Your thoughts on arranging

Hm, This is what I do:

Lay the blocks out (or put them on the wall), then move them around until I like it.

I tend to look for some sort of balance: spread the colours/values around (not all the yellow in the same corner, unless you are after that particular effect). Regardless of how scrappy, certain colours/blocks usually end up standing out - those I tend to distribute more or less evenly. If you have one set of blocks which stand out, you could try using a triangle principle (placing three blocks with one in the middle at the top, the other two near the bottom corners) this is supposed to make the quilt look balanced.

Sometimes I look for patterns in colour/value and organise by that (for example going on the diagonal from light to dark). Makes scrappy look less scrappy though.

I know it is just perfect when it seems ok, and every moving of blocks I try makes it less perfect :-)

Hanne in London

"Polly

---clip---

OK, just chain up the closest gators and let me know when you can pick me up from the nearest airport. I'll be there to help just as soon as I can!!!! Barbara in SC----tired of breathing the smoke from FL and GA fires

I thought this was discussed in Quilting 101...In my textbook it says, and I quote,

"You know when an arrangement is just right because the place in the center of your body that felt wonky suddenly settles into place, and your face doesn't feel crooked anymore."

(Another dead giveaway are those muddy sounding cheers bubbling up from the swamp, and the fact that any nearby yorkies no longer tuck tail and run when passing by your quilt... ;)

chipper

Howdy!

Yes.

R/Sandy

I've been wondering if some help from a camera/computer person to make a black and white shot of the top would be useful. It might identify a clumping of value that is not readily apparent. In my painting supplies, there is what looks like a magnifying glass but it actually reduces. What about covering the glass with red cellophane? I don't think I've seen any of that since we made fake fires in Brownie Scouts but there may be a 'divider' here that would be similar. Polly

Sorry, Pat, but our newspaper just had quite an article about how the "Kitchen Triangle" no longer is the correct way of setting up the 'proper kitchen'. I thought "How true" and went on to the next article. I'm sorry I didn't read the rest of it--but then I just didn't want to think of 'remodeling' one more room. Can you tell my kitchen set-up is far from ideal? Miz Polly, I'd send DD down in a heartbeat but she is booked solid for the weekend with ppl that wanna learn how to fly. She can walk up to a project, whip a few blocks around and I'll stand there thinking: "Why didn't *I* think of that?" Poifect every time : ) For Moi, I'll set them out, walk away for a good 24 hours (yes it is a bit of a challenge), and then come back and 'see' if I still like it--if not, I'll walk away and try again. Doesn't work when you have a deadline (I don't DO deadlines) You'll just 'know' when it's right. I will take a pix, download it onto the compie and bring it up in b/w and see what i need to change. Doing so helps in color placement. Sorry I can't fly down this weekend but we have other commitments. Give the Gators a scritch for me. Hope Miz Leslie is feeding them well now : )

Butterfly (back to Q U I L T I N G !!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

Sometimes just plain sunglasses will help. Also, ask someone else to take a quick peek and point out any thing that looks out of place.

Another suggestion: use a narrow sashing to separate the blocks. Once I had a disparate collection of bright and busy fabrics in 'crazy quilt' type blocks. I tied them together with a narrow sashing of clear rust color print.

This is a good t> I've been wondering if some help from a camera/computer person to make a

On Wed, 23 May 2007 08:17:35 -0500, "Polly Esther" wrote:

I've helped my mom arrange the blocks on several quilts, and she has helped with mine. So here is our process. We each lay our own quilt out, knowing we will be calling the other over to visit and tweak.

First lay everything out according to your own thoughts to determine the over all size and shape, leaving room between the blocks for sashing if that is going to be used. (If we haven't cut the sashing, or haven't decided which fabric to use for sashing we audition it by laying the sashing fabric(s) down first then arrange the blocks on top so there is some of the sashing fabric showing between some of the blocks, usually in one corner.) So now the quilt is laid out in the desired size and shape. The colors and warm/cool values roughly evenly distributed, but something isn't quite right. Nothing to put a finger on, but something is blah. Time to call in the other quilter. The first words uttered before even seeing the other person's laid-out quilt are "What is wrong with it?" We tweak it. Stand as far from the quilt as possible and check for anything that may stand out. Squint if you have to, take off your glasses if that might help, look through binoculars backwards or through the sight of a camera, or take digital pictures. Sometimes a photo will show something we overlook. Move one pair of blocks at a time, going back to the distance view each time. Ask if one section of the quilt is too lively and switch a lively block with a dull one in another section. Is one section too dull, switch a dull block with a brighter one. With each move we stand back and look again. Always we ask, "What is wrong about this quilt?" If at any point there is a gut reaction of "I don't like it" or "I hate that", we pick up several blocks and do something different.

