Dalmatians and Half Square Triangles

The Dalmatian fabric I used in the "Dalmations and Diamonds" quilt has now been used in 3 quilts and one improv block (see my last post). That fabric is all gone now! Here is the second quilt in the series. I picked colors from the cool side of the color wheel for this quilt.

I call this one "Calm in the Kennel, Chaos Outside"! The blocks in the large diamond are all arranged into small diamonds. The blocks outside the large central diamond are all random.  I had thought this was going to be a totally random HST quilt. But when I saw the central diamond begin to appear, I really liked it so went with it.

In the gallery below you can see some of the process of transforming it from a stack of half square triangles to its final design. I use the black and white photos to look see if the more intense colors are balanced in the quilt. It's easy to go from color to black and white on a cell phone, but the photography program on a computer can do it too. These are quick design-in-progress photos so not "pretty"!

The top two images are the same. The HST blocks had just been put up on the design wall randomly. There is no sign of the central diamond.  You can begin to see it in the bottom two photos. The blocks inside the diamond in the lower photos are still random.

Here's final photo of the quilt. The wind has flipped an edge so you can see the back.

The third quilt in this series of Dalmation quilts features colors on the warm side of the color wheel.  I'm quilting it now so it should be ready in time for my next post.

Using a Design Wall to Build a Modern Improv Quilt

Some of you must wonder about how a collection of fabrics become a finished quilt, especially if the quilt is improvisational and no pattern is used.   Here are a progression of photos of my design wall (the fuzzy back of a picnic table cloth hanging over 2 closet doors).  Most of the pictures were taken indoors without a flash.  I took the last photo outside, flat on the front walk, so you could see the real colors in the quilt.  

My post a week ago show the beginnings of this Viking quilt, based on Score #10 in Sherri Lynn Wood's Book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters. 

While the construction of this quilt is done using Modern Improv guidelines, the fact that the Viking fabric was fussy cut and the quilt is going together like a storybook, makes it unusual in the Modern quilt genre. 

Here's what has happened with the quilt so far this week. 

The windsock on the left is new, and the pennant flags have been attached to the right upper part of the castle. Work begins on the top story of the castle. Also thinking about how to build out the meadow/wood section. The boats await the rest of the fleet.

Sections of sky, some of the castle turrets, a bit of castle wall have been sewn together.  No changes in meadow/wood or ocean yet.

The sun and more sky has been added. The top story of the castle is complete. Work begins on the ground level of the castle. the castle lawn and walkway. The meadow, woods section is complete. The ships are at a stand still!

The castle is completely done the 3 sections of sky and castle have been sewn together. The lawn and walk are finished and have been attached to the meadow/woods.  The meadow and woods are the widest section in the quilt. I need to add more sky to the right side of the quilt to make it the same width.

Still nothing happening at sea!

And finally, a rocky Scandinavian beach has been added and the Viking Fleet is about set sail!

What's left?  Adding sky to the top section so it's the same width as the rest of the quilt.  

This is really akin to a assembling a jig saw puzzle.  Except the pieces are cut to order!