Red, red, red

My next quilt is going to be red, red, red. I don’t reach for my red fabrics often, but I actually find the color incredibly beautiful when used intensely. I don’t often wear it either, which is also curious because I think it looks good on me. Anyway, the idea is red stars, hence my recent musings on favorite star blocks.

I have in mind small Economy Stars in a compact layout. I’ll start by cutting scraps and then add fabrics from my stash as needed.

Here I’ve tested my math by sewing one economy block (right). You can see that the economy block will form the star points for adjacent red squares.

The test block sewed up beautifully, even with room to trim! On to the cutting - - -

Oh, how I’ve enjoyed it! Cutting perfect stacks of squares feels amazing after my experience with ruler-free improv sewing. Mmmmm, lovely. Is it funny what we quilter’s find relaxing? All this red, red, red is delicious too.

After cutting about 70 stacks of red, which is almost enough for my quilt, I’ve switched gears to cutting the background squares for the economy blocks and spacer blocks between the stars. I was thinking all neutrals for my background: white, cream, tan, brown, gray, black. I would place the neutral colors in groups to create shifting swells of background color. My hope was that using only neutrals for background would maintain the intense red feeling of the cut scraps. But, I have to say, I was disappointed.

Here is a test mock-up of the cut pieces. Each red square would become the center of a star. The on point neutral squares represent economy blocks. It’s definitely not looking as red as I’d like.

I’ve since slept on it and awoken with a clear conclusion - this isn’t right. I think that the black/gray elements make the work feel a bit stark and cold. I’m going to experiment with different background colors in hope of finding something that brings more life and red intensity. Fingers crossed!