Finished Pointillist Palette #4

Finished: Pointillist Palette #4
Finished: Pointillist Palette #4

I also finished Pointillist Palette #4. Another finish feels like an embarrassment of riches.

I finished 5 quilts last year, but they felt really hard won. So far this year, I have finished, really finished, 3 quilts and a table runner.

This quilt is 56×56 inches. I forgot to add the size to the back, which will annoy me into the future, I am sure.

You can read more about the series on the Pointillist Palette series page.

Quilts Return: PP4

PP4 Night - quilted
PP4 Night – quilted

PP4 was the third quilt I got back from Colleen. The basics of this series are discussed in a post from 2012.

The idea I had for quilting was similar to Fabric of the Year 2019. I really liked the connected little circles. Colleen added some diagonal wavy lines in this one, which weren’t exactly what I was thinking but look ok. This quilt is so old that I really don’t care that much. Sad to say, but this is one reason I don’t like UFOs.

PP4 back - quilted
PP4 back – quilted

I made the back specifically for this quilt. It wasn’t a UFO. It was a completely new piece of the quilt and I really like it. I think it really goes with the Night theme.

On to binding.

PP4 Ready for Quilting

PP4 Back -finished
PP4 Back -finished

I finished the back! I also did the binding, which is not pictured. This piece is ready for quilting.

Pointillist Palette #4: Top Complete
Pointillist Palette #4: Top Complete

I am pleased with the way the back came out. I think it looks moody. I also think it will go very well with the top.

I am thrilled that this piece is done. I took great pleasure in crossing it off my to do list. It is great timing since I start a new contract today and I won’t be able to sew in the afternoons much any more.

PP4 Top Complete!

Pointillist Palette #4: Top Complete
Pointillist Palette #4: Top Complete

The top is finally complete!

I am pretty excited that I was able to finish it so it will be ready to take to Colleen’s, assuming I can finish the back and binding as well.

I am pleased with all of the pieces I replaced. Even though it was a hassle and made me grumble, the quilt is better for the changes.

PP4 in Chunks

PP4 chunked
PP4 chunked

I have been replacing fabrics then chunking as the opportunity presents itself.

I made good progress and was really to put the whole top together when I realized that two pieces did not blend well at all and would have to be replaced. I was really irritated with myself and with the fabrics as well.

I used the ‘it’ll be ok’ test and decided I need to change those fabrics.

PP4 problems
PP4 problems

In general, the piece is darker and moodier because of all the lighter fabrics I replaced. Still, those two lightish greys stick out like sore thumbs.

Onward.

PP4 Continues in Process

PP4 blocks with patch removed
PP4 blocks with patch removed

Replacing patches means taking apart part of the blocks, removing one patch and sewing a new one in. The chunks where a patch is missing look like the photo right. When a patch has been removed, it is just a hole. This is the way I have always removed patches. I try and remove as few seams as possible.

PP4 blocks with patch removed
PP4 blocks with patch removed

The yellow arrow points to the spot where I have removed a patch. I know it is a little hard to see in the photo above. The piecing looks totally normal except for the removed piece. It actually looks like there is a white piece of fabric in it.

The process isn’t difficult, but it is time consuming. I am also fixing seams, if I have the chance. Some of them seem to have something wrong with them and I may as well deal with them now.

PP4 Border

PP4: Border in process
PP4: Border in process

I am working hard on getting the Pointillist Palette #4 piece done. I am making progress, but I am also vaguely unhappy with the piece.

Deb E took the time to comment about the fabrics used in the piece and her insights were valuable. While I am working on the border, I am also going back and replacing some of the lighter fabrics with darker pieces. The theme of this installment in the series is Night and I want it to be darker, moodier than is shown above.

These changes mean a delay in finishing, but also means a better piece, I think ….and hope.

PP#4 Damage

When I brought PP#4 home from Sew Day, I put all of the blocks up on my small design wall so I could see what I had. I had mostly worked on creating small using that would later be made up into blocks. Since I was working at Sew Day, this was a good way to make progress without having to spread everything out. This project is good for random, speed sewing without a plan.

As I put the blocks up, I noticed that two of them had some kind of damage. I thought this was really strange since the project has been in a non-offgassing box in my fabric closet, so mostly out of the sun. I have never seen bugs in there. I am pretty careful with my quilts and projects.

I inspected all the blocks carefully and found only two places where there was damage. I marked the spots with some WonderPins and worked on making the other blocks while I thought about what to do.

