took me almost 3 hours to finally make my choices. And the color scheme is almost identical to another quilt I've been working on for awhile. It was frustrating.

But, I'm over it...kind of. This is going to be a square sampler quilt (about 52") so I have no idea what I'll use it for anyway, other than something to hang on the wall if I feel so inclined. I'll have plenty of opportunities to make something else. And maybe I wouldn't want to use a really exciting color scheme on something I don't plan on having much use for anyway. Right?!?