Lars's New Quillow Plan: Can I Finish This In 9 Months If I Haven't Started It Yet?

New Plan for Lars's Quillow, 74 x 98

Reality check: Lars starts his senior year of high school this coming Monday.  We are just nine months away from his senior year Quillow Blessing at church.  In case you're not familiar with this tradition, the annual Quillow Service at Christ Lutheran is when the graduating seniors parade to the front of the church in their caps in gowns while their baby pictures are flashing on the screens and the choir sings bittersweet anthems about letting go and launching them into the Big, Scary World, trusting in God to protect them.  Then the parents wrap a special quilt around the shoulders of their son or daughter, specially made for the occasion (many families do a quilt that folds up into a pillow, hence the term "quillow"), the pastors say stuff that makes everyone cry, and we do a special blessing.  This is a day for waterproof mascara, for sure.

Lars-Of-Ours, My Rising Senior

So anyway, Lars is going to need a quilt for this, and it needs to be completely finished by the beginning of June.  He and I collaborated on a design for this quilt over a year ago in EQ8, and although I absolutely adore the design we came up with, I've decided it's not suitable for his quillow for a number of reasons.

My Original, Unrealistic Crazy Person Design

What are those reasons, you may ask?

1. I haven't started it yet, and do you see all those tiny pieces?  Let's be real, folks -- there is NO WAY I would get this finished on time.
2. Lars's "quillow" is going to be a bed quilt for his college dorm, not a pillow, so I need to think about what it will feel like to sleep beneath the quilt.  A quilt with a bazillion pieces is also a quilt with a bazillion heavy seam allowances.  So I do plan to make the original quilt eventually, but as a wall quilt rather than a bed quilt.
3. If I locked myself in my studio for the next 9 months, working nonstop with only peanuts and M&Ms to sustain me, and miraculously managed to finish this quilt on time...  Then what if something BAD happened to the quilt at college, like it was stolen or ruined in a laundry mishap or something was spilled all over it -- can you imagine how devastating that would be?  I need to design a quilt that I can make with a reasonable investment of time so that, in the unfortunate event it's lost/damaged/stolen, my son won't feel responsible for the loss of a family heirloom!
4. Again, although I love the stained glass inspired cross design on its own, the interior designer in me is thinking about how this bed quilt will fit into a typical college dorm room that my son will be sharing with a roommate.  These are small rooms that get cluttered up very quickly, and I think a simpler, more graphic/modern quilt design is more likely to look good in the room with whatever else he and his roommate have going on in there.

Lars, of course, is bummed that he isn't getting a giant stained glass window for his quillow quilt, and he reluctantly gave me two criteria for coming up with an alternative design:

He wants it to be purple.

He also wants it to be "Cooler than everyone else's, and not just because all the squares match up, either."  

Hah!  I said it's not a competition to see whose parents can come up with the best quilt, but then he explained that I have been making cool things his whole life and he wants his quilt to be something special that only his mom could make...  And how am I supposed to argue with that?  He has been sleeping under this quilt for the past 6 years, and my quiltmaking skills have improved quite a bit since I made that one for him.  

Lars's Current Bed Quilt, Made in 2012

So I'm going to translate "cooler than everyone else's" into "cooler than the last one you made me," because that's what I think he was really getting at. 

One of the things I love most about the cathedral window quilt design is that I based it off of a design that Lars created in an EQ Intermediate Piecing Design class we took with Barb Vlack back when Lars was 13 years old.  (Yes, EQ software really is so easy that a child can use it!)  Wanting my new quillow design to also be a collaboration between mother and son, I went back to that old EQ7 Project File from the 2014 class to see what else I could use as a starting point for the new design.  

Lars's EQ7 Design from 2014 Class

I like how this design incorporates curved piecing and is similar to the Drunkard's Path blocks I used in his previous quilt, but with the greater complexity and "cool factor" of the arcs of graduated flying geese.  Since I can print my foundation paper piecing patterns directly from EQ8, as well as templates for the curved background fabrics, it won't be difficult to piece accurately, either.  

So the first thing I did was to resize the quilt to a size appropriate for an XL Twin dormitory mattress, scaling the block size up to 12" for a bold, modern scale (reducing the number of pieces and seams is an added bonus).  Each circle is made up of four blocks, so those are 24" circles.  Then I offset the rows of circles to create a half drop pattern repeat.  

