Not one, but two

One row, one column and so close to an end I can smell the finish line.  Only now it's half term, so we'll have to see how it goes next week.

I knew I wanted triangles across the top, so that bit was easy, but the strip that is with them was one I had already made specially for the bottom left corner.  I'll have to rethink that, I guess.

Then, although I don't need more width, I had to come back down the side.  I know, I know, it is my quilt and I could abandon the medallion at this point and just add across the bottom.  Only I've come this far...

so I've added just a wee narrow piece to get me back down to the bottom again.  Most of it is the same fabric that I used in the wee houses.  I'm very happy with how it looks; I much prefer it to finishing with the sharp yellow on the edge.  

I'm also nearing an end with my current quilting project.  It's not one I've blogged, which always feels odd, but I'm no more than a week off a total finish, with just a couple of days of quilting and then binding to go.  Like buses, my finishes are all coming at once.

You name it, I tried it

 And up the right hand side I went.

This column took flipping ages.  I had houses at the top, birds at the bottom;houses at the top, birds in the middle; birds at the top, no houses; no birds and no houses; you name it, I tried it. This is what I settled for in the end.

Of course the irony is that any one of the other solutions would quite probably have looked fine if I had persisted with them.  I wonder what would happen if I just stuck with my first decision every time and didn't do all this tinkering.  Would it make much difference?  Maybe not, but tinkering is what I shall continue to do.

This is probably wide enough now, though not long enough yet, so I only have to add more columns if I fancy it.  More tinkering ahead, I guess.

Not rushing - or not much

Slow going now.  Lots of interruptions and more than a little downright indecisiveness. I am trying to stay with this quilt and not rush it just because I want to start something new.  And yes, I could start the next thing before this is done, but I have learned my lesson the hard way and will not be trying any multi-tasking.

Anyhow, I have added the bottom strip and have started trying to figure out the right hand side: one more column and then this will be at a width I'm happy with.  At least, for once, I am in no danger of running out of fabric.

Never say never again

Just when I was sure there would be no more birds, this happened.

I tried various other options but nothing was doing it for me, so I peddled back a bit and dug out the birds.  Since I have only a handful of them left but wanted this strip to be a good length, I have added in squares of the other pale fabric, which does pretty much the same job. 

I have a rough idea of where I need to go to finish this now, though you may well note that every round of this is providing a new challenge. Good exercise for the brain/creative muscles (that's what I am telling myself).  So much so that I might try another medallion some times soon.  For now, though I want to finish this and start making string blocks.  If you haven't already checked out the latest AHIQ challenge, do have a look, either by following the link or by visiting Ann's blog.

What was that I said?

Did I say less fiddling than usual?  Ha! That'll teach me.  It's taken me several false starts and a whole week to do one little strip across the top of this that I am satisfied with.  

The first part - the mucky green with yellow inserts - came together in a pleasing, straightforward way but then I hit a bump in the quilty road.  My logical brain wanted to use a particular fabric.  It made sense.  I hadn't used it up at the top, it should have provided a neat contract with what went before.  Only it didn't.  In fact it didn't work at all.

Undeterred I made another strip using the same pale fabric but with a different partner.  That was no better.  So I had to admit I was wrong and go back to the drawing board.  

Eventually I came up with something better.

And yes, I know it's upside down here. Sometimes I find it helps me to look at something from a different angle.  

Here, for the sake of thoroughness, is what it looks like the other way round.

The foreshortening that I get from photographing work on the floor means this looks longer and skinnier than in real life, though it is emphatically a rectangle.  I think maybe one more round and it may be done. If I keep up the same pace that will take me to the end of February!

Less fiddling than usual

I have realised that working in a medallion is a a slightly slower way of working than my usual approach, because you can't make a nice stack of bits and then fiddle about with them until they look pleasing.  Instead, it's much more one step at a time.  I'm not complaining, just making the observation.  

In this instance, I got all the way to the top of the right-hand side with literally no idea what I thought was going to work next across the top.  I stick bits of fabrics up there while I'm sewing and try to get a feel for which ones might look good, but that's an inexact approach, I can tell you! 

I think I will only need to go round a couple more times to get this to a good size, so I'm feeling pretty good at this point and definitely back in the swing of it.  Oh yes, and this quilt is now officially called Circling the Block - thanks for the suggestion, Paulette.

Circling the block

In the end I didn't add the strip of triangles I was considering last time at the bottom.  Instead I used the yellow/cream strip.  For some reason that I can't quite fathom, it is not pleasing my eye when I let too many of the Coins strips build up next to each other.  In previous, much more Coin-y quilts, this sort of juxtaposition has pleased me considerably, but now, not so much.  So I go with the flow and use a little bit of something plainer to break thinks up.

After that, I went all the way up the right hand side with just that little spotty brown strip.

Then across the top, where Coins looked okay...

and then another skinny strip down the left.  These very thin strips are my way of keeping to the spirit of the medallion without ending up with a square quilt.

I also considered going square until I achieved a good width and then adding an extra section across the bottom.  Maybe that's a plan for another time.

And then those triangles came back in. I like them much better now.

Around the edges you can see some of the options I am considering for the next columns/rows.  I'm not thinking very far ahead, because if I cut things I don't use it's a waste of fabric, though I'm not likely to run out on this one.  But working one step ahead of myself doesn't feel too much of a stretch most of the time.  The thing I am spending most of my time puzzling over is whether I want any more of the chunks with the birds and that sharp yellow-green colour.  In theory, I think I do, but so far it hasn't looked right when I've tried it.  This is definitely a case of trying to listen to the quilt and hoping it knows better than me.