Thursday 9 October 2014

Spooling Around

I finished my September orange spools.  There's a lot of brown and black going on in each spool so I figured it would appropriate to finish off the spools in October and create a little table runner that would be fun and colourful.  I started playing around with setting out the spools.




First I laid out all the spools in a typical layout as above.  Here are all eight colours.   Safe and boring?
 
Then I tried mixing up the colours but with the same layout.  I thought this spread the colour out a little. 
Next I tried stacking the spools end to end.  This created some interesting white and brown hexagonal patterning but it looked like there should be more happening and I wanted to make it a runner and not the middle of something.
 
What if the centre spools were laid out horizontally? This created  a frame around the blocks and looked more finished. 
 


Then I tried to place one spool of each colour in each row.  Okay?

Finally I played with the colour placement and tried to place them diagonally like a rainbow.
 
Which setting would you select?  I'm really torn.
 

13 comments:

Fibre Art by Mary Katherine Hopkins said...

Personally, I like the colour blocks of the first picture. :-)

Chantal said...

Wow, you gave yourself a workout on this one. But it was worth it because I really think the last effort is the best. Because the colours are in a rainbow order it takes a few minutes for the brain to discover that the spool are not all aligned the same way. It's a cute discovery. Love it.

Carla A Few Of My Favorite Things said...

Wow! You came up with some neat ideas, but I like the fifth picture from the top. The one where you laid the center blocks horizontally. I like the pattern formed by the layout and the random color placement. But, to tell you the truth any of those layouts would work!

Jennifer said...

love love love all the spools! definitely on my to-do list. what about this layout/tutorial for an idea?
http://weddingdressblue.wordpress.com/2014/09/27/tutorial-spool-shuffle-quilt/

Edith said...

Love your little spools, my favourite lay outs are the first and the second, and in that order.

scraphappy said...

I love them all, but it just depends on what effect you are going for. The first one screams rainbow, and the alternating blocks really add interest. However you end up -- I love them all!

Mystic Quilter said...

These are a joy to look at, I really like the first setting you have it seems to add movement.

Sheila said...

I love spool blocks. Your blocks are awesome. I vote for the second layout : )

Katie Z. said...

I love them all!

Cathy said...

I'll choose door number 2...er, I mean layout number 2...mixed up colors/typical layout. But actually any of them would work just fine for a layout if someone was making it for me!!!

Quiltdivajulie said...

I like the idea of the center section being differently oriented than the outer rows . . . except that I would try letting the two center rows be opposite of what you have (edge to edge) and the outside rows set end to end . . .

Lovely spools - they'll make a wonderful runner!

Lisa J. said...

I like the 2nd one the best.

Sparky said...

your spools has me spinning....don't you just love what colour and threads can tie together..

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