Mom's maple leaf quilt took hours to arrange. We had several false starts. Finally we picked up each color, counted them, and laid out the color that we had the most of first. We laid out the rest by alternating warm and cool colors. There were more gray blocks so they went down first, then the bright red, then green, blue, yellow, lavender, and finally the duller red. We moved a few blocks after that, but not many. I wish the picture in my webshots album was better but the gray, blue, and lavender blocks all look gray in the picture and both reds look equally bright. It is much better in person. Debra in VA See my quilts at

This is the best possible topic. I have very little experience with this, but even trying to lay out a mini scrap quilt just about sent me over the edge last week. I'm keeping a copy of all the suggestions here in a text file on my computer. Thanks Polly for asking and starting this lesson on "Balance in a Scrap Quilt 101".

Sunny (Wondering how scrappy you can get with gator skins)

This is the best possible topic. I have very little experience with this, but even trying to lay out a mini scrap quilt just about sent me over the edge last week. I'm keeping a copy of all the suggestions here in a text file on my computer. Thanks Polly for asking and starting this lesson on "Balance in a Scrap Quilt 101".

Sunny (Wondering how scrappy you can get with gator skins)

To test value, I take a picture of the proposed distribution with my ancient digital camera, put it on the computer, and then change the "number of colors" to "grayscale." Works every time, and has explained to me why something wasn't working!

Often now, I won't even bother to make a distribution; instead, I'll take a picture of a group of blocks, arranged according to what I

*think* the value is. After that I'll distribute them.

Martha

My goodness, yes, I'm going to copy and re-read many times. I thank you kindly for your answers. A definition of an expert can be 'someone who is

50 miles from home carrying a briefcase'. That may explain the absence here of our Queen of Scrappy and others that we need to hear from. We won't even ask what you have in the briefcases. Polly

I had to smile at the latter half of this message, Polly. I wonder if you are surprised not to have a suggestion from me? >gg< I'm quite sure not! The thought of doing random, scrappy sends me to the sofa, for an attack of the vapours. The thought of trying to arrange - in a sensible fashion - something random and scrappy is just too much for my poor heart to take! You know I always like to try to help; but, for this, not one single word springs to mind >g< . In message , Polly Esther writes

What a great idea, Martha. =20

-Irene

------------- "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

- Mae West

Having done lots of very random quilts, my conclusion is that too much second thought is counter-productive. I mostly just throw all the blocks onto the design wall, make sure that if there are duplicate blocks, they aren't all clumped together, and call it a layout. One helpful trick with a digital camera would be to take a photo, put it up on your computer screen, and mess around a bit with your photo program. Turn it into gray tones: are the values distributed well? Rotate it upside down: are there areas that leap out and hit you in the eye? Sometimes just seeing it in miniature, as a photo, helps you spot any tricky areas. The eye seems better able to take in the whole picture when it's smaller. Roberta in D

"Polly Esther" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

Doing my best! Please keepthe time difference in mind! This particular post of yours, for example, arrived over here at 5:18am, and I seldom fire up the computer before mid-afternoon (or the whole day would vanish into cyberspace and nobody would get answers to anything.) Roberta in D, Queen of the Scrap Heap, see answer in slightly earlier post

"Polly Esther" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

DH's brother came by last night. He enjoyed seeing the scrappy quilt in progress, loved it and asked "How did you manage to accumulate so many beautiful fabrics?" I didn't tell him about the agony and struggle of constant S.E.X., didn't explain that they just follow me home or confess that they simply jumped in my shopping cart. It's probably a good thing that he lives so far away; I suspect he would be an enabler. . . . and yes, Patti. I do believe 'scrappy' would plunge you into a case of the vapours. We do keep smelling salts handy at all times, however. Southern ladies do that a lot and we don't pay it much mind. Polly

"Patti" > wrote >I had to smile at the latter half of this message, Polly.

This is a great idea Martha!! I have some scrap quilts that use dark, med and light to make the pattern work, that I would like to add to my list of projects, but sorting the scraps into dark, med, and light is hard for me. Maybe I'll have to use this method and see if taking the color away makes it easier!! Thanks!!!