my small world -top complete

When I first saw this beautiful quilt made by the amazing JenKingwell, "my small world", splashed all over IG after Spring market, I HAD to have one!

I didn't realize there was a pattern.  It is printed in the QuiltMania Spring issue 2015.  Read more about that here.

I just thought she'd put all her "left-overs" into a quilt.  

So, I quickly took off what I had on my design wall, and pulled out all my left-overs and scraps.  

I wanted there to be the same over-all look, so I had to sort my left-overs and scraps into 2 piles, traditional and the whimsical "candy-colored".  I'm more comfortable sewing with the later of the two.

Within an hour or so, my clean, organized sewing room looked like this:

(and unfortunately, stayed like this for weeks during the designing process)

I started by taking a few pieces and putting them up on the design wall, until I liked what I saw.  Then I'd work with a few more pieces.  It was like putting a puzzle together.  Arranging and re-arranging until I liked what I saw.  (some of these bad pictures were taken at night)

Columns started to form as I put left-over blocks together and I realized that I was looking at a city skyline.  Notice the contrasting colors, shapes and sizes next to each other, balancing with different values of color.

I really wanted to use all the left-overs and scraps that I could so below the columns, I started putting odds and ends together.

This was such a liberating quilt to make because there was no pattern, not even an "end in mind" for a while, just raw designing, creating.

 I knew that I wanted a "portrait" shaped quilt where as JenKingwell's quilt is a landscape version, to be hung.  So, I took off this strip along the right . . . plus it just didn't seem to look right.

After I was 75% settled, it was time to start on the sky.  I started with a small pieced sun (this was the only part that wasn't already pieced, but I did use scraps)

I realized that I'd have to add sky to all my columns and make them the same height before sewing the columns together.

Sections started coming together.

I worked, finishing pieces and sewing them together until the sections became larger and larger.  Pretty soon, there were just 5 or 6 sections!  It was so exciting to finally see it coming together.

"My" small world looks different from JenKingwell's.  I love to quilt with linear lines, and larger shapes.  So, that's what my world looks like.  I do like that Jen's has lots more curves than mine, which tells me I need to broaden my horizons, and step out of my comfort zone some.

Finished:

What would "your" little world look like if you put all your "left-over" blocks together?  What tends to you prefer?  What designs speak to you?

If you want to see the quilts where any of these blocks came from, just click on "finished quilts" at the top of my blog and you will quickly be able to find the matching quilt.

linked:

crazy mom quilts