It's hard to believe that it is May and this is the first quilt top I have completed this year. Never mind. Things can only get better!
Here is a progress picture of my central chunk of piecing with a couple of rounds of strips. The right-hand side was sewn on at this point but the bottom, top and left were still being tinkered with. I found I didn't much like it when two pieced sections sat next to each other. A small overlap was okay, but after that everything got rather busy and, because there are lots of mid-tones, tended to run to mush. So my strips are a mixture of small sections of piecing and bigger bits of single fabrics.
That's fine in principle but of course I was running out of big bits, so figuring this out using what I had took ages. The bit that caused me the most problems was the final strip I wanted to add at the top. I tried all sorts of variations, including the strip that is sitting at the bottom now and every random length of shirt I had left. I had a denim and the floral print, joined by a little cross and everything I tried to go above them worked with one half of that combination, or the other, but never both. I was starting to think I was going to be tinkering with this forever. Then serendipitously I was tidying up the bags with the octagons that I rejected a couple of months back and had an 'ah-ha' moment. They did just the job.
It has ended up being quite a big top, so it wasn't easy to photograph and you will see that the right-hand side is flapping a bit and I haven't got it flat, but that is about my hanging system rather than the quilt. Nevertheless, I think this is still a fair picture and I am definitely happy with it as a finish (for now).
Now that I have sneaked a few of the octagons into this top, I am motivated to get them out and have another play. Maybe this time I'll find a way forward that I like. Fingers crossed.
