My Purple & Green Phase

I closed up my sewing machine on Friday. My siblings and I were responsible for a family reunion on Saturday and I had so much prep to do. I didn't want to be tempted to sit and sew. Tomorrow we leave for a family reunion on my MIL's side in Canada, so my time since then has been spent prepping for the trip. That means I really don't have anything new on my design wall. My patriotic table runner was set with the red triangles, but I haven't done anything more with it.
However, the other day as I was browsing through the electronic folder of my quilt pictures I was reminded of my purple and green phase. I felt that I needed to come clean about this part of my quilting past.  It started innocently enough with a fabric purchase of a purple and green floral. Though not usually much of a floral person, I had finally allowed myself to admit that the purple and green combination in several florals available at the time had really captured my imagination. That one fabric led to others that would "look good with that purple and green floral." Pretty soon I was rolling in purple and green fabrics.

About that same time I came across this magazine ...

and was intrigued by this article by Deborah Moffat-Hall.
All of the blocks in the sampler were made using either HST alone or with simple squares added.







One page of the pattern showed many different block layouts possible using just the HST.

Another page showed other possibilities when you add some squares to the mix.

 I thought it would be a great way to use the purple and green fabrics. I started working on one block each month when my Mom and I would get together for a quilting day. I also found a pattern for a large carpenter wheel block that I thought would make a good center for this quilt. It was slow coming together when I only worked on it 1/2 a day, once a month. Eventually I thought I had enough blocks for the size of quilt I wanted, but I couldn't see how to insert my large center block and have it stay consistent with the blocks around it, while maintaining the size of quilt I wanted. I played around with different frames for the center medallion until I was sick of the whole thing. I finally just sewed it up using the layout I had currently been playing with and since I didn't like it much, it has never been quilted.

 There were three blocks that I had made and then decided they were the wrong shades of P&G, so I stuck them together as a table runner, which I also wasn't crazy about, so it is still a flimsy, too.

But that didn't stop the purple and green phase. I began participating in a BOM program in my community. It started at the beginner level, but I attended from the start, learning little tricks and discovering new tools and techniques along the way. And what fabric did I take with me to class? You guessed it--my beloved purples and greens! After making the first twelve blocks I felt like I needed to move on to new colors, so I used coping strips and a fun sashing to put these blocks together. I did get this quilted and gave it to my granddaughter.

Then, one day, while rummaging in the deepest recesses of my quilting corner, I found a stash of those precut, BOM kits you can buy at JoAnn stores. I don't usually buy them, but there had been a clearance sale on some leftovers several months before this. The kits were $.99 a piece--and the main colors were purple and green --with a little red, pink and white thrown in. I had found 4 designs I liked, bought four of each of them and went home feeling pretty smug about getting enough blocks for a quilt top for under $20. I decided it was time to get them sewn. As I laid everything out I decided I wanted each block to be different. So I mixed and matched pieces and found some bits in my stash that would match. I did end up buying some yardage for the sashing. I have had it quilted, but for some reason I can't find the photos of it after completion. My daughters called it the Berry Patch Quilt, because of the reds and purples surrounded by green.

I'd like to say that was all, but I realized that the flower fairy quilt I've posted about before, that I made for  my granddaughter, was also purple and green.

I'd also like to say it will never happen again, but there is enough fabric in these colors still on the shelves and in boxes that history could repeat itself. Don't get me wrong--I love purple and I love green. I just think I have had enough of the two of them together to last me a good long while!!
(Has the song "Deep Purple" been playing in anyone else's mind, or is it just me?)
Until next time, which will be over a week now--we will be up in the Canadian Rockies, instead of our little mountain valley,
Janet O.