“Melting Pot” – Quite the Challenge

In a recent post I suggested that, when making improvisational quilts, it’s a good idea to get the proportion of colors set before any construction begins. Yet, I ignored my own advice on my latest quilt, Melting Pot.

It all began when I fell in love with a painting by Jane Davies. Great colors, right? It’s called Common Thread 1.

Common Thread 1, a painting by Jane Davies. JaneDaviesArtGallery.com

Although the colors are quite disparate, I decided I would use them as a springboard for a new improvisational piece. (However, when I printed out this reference photo, the colors came out much more subdued, which affected the fabrics I used.)

As with any improv quilt, I started by selecting the fabrics I would use and sewing them together in pairs. This is what it looked like at that stage.

"Melting Pot" - Quite the Challenge. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Pretty ugly, right? Clearly, I’d have to add interest by slicing and dicing to create a variety of shapes and sizes. And I strongly suspected that I would decrease some of the colors as I went. I jumped in.

Even the first little bit of manipulation made it look better.

"Melting Pot" - Quite the Challenge. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

So I did more.

"Melting Pot" - Quite the Challenge. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

At this point I didn’t care about making square-ish units. I was just trying to create interest. It was definitely getting better as smaller shapes were created.

"Melting Pot" - Quite the Challenge. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I decided to scale back on the yellow, orange, and tans, and to pump up the teals, reds, and blacks.

"Melting Pot" - Quite the Challenge. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The little skinny strips add a lot of energy, don’t they?

At this point, it was getting pretty large and I was having second thoughts about the size. Then, I remembered another call for art requiring a quilt that’s 1′ wide by 4′ high. I realized  I had enough units to make 2 quilts! Yippee! In the photo above, I’ve separated them. The 6 units on the left would go into my original quilt and the 3 (stacked) on the right would become a 1′ x 4′ piece.

And here’s the finished quilt, Melting Pot. Whew, that was challenging!

And a detail shot:

I’ll show you the companion quilt soon.

Ellen Lindner

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8 Responses to “Melting Pot” – Quite the Challenge

  1. Mary Stori November 3, 2020 at 3:13 pm #

    Nice description of the way you work!

    • Ellen Lindner November 4, 2020 at 12:02 am #

      Ooh, it was challenging, Mary. I don’t think I’ll take on a challenge like that again for a while.

  2. Kay Welch November 3, 2020 at 4:14 pm #

    Sometimes we just have to stick with our projects through “the not so pretty” stage. And the end result makes it worth it. Definitely does in this case – “melting Pot” cooked up quite nicely.

    • Ellen Lindner November 4, 2020 at 12:02 am #

      Thanks, Kay! It did seem painful at times, but I’m happy with the result.

  3. Linda G November 3, 2020 at 6:28 pm #

    Wow, that really turned out well! The curves add energy too, and in a not-too-overpowering way. Thanks for sharing your process!

    • Ellen Lindner November 4, 2020 at 12:03 am #

      Thanks, Linda! I love the curvy skinny little strips.

  4. Pam Kettner November 3, 2020 at 10:19 pm #

    It’s fun to research color and pattern and watch things emerge. Keep up the good work.👍

    • Ellen Lindner November 4, 2020 at 12:03 am #

      Thanks, Pam!

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