How mini is mini?

A couple weeks ago, Victoria posted a Miniature Challenge over at 15 Minutes Play. I knew I wanted to be part of it, but couldn't quite decide how--what kind of block/design? What colors? I'm always more excited about a project when I've got an idea in mind.

Then I saw this pattern:
Cubit from Stitched Together Studios
and I knew exactly what I was going to do! 

The quilt pattern measures 69-1/2" square, so I had to do a little math to shrink the design down to the 12" challenge size. I decided to make just the center four blocks. 

Our weather has been a bit gray and dreary lately, so I gravitated toward bright oranges and yellows for my made fabric. Incidentally, these were the colors of our leaves last week...after the rain (and snow flurries!); they're mostly brown now.

I wasn't sure what colors I wanted to use for the sides of the focal squares, so I auditioned multiple options. It seemed like the obvious answer was to go with some type of grays/blacks, so I tried several of those, experimenting to see if patterned prints would work or take away from the made fabric focal squares. I also threw in a couple colored versions to see how they'd look. The orange/yellow squares measure 3-1/2"; the finished block will measure 12" square.
I was glad I auditioned so many different choices, and while I liked my first choice (upper left--gray solid and darker gray scroll) best, I was surprised at some of the others that I liked as well--especially the pink and purple; it just wasn't the look I was going for with this project.

I played around a bit more in Photoshop to see how the different blocks would look (I realize in real life the blocks would be mirror images...these are just quick mock-ups where I copied, pasted and rotated one block three more times.)

Subtly solid:

Brights; less of an optical illusion:

More traditional fabrics:

Darker shaded tonals:

Medium grays:

Dots in different sizes:

Which do you like best?






p.s. If you like the Cubit pattern too, you can find it here.


Previous
Previous

WIP Wednesday

Next
Next

The "I may have lost my mind" November goal: piecing a Dresden tree skirt