vadalia

I did want to float a question about the instruction for Fabric B to everyone. I've always heard the "rule" that you don't usually want to use a large scale print fabric if you're doing small-sized piecing because it can end up looking like two (or more) completely different fabrics, including potentially different colors, if you cut a large scale print down too far. I'm not sure if the Merry Mayhem Mystery abides by the same rules as the Bonnie Hunter Mystery about not posting unit sizes, so I won't be specific, but the size of some of the squares we're cutting for Fabric B are small enough that I worried this issue might come up (that's even assuming we don't cut those squares down further, which there isn't a guarantee that we won't do exactly that)

So I guess I'm just wondering, did that combo of large-scale print and small-unit cutting instructions strike anyone else as odd? Is there typically a reason/block/style that usually calls for something like that? Should we be thinking about possibly fussy cutting so all the pieces show at least the same colors, or adjust the fabric we choose so that's not an issue with the cutting instructions we know of currently?

sewbizgirl

Love your second set of colors, Sharongn!

My head is spinning from all the colors and their placement names. Today I started the one from last year (“Around the Corner”, bought on Etsy), and it was hard to choose fabrics for that one too. I ended up trying to follow her suggestions, and when putting it together I wished I could switch placement of some of the fabrics. I’m finding her patterns confusing. She tells you to pick something “complimentary“ to the main fabric, and then something that “coordinates” with it. What’s the difference supposed to be between complimentary and coordinated??? And why do you need to cut LOF, when you are going to cut up the strip into squares anyway? Ugh. I hate following patterns. I hope the new mystery will be understandable.

joe'smom

vadalia, it did strike me as somewhat odd that the first fabric, being the border, was listed as med. to large scale, and the next fabric large scale. I didn't get as far as thinking about the size of the cuts. I cut my B tonight, but it isn't large-scale enough to be a problem (I didn't have another large scale print in the fabric group, so I decided not to worry about it). Is it possible to contact the author of the mystery about these things?

I'm disappointed tonight, as I had this perfect interlude to do my cutting, before the next BH mystery clue t omorrow, but my back gave out; at least I got the LOF border pieces cut, and fabric B.

joe'smom

I interpreted that as, 'complementary' means goes well with but is not necessarily a color that appears in the main fabric, and 'coordinates' means the color does appear in the main fabric.

Sometimes you have to cut LOF with a directional fabric if you want it to go a certain way -- not sure if that applies to the pattern you're sewing.

Watson

Sharongn...I love the first set you showed. Gorgeous.

Watson

ibex94

Good questions!

Color wheel "complementary" is opposite color. I wonder if that is her intention?

For "coordinates", if my interpretation of "complementary" is correct, perhaps her intent on "coordinated" is a fabric that would be a value of one of the colors in the main fabric?

givio

vadalia, good questions! I'd tend to go with MM's pic for B. It's basically green with some white. Although she says multi-colored, and her green does look like it has smudges of other colors in it, you can consider her text is describing this fabric. I'd say to avoid your worry of dividing up colors on a large print, choose instead something that has the colors more evenly distributed in the large print.

Sharongn

Thanks sewbizgirl, and everyone else. I pretty much have decided to go with the first set of colors. With the second set I found a nice light/medium blue to replace the gold but... The more I looked at fabric C, the more I didn't care for it. I looked for something to replace it but couldn't find anything.

After thinking about your question, and the difference between complementary and coordinating, I looked really closely at her choice of colors to help me decipher what she meant in the instructions. I noticed that her colors in fabric C didn't match any colors in her fabric A - that we can see anyway. I'm going with the definition "to fill out or complete". That isn't the color theory definition but I'll go with it since I don't think my fabric technically meets the colors theory definition. Lol

More confusing to me is, she says fabric E should coordinate with the BACKGROUND of fabric A (compared to fabric F which only says it should coordinate with fabric A). But I don't necessarily see blue as the background of her fabric A. I do see the dark blue in the one leaf, but from the sample it doesn't look like blue would be considered the background. Maybe it appears as the dominate color in the pattern? And she chose that to be considered the background?

Which leads to a question. On a multicolored, all over pattern, how DO you pick a background color when there really isn't a discernable background color?

Oh, and let's not leave out fabric D. Instructions say to choose a very light color that coordinates with fabric A. Well... I don't see ANY yellow in her fabric A. There is yellow in her fabric C. As a matter of fact, D looks to match the yellow in C perfectly (not so important, just an observation used for my emphasis. Lol). So, how I question what she means by "coordinate" . Lol

Am I making this too complicated?

givio

Yeah, I'd say we are making it too complicated! lol

I measured my darkest fabric and it's too small. I'm substituting a different one-- couldn't find one at home that I wanted, so resorted to buying, waiting for it to come in the mail. I've swapped out my darker shade of rust with a fabric that has less pattern. I washed and ironed a plum color solid fabric to be my white. Since there is so little white needed, I am thinking about how I will add more plum fabric later... I'd like less of a square top and more rectangle, so maybe will add something on the top, bottom, or both. After my fabric is cut, then I'll post another picture with my changes.

sewbizgirl

I'm just going to wait til the end of New Year's Day and see the quilt before deciding what fabrics to use. That's the only way to be sure the fabrics will work.