A Dwell Color Challenge...

In quilt guild last month, we had a color workshop. We were all supposed to bring some favorite fabric scraps and some paint chip cards that "called out" to us. Well, in typical fashion, I didn't prepare… but I was still able to participate with the paint chip cards my friend brought and a scrap of fabric the guild leader, K, shared with me. (She showed us - my friend didn't bring fabric, either, because we can be lame like that - a handful of scraps and had us pick the one we liked the most.) I picked a bright floral print that absolutely spoke to me. It was the last of a fabric that belonged to K's grandma.

From that scrap of fabric, we used the paint chips to pull out all the colors in the fabric. The idea would be that it would help us to see the colors to which we identify or that draw us in.

This is a grouping of some of the fabrics from our quilt guild meeting and the colors pulled from them. (Credit to K for the photo. I made a screen shot of her IG post.) 

Here's a really blurry zoom in on my fabric and the colors I pulled. Thank goodness other ladies were willing to share paint chips, because the ones my friend brought didn't really contain a lot of these colors. Yes, I learned my lesson and will do my homework assignment in the future!

Because we will be discussing "mini quilts" in a future guild meeting, we were given an assignment to make a mini using the color scheme we came up with. When I got home, I decided to combine this assignment with a project already on my list: the Dwell Mini by Camille Roskelley.

It was fun to pull fabrics from my stash and scraps… and I found that I really didn't need to buy any fabric at all to compete this project. :)  Obviously these colors are "my" colors, because it wasn't hard to find colors to match my color swatch. (Did I just use the word "colors" four times in one sentence? Yikes.)

These houses are so tiny and cute.

I love everything about this mini quilt… the colors, the little houses, the happy vibe...

That little green house was intended for the front, but when I stuck it up with the others I had made, it just didn't  fit in. I decided to turn it into a label and add it to the back. The backing fabric was in my stash, and I thought it was perfect for describing what every home should have as part of its foundation.

 I only had a few squares of the inspiration fabric, so I tried to use it where I could:

I'm trying to ignore the crooked edge there on the upper left.

I machine quilted it with the clear thread again. I'm not sure I love it… sometimes it seems a little lumpy with the tension, but it's okay.

I would love to make the Dwell pattern in a regular size quilt. I already have the pattern in one of Camille Roskelley's books. (And I'm excited to meet her at Quilt Bliss in a couple of weeks!)

It adds a little color to one corner of my sewing room. (I should get a clock with some color, but I can't complain about the $1.99 Ikea clock for now.) This mini really is mini… I think the finished size was about 13 x 16'ish.

This was a super fun project for me. I'm glad K planned it for us at quilt guild… it was an interesting experiment and plus it motivated me to get this project done quickly!

On another subject… I think this makes #11 on the projects that I've finished since my daughter left on her mission. She has been gone nearly 6 months, so I'm doing great on my "one project a month" original goal. The problem is that once I counted how many projects I had on my list (33!), I decided to try to finish two a month. I'm still pretty close.

One other problem… I sometimes add new projects to my list. It makes it hard to get that total number lower when new projects get added in. :)

Here's the 11 I've done so far (all blogged earlier). I have to get them written down in one spot so I can keep them straight in my mind…

1) Halloween/Fall Saturday Sampler
2) Baby quilt and burpies for the new grandson
3) Fall wallhanging
4) Fall table runner for the piano
5) Camping quilt for oldest son
6) Patriotic wallhanging
7) Patriotic table runner
8) 30's reproduction fabric Saturday Sampler
9) Nail Polish mini quilt
10) Dwell mini quilt
11) Fall improv that I tossed. (Yes, I'm counting this as a "finish." Haha… it's scratched off my list, so that has to count for something!)