Ta Dots & Stripes Finished!

Ta Dots & Stripes
Ta Dots & Stripes

I finished the binding on Ta Dots & Stripes last week. I got three quilts back around March 2d and I am steadily working on getting them actually completed. Well, at least completing the binding. I decided to enter this one and the Planned Improv quilt into the fair, which means I have to make sleeves.

This also means the quilts will be hanging around through June rather than being sent off sharpish.

Ta Dots and Stripes Top Finished!

Ta Dots & Stripes Top finished
Ta Dots & Stripes Top finished

The Ta Dots and Stripes quilt top and back are finished and with Colleen ready for quilting.

As I said, this was going to be a donation quilt. It turned out to be much more appealing, though still an eye bender, than I thought so it will go to one of the nephews.

It is on the small size – about 45×60. I wanted a border to contain the chaos and make it a little bigger. I tried some fabric, but my IG peanut gallery nixed the idea and I had to agree. I couldn’t find a fabric print that worked and a solid was be too flat.

Ta Dots & Stripes Top - trying out borders
Ta Dots & Stripes Top – trying out borders

I tried a grey dot, which was ok, but not great. I like the fabric, but it just didn’t work with the activity of the quilt. So, no border.

 

Ta Dots and Stripes

I made a list of projects I had in process in my journal and found a lot. Seeing them on paper seemed to galvanize me in a way that seeing them here did not. I like having them here as it makes me accountable, but the combination of paper and bytes works for me.

One problem has been that I have had my design wall set up since last January. I have been using my small design wall, but really need a larger one. I have been hoping to sell the Pind Design wall (you know you want it!), but no luck so far. I finally spent time on New Year’s Day setting it up.

Ta Dots and Stripes in process
Ta Dots and Stripes in process

For whatever reason, the first project I put up was the Ta Dots and Stripes quilt. Yes, that is the new name.

I started working on it as a donation quilt using the Leaders and Enders method while I worked on the Planned Improv blocks. I made some progress, but it is easy to get confused about where what goes.

I found some more dots and decided to make another row of HSTs, so I prepared them at Sew Day and sewed them when I got home. It will make the quilt a little larger.

I thought the quilt would be a donation quilt, but after I sewed a number of the sections together, I think it will become a Niece-phew quilt for one of the nephews.

 

Ta Dots & Stripes HSTs

I seem to have a lot of HSTs around. The other day I talked about the Mostly Manor HST quilt. I found the bag of Ta Dots & Stripes HSTs recently and laid them out to see what I could do with them.

First, they didn’t turn out as expected. The stripes are a lot darker than I anticipated and kind of dominate the quilt.

Second, there aren’t as many as I thought, so this will most probably be a lap quilt.

Third there aren’t enough colors of dots to make this really interesting. I don’t remember if Ta Dots come in more colors. If not, they should, but these are all the colors I have.

Ta Dots & Stripes HST Quilt Layout
Ta Dots & Stripes HST Quilt Layout

I laid them out anyway in order see what I could do with them. I laid them out in lines and straight HSTs.

This layout is similar to the one that my SIL did with the Mostly Manor HSTs. It concentrates the colored triangles together and makes them stand out a bit more. The stripes still fairly dominate the whole piece.

Ta Dots & Stripes HST Quilt Layout n.2
Ta Dots & Stripes HST Quilt Layout n.2

The other layout was inspired by a quilt on the Quilts and More Summer 2017 issue. It is straight HSTs in kind of a color order all pointing in the same direction. I thought it would be a possibility for this quilt.

It is ok, but the contrast is still difficult.