I didn’t do any repair right away. Eventually I decided to just replace the pieces. I have plenty of that fabric and the repair was a little fiddly, but not difficult. When I finished the blocks, I made the repairs. The blocks look fine now. I do keep looking to see if I see signs of other damage developing.

I see this as another good reason not to have 20+ year old UFOs lying around.

More Pointillist Palette #4

I worked all last weekend on the Pointillist Palette #4 project. I made good progress, but I am not feeling any connection with this quilt. I was quite enamored back in the day, but time did not look kindly on this project. I don’t sincerely dislike it, but I also don’t understand why my younger self loved the concept so much. I guess I need to think about how my quiltmaking has evolved and what makes up my quiltmaking. 

This cements my resolve to not let projects linger.

Pointillist Palette #4: blocks in process
Pointillist Palette #4: blocks in process

So, I worked hard on finishing the blocks for this project.

The piecing is super easy, just a lot of straight stitching in long chains. It is going quickly. It is good after the other projects I have worked on recently.

For this quilt in the series, I want it to be dark, thus the black and white aboriginal prints. I stopped using the lighter parts of the ombre fabrics to get that darkness, but there are still a lot of light fabrics in the quilt. I wonder if I will have to resew some blocks.

Pointillist Palette #4 Returns

Sew Day started off as a bit of debacle for me. Sew Day itself, once I got there, was fine. Getting there was a problem. I planned to cut and baste the pieces for La Passacaglia Month 15, like I have in the past. Unfortunately, the package didn’t arrive, so I was project-less.

I thought “no problem, I have plenty of projects on which to work.” I grabbed a project box that had some projects in it and found that the pattern hadn’t been printed, the templates were somewhere else and the fabric for the different bags wasn’t included. Same with a few other projects. Pointillist Palette #4 was the only project that had all the pieces, so I brought that. I had to lug my sewing machine as well. I prefer just to cut out projects, but I had very little time to prepare so Pointillist Palette #4 it was. I want to finish this project anyway, so it is skipping over Who Am I? for the moment.

Pointillist Palette #4 blocks - Oct 2022
Pointillist Palette #4 blocks – Oct 2022

Pointillist Palette #4 mostly requires sewing a lot of small squares into larger squares. When I pulled everything out of the project box, I had about 8 blocks already. TO DO: find out how many blocks I need. That information was not in the project box.

The good thing about this project is that it is straight piecing and that is a relief after a lot of applique’ and bag making.

Pointillist Palette #4 organization - Oct 2022
Pointillist Palette #4 organization – Oct 2022

I had time after I got home and did more piecing. All of these trays were from the days when I would eat Trader Joe’s burritos for lunch. They are useful for organizing colors.

After quite a bit of sewing, I have many more pieces waiting to be sewn into  blocks. I have in the back of my mind to finish this quilt in the next few days so I can bring it to Colleen with The Lobster and Orange You Glad.

It might seem like I am not enjoying my sewing and am just plowing through projects to get them done. That is true in a way. I want to get these old projects out of my hair and start some new ones which I will enjoy.

 

Pointillist Palette n.4 Revisited

Every month or so I have been going on and one about various projects on which I need to work. It occurred to me that some of the projects are so old that I should haul them out and take a new photo. I sighed hugely at the work involved in that little project, because some of them are well stored. I do think it is a good idea not just for you, but for me as well. I started with something accessible. The last time I looked at these pieces and parts was in 2014.

Pointillist Palette in process
Pointillist Palette in process

The pieces and blocks for Pointillist Palette quilt n.4 (??) are in my sewing table, so I was able to pull them out (and shake them off a bit) fairly easily.

The reason I think this is a good exercise is that I can see what I have. As you can see I have 5 blocks already made and many squares cut.  I am sure I need at least twice as many blocks, but this is a good reminder of what I have.

Also, looking at the pieces and parts reminds me I need to look at what my original idea was for this quilt. Was it a Night theme or did I already do that.

See the other Pointillist Palette quilts in the Gallery.

TBT: Pointillist Palette Quilts

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was dabbling in quiltmaking. I had made a couple of projects with fabrics I bought specifically for those projects. The Internet was just starting to be something that quiltmakers could use and I was on a Usenet Board where quilts were discussed.

Pointillist Palette 1: Sun
Pointillist Palette 1: Sun

I went to Seattle for a conference and visited a quilt store called In the Beginning. At that time, it wasn’t just a fabric line, but there was a huge store. It was one of the largest I had ever visited. I saw the Pointillist Palette fabric there – the whole line. I was amazed and thrilled. This was fabric I really liked. Up until then, I was trying hard to avoid dusty rose and teal.

