fall paint lake, spring ocean

i didn't get to work sewing immediately apon arrival, but once i did get stitching, it went pretty quickly. it's amazing how much sewing can be done in a few uninterrupted hours. i would have finished this binding in an afternoon if i hadn't decided to hop on IG during a break. 

that's something like three-quarters done in a few hours.

i'm still not fully sure what i think of this quilt. i like it, i think. then i find myself asking, "do i really like it? does it really work? was i crazy to just make a quilt from a random pile of fabric? or was my gut right?" i mean, i lumped all the dark fabrics together when maybe I should have spread them out. and the palette is unusual. there are some deep colors and very light ones; not much midrange tones tying things together here. at the very least, it’s not clashy! 

yes, somehow i still think it works in its own unusual, quirky way.

i tried something on a whim and this is the result. not bad.

i put a few fun touches in here like subbing the sleeping beauty print for the rapunzel print once. both prints were part of the original fabric purchase this quilt came from, but i thought at the time sleeping beauty didn't fit the general color palette well. now i disagree - i mean, she's blue, orange, and yellow like the majority of the other fabrics. but i did put one piece in here because . . .

i kept this one rapunzel piece whole, replacing the two pieces that would have been here, in one spot so the full illustration could be seen together. i like this extra touch, too.

on reflection, rapunzel is less of the colorway than sleeping beauty. i guess she ties in with the butterflies and flower prints that have the pinks and purples in them. but i did cut off all the pink banner tops from the towers because they definitely didn't fit the quilt's color palette. i used those pieces in a different quilt block . . .

they made it into a crossroads block for my low-volume crossroads quilt. i think they're so fun here on their own. it worked out nicely for both quilts!

i did decided as soon as i started binding this what the advantage to a diagonal binding join is - less lumpy and bulky at the seams! i'd forgotten that was a thing because i've only done straight joins on a binding once or twice before. the diagonal joins absolutely lay flatter. 

that's me rounding the last corner of the quilt there. it's done. just needs a nice finish photo shoot. where am i going to photograph a fall quilt in spring by the ocean? i've seen so many nice quilt finish shots by the sea, but i don't feel like any of the quilts i brought with me fit the setting. 

i thought maybe it would look good in the doorway next to our beach access with a view back along the house and our little landscape area with the agaves and flowers. not really. i'm going to have to scope around. there's lots of scenery here. something has to fit.

in the meantime, we're snuggling under the finished quilt when temperatures drop, which they do throughout the day. cold, warm, sunny, cloudy, open door, shut. it's never constant. thank goodness i brought quilts! i was only expecting to stitch on them, not to be using them. living in the desert i forget spring is cool or cold other places.