Project: Leader/Ender Quilt Design Ideas

The last post was about what I hope not to do; now I am working on to-dos! I am one of those people who love The New Year and the notion of a fresh start. I did enjoy the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Peter and I worked on a jigsaw puzzle, tackled some word games, took long walks in the crisp cold air and ate too much. But, every year, come January 2, I am so anxious to get back to my work. Doing things with my hands is visceral for me – I crave it. But whoa – we are selling the house, so I have to really consider what to projects should be on the list!

The last time we moved, I really “thinned” the studio area and packed up lots of boxes of fabric which we put into a storage area. And then the house was on the market for months and months and suddenly I needed some of those fabrics for more projects to keep crazy me busy. Did I dare ask Peter to help me root around the storage room going through taped and cataloged boxes???? Oh, nooooooooo. So I had to buy some more fabric. This time I am trying to be a bit smarter about this process.

I have some ideas for projects to keep me busy, and here’s a quilt that’s underway. On Thursday, I spent the night looking at my Pinterest quilting ideas page and going through my quilting ideas folder and playing on EQ7. By bedtime, I had chosen a pattern that I have been dying to piece. The next morning, eating a biscuit at Mc Donalds, I decided that I was crazy to pick something at all complicated and re-thought the choices. Simple. That is the idea.

So – I have decided to sew many, many half square triangles and then choose a pattern. My beginning sampler quilt class with Karen Buckley began with half square triangles and I remember making a lot of different squares because it was fun to play with the design possibilities. Of course I do need a color plan……

I love my black/multicolored section. The problem with blacks is that they fade very quickly with washing and exposure to the sun. This will be a bed quilt for somewhere and so black doesn’t seem like a good idea.

For the light side, shall I use beiges and off whites? White with multi-colors? Whites with blacks?

Pale batiks with brighter ones? I am always drawn to the two batik shelves (which need to be expanded because a lot is on the floor!)

The blue and green print shelves appeal as well.

After consideration, reds, dark blues and dark greens are out and pales, and bright colors are in. Yet to be determined is whether I will add prints on the “dark” side.

Leader/ender quilts are hard to explain to a non quilter. Here is a link to Bonnie Hunter’s website;  she has written a whole book about the topic. Frankly, I don’t think this saves time, but sewing the paper pieced livingroom quilt is really boring now, so this new quilt is a carrot for me. I did sew and press and trim just a few squares to preview them.  ;-D

I don’t feel like doing teeny, tiny triangles, so I will be mass producing 2.5″ squares (2″ finished). 2″ will show off fabrics in a nice way, and I feel like scrap quilts are “scrapbooks” of one’s fabric collection.