A Working Lunch - Of Sorts

Oh, the joy of having quilt design software on the laptop! That translates to "portable design studio!"

While visiting the US recently I talked to friend Val about the possibility of making a quilt for her. I told her that if we could agree on a design - and if she were willing to pay for the materials - I'd do the work. We'd arranged to have lunch near the end of my visit in Ohio, and I brought along the laptop. The wait staff very kindly allowed us to park ourselves at a large table so we had plenty of room for the PC.

Here's what we came up with:



I was pleased that Val is interested in a log-cabin quilt. Those are pretty easy to put together and can be truly lovely. On the top of the quilt we extended the border a bit so that the border would be over the pillows on the bed, with the log-cabin blocks laying on the bed itself below the pillows. She may change her mind about that - but if she does it won't be a problem. The borders can easily be reduced and another row of log-cabin blocks can be put at the top to keep the overall size big enough to cover the pillows on the bed.

Val wanted blue and so that's what we set up in the design. The photo above, however, has a teal border. That wasn't Val's idea - it was my experiment. At about the time we had a look at it, she needed to head back to the office.

I kept the design and later developed the variations below (starting with removing the teal border):



The one above still uses green centers for the log cabin blocks, but the border now repeats the main medium blue. But would it look better if the border is lighter? Let's see...

Interesting. But with this version there seems to be too much of the white-and-blue polka dot in the center blocks. So I tweeked it a bit, taking a darker blue and spreading it more heavily around the center inside the log-cabin blocks:



It was a complete hoot to play "designer" over lunch - and to so easily involve Val in the creative process.

We've set the project aside for now. Val's daughter was planning a "wedding cruise" and every available dime was needed for Val and her hubby to attend (she had an absolute blast, the wedding was spectacular - and how many parents get to tag along for a cruise honeymoon?). We may pick it up later on or not. Either way, we had a good time dreaming together.