Pointillist Palette 2: Ice
Pointillist Palette 2: Ice

I like these quilts and think they might be the precursor, in some small way, to the Fabric of the Year quilts.

Pointillist Palette #3: Flower
Pointillist Palette #3: Flower

I wrote a lot about my inspiration in another post, which is good since then I don’t have to rehash it. I did think about one of the quilts in the series back in 2014. years ago, I know, but the thought hasn’t died. There is hope.

Pointillist Palette #4

I don’t really even remember when I finished the last Pointillist Palette quilt. The late 1990s? It had some reproduction fabrics in it by Jinny Beyer, maybe? there are 3 quilts in the series and I think I had planned 6. I don’t know if #5 or #6 will ever be made as the bloom is somewhat off the rose after all of the these, but I am more interested in finishing #4 now that I have found some blocks.

Pointillist Palette #4 Blocks
Pointillist Palette #4 Blocks

Fortunately, the fabrics have held up well and are somewhat timeless.

This quilt in the series is called night and the black and white fabrics in it are supposed to represent that. I took apart a back of #2 or #3 so I could use the fabrics in this quilt. TFQ thought I was insane and I probably was since I didn’t actually finish the quilt…yet.

Pointillist Palette Series

Pointillist Palette #1: Sun
Pointillist Palette #1: Sun

Writing this post came about because I won some Pointillist Palette fabrics from Pam of Hip to Be a Square podcast. Sometimes it is good to revisit old projects.

These quilts are mostly about the fabric.

The fabric in these quilts cemented my friendship with TFQ, though we were well on our way already. 😉

The idea of the series is to play with ratios of color in such a way that subtle shifts in color or fabric changes the feeling of a quilt, though the designs are essentially the same for all the quilts in the series. These quilts started my experimentation with color, which I continue working at today. These quilts are the precursors, in a way to the Fabric of the Year quilts.

These quilts made me into an art quilt maker.

I bought the first batch of fabrics at a shop in Seattle called In the Beginning, which has since closed. At the time, I was in Seattle for a conference. I had been there briefly the month before on vacation, but didn’t get to do much quilty stuff. The day I purchased the fabric was a gorgeous, bright, sunny day and the sun was spilling into the shop lighting up these fabrics, which were arranged in rainbow order. I wanted them all. I was slightly horrified, but also excited at this visceral reaction, the strong desire to possess all of these fabrics. I think I even saw the series in my mind almost fully formed as I looked at the fabrics.

Pointillist Palette #2: Ice
Pointillist Palette #2: Ice

I bought some of each. I cut thousands of squares (WAY before Accuquilt cutting systems) and began sewing them into blocks. Though, I didn’t know it at the time, I did some chunking on these pieces.

I also paid attention to the use of color, which I had never done before. ‘Sun’ is much warmer feeling than ‘Ice’. I think ‘Ice’ is whiter and has a feeling of ice crystals or snow …. or something.

I had sense enough to concentrate the larger patches on the outside of the quilts to give a sense of borders. Definitely a happy accident, though I could have planned it. I just don’t remember.

The fabrics, by Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka, have multiple colors on each piece of yardage – the colors gradate from dark to light or medium to dark or medium to light. There are many more tones and values that can be used than is obvious when you see some of the fabric. I didn’t realize this until I had the fabric out of the store.

Pointillist Palette #3: Flower
Pointillist Palette #3: Flower

In Pointillist Palette #3: Flower, I started to introduce other fabrics. The idea was that the last quilt (#6) would have barely any PP fabric in it.

The fabric I added was a group of larger scale reproduction flower fabrics. I think they were reproduced from a museum collection. I cut them up, sometimes fussy cutting, and included them with my Pointillist Palette fabrics.

I also started collecting other fabrics I thought I would use as the series went on.

Pointillist Palette #4: Night (WIP)
Pointillist Palette #4: Night (WIP)

Pointillist Palette #4: Night is still in progress and has been for a long time. I took that back of #1 apart to get the black aboriginal looking fabric out of it, so I could use it for the top of #4. People, who shall remain nameless, thought I had lost my mind. I needed a certain fabric and when I made the back of #1, I didn’t know I would need the fabric for #4. I had to make the right decision for the design of the quilt.

I pieced a few squares together recently and feel much more interested in working on this piece. I wonder if I can continue what I started so long ago?

I don’t really remember my ideas for #5 or #6. I may have notes and drawings somewhere. If not, perhaps this 6 piece series will turn into a 4 piece series?

All of the pieces are machine pieced, machine quilted (I did it myself!) and made using commercial fabrics.