Solid Sunday Morning Top

The nice thing about so many Quilts Under Construction is that I can work on nearly anything, depending on the mood I'm in. Last week I folded up all the quilts in the house. It made me realize just how many low volume options there are here. It made me want to play on something decidedly NOT low volume. Variety is the spice of life.

Not to mention that I want some quilts on the girls' beds that are not light and show every spec of spring mud and dog hair.

That meant I pulled out my all solids version of Sunday Morning. It was also the kind of mindless sewing I needed after tackling some garment sewing.

One night I made a few more sets of blocks. After counting I realized I was only 5 blocks short of making this a full size quilt. Rather than dig out my old machine for the girls I set them to laying out the quilt. They LOVE this part of the process. After bed I got the last blocks made and started assembly.

While they were at school yesterday I finished the top (and back!). It was a lovely nearly spring day that saw us stay at the park for 2 hours after school. Needless to say, it was perfect for photographing the finished quilt. A handful of kids took a break from their play to help us snap the picture. I love that their friends have a tiny hand in the finished quilt now and they got to show it off for them. (Although we couldn't necessarily remember who made what block.)

Working with solids is a challenge, for sure, for me. I adore prints. It is also, however, a welcome break. Exercising my visual cortex in a new way was like trying a new workout or different dish at your favourite Italian place. It's good to break out of the norm once in a while.

I am ever thankful for my Calgary Modern Quilt Guild friends for donating scraps to this project. There is no way I could have collected that variety of solid fabrics. There was no rhyme or reason to the colours chosen or the order they were sewn together. Just grab and sew kind of piecing. I did slow down and become intentional with layout. After the girls did their thing we moved a few things around together, but then I just made sure there were no bars of the same colour next to each other or all the whites or blacks bunched together. I needed to make sure it had a bit of balance.

Now, let's see if I can get them to help we wash the dining room floor so we can baste it together this weekend...