16 patches

How did I not see this until now?

I have heard this book mentioned a bunch of times in my years hanging out in quilt-blogland, but it wasn't until last week that I was curious enough (or smart enough?) to do an interlibrary loan search and request it.  I want to own this book, is it still in print?

there is so much in here.  I mean, so much good information/inspiration.
but this week, i'm in love with 16 patches, and the 16-patch-on-point border in specific. 

IN LOVE i tell you!

so I tried some, getting over my initial hesitation because the thought of stitching together sixteen 2" squares from a laid out block plan just seemed a bit too--- fussy (?) to me.  How in the hell would anyone want to suffer through doing that enough times to have the right amount of blocks for a border?!  (of course, you can see I didn't actually read the book before trying this, i just looked at some pictures... In my defense, I was technically reading it over Merrill's shoulder while she was here Wednesday, but I did go back and read the instructions more carefully after I made several blocks..)
Luckily, I have just spent several days cutting and piecing strip sets for the Mystery over at quiltville, so I thought I'd give strip sets a try for this too.. I started sewing strips, cutting them into 2" sections, and then piecing 4 patches, but that made my seams all nuts in the back.  So then i had a brilliant idea... why not sew two sections together on the short side, making one LONG strip of 4 squares?  Brilliant, I know! (and if I would have read the book first, Gwen & Freddy actually tell you to piece 4 strips together before subcutting, but I couldn't see that far ahead..)

One day's worth of stitching (an hour at naptime and 45 minutes before bed on Thursday) and I have 10 adorable 16 patches in monochrome turquoise.  The initial plan was to do just one long side border with them, kind of like the collaboration quilt in the book, but once I started playing with them on the design wall, I'm wondering if I shouldn't do two side borders and keep the applique only on the bottom, or do top and bottom applique..

Oh~ the design struggle!  What to do? How can I make this quilt?  But I'm loving it.. loving being so deeply involved in this project.  I've been obsessed with a quilt before, but here I feel consumed..
I know there is plenty of school work to keep me busy over the next 10 days until winter break (only 10 days!), but I think this quilt will probably steal some of my time too.  I've still been appliqueing slowly during George's baths, but at least it's something.  I know I'm headed in the right direction...

the first monochrome idea

I hesitated to show or post anything about this quilt for a long time ("long time" is relative, of course, I've been working on it since early October) because I didn't really know what I wanted to say or where this project was going, and I didn't want to be held accountable either.  But yesterday when I got ready to make my monochrome fabric for the 30-Day Challenge, I found myself staring at a full design wall and knowing that if I took it down to make room for something else, it would sit in the UFO pile forever.  Truth is, I lost momentum about 3 weeks into the project because I used up my fabric faster than I thought I would and got a bit lazy about staying creative to make the remainder into something interesting.   My original idea was to make it huge, 4 units this size (42" x 49"), all monochrome deep turquoise, in 7" or 14" blocks.  It went together quickly in the beginning and I was loving it.  Then, you know how it goes.  when momentum slows and then stops, you either put it aside or push on through.  I liked it too much to put it aside, so instead I started thinking about other ways to make this one chunk into something cool. I played around with border ideas yesterday and came up with something I like, so last night I did some cutting and sewing, and with a thin inner border attached, I came up with the great(?) idea to incorporate some hand applique in a wide outer border.  Hand applique?  I love when I have great ambitions..
You know, it's either set it aside and wait 2-3 years til inspiration strikes, or tackle it right now and choose a plan that's almost destined to stall or fail.  I feel like once the applique gets a bit stitched down I'll show it to some people and they'll encourage me to keep going, right?  Stay tuned for the next installment of the story...