Is It Purple Enough? Is It Cool Enough?

Now, THAT is a quilt design that I am excited to turn into a real quilt!  I am not 100% sure what Lars has in mind for the color scheme beyond the Purple Imperative, so I created a few different color schemes for him to choose from.  I may even drag him off to the quilt shop with me to select the actual fabrics.  

Or Will He Prefer Purple with Red and Gray?

I know I want either solid fabrics or nearly-solid fabrics for this quilt, with a dark, saturated purple background.  I like the Modern/Amish vibe that gives me, and I feel like it keeps the quilt from looking too cutesy for a young man.  Of course, I've never been one to limit my sons' color choices to brown, navy or gray.

Or Purple With Royal Blue and Chartreuse?

The more I play with different colorways, the more I like this design.  

Or Purple With Light Blue and Red?

Wouldn't it be a cool fabric print for drapery panels, printed on linen with a 24" repeat?

If Quilters Designed Drapery Fabrics

Okay, so THAT was probably not the most productive use of my time today...  FYI, you can NOT do that with EQ8.  I exported the quilt rendering photo as a JPEG from EQ8 so I could share that with you here on my blog, and then I imported that quilt design image into a separate interior design software program and rescaled it so I could use it as if it was a drapery fabric...  I am proud of myself for stopping at that point, because I REALLY wanted to PhotoShop a lovely mountain view behind those windows, drape a snuggly throw across the arm of the sectional, and top it all off with a fabulous contemporary chandelier.  This is what RESTRAINT looks like.

And now, my lovelies, I'm signing off so I can wrap up some last minute errands and details for my younger son's birthday party that is happening this evening!  Son the Younger turned 15 recently and is about to begin his sophomore year of high school.  Which means I will have ANOTHER quillow quilt to design and create as soon as I finish Lars's!

Birthday Boy Anders, My Rising Sophomore

Anders is going through a phase where he thinks it's hysterically funny to cower in fear whenever Mom takes his picture.  Fun times!

I'll be linking today's post up with:

• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• Esther's WIPs On Wednesday http://estheraliu.blogspot.com

Virtual Design Fix: Studio to the Rescue!

As a designer, I learn so much from studying the work of other designers.  I scour industry and shelter magazines, attend classes and seminars, and of course the internet is a wonderful tool for keeping tabs on what's new and wonderful in the world of interiors.  However, I confess that I also take a little guilty pleasure now and then by checking out the hilarious examples of what NOT to do compiled by James Swan on his Facebook page, "101 Things I Hate About Your House."   Sometimes he finds ghastly furniture from manufacturers who honestly must be from outer space if they think anyone could live with that whatever-it-is.  Other times he serves up tough love in the form of a series of photographs of houseplant ivy run amok and taking over someone's entire home as though it was Sleeping Beauty's castle waiting for Prince Charming to come and hack his way through the vines.  There are close to 3,000 fans of this page, and sometimes the clever comments posted after the photographs are even funnier than the photos themselves.

But a few days ago, looking through the photos Swan posted under Duck Soup, I started to feel uncomfortable.  All of the photos in this group show interiors with "errors" that are easy for design professionals to pick out -- maybe errors is too strong a word; let's say missed opportunities.  Most of them involve poor choices in window treatments, or poor execution of what might have worked in the hands of a professional drapery workroom and installer.  Unfortunately, hiring an interior design professional is beyond the means of many people, and I think many of the photos in the Duck Soup album show interiors that homeowners decorated themselves, with little or no professional assistance, on a budget that most interior designers would consider minimal (although, to the homeowner writing the checks, it is ALWAYS a lot of money -- it's all about levels).  Keeping that in mind, most of these rooms aren't that bad.

This room in particular caught my attention:

Tall ceilings, beautiful arched windows, and the arches are chopped off by squatty little striped swag valances that do nothing to enhance the proportions of the room.  The busy striped fabric (polyester satin?) and all that tassel trim is at odds with the casual feel of the mismatched furnishings, distressed wood finishes, and leather chair.

Maybe this homeowner is really industrious and she sewed and installed the Roman shades and board-mounted valances herself, or perhaps she engaged a professional whose services were affordable to her.  Either way, analyzing the photo, I can guess what her objectives were:

"I need something on the window to insulate the glass, because it gets so cold here in the winter, and I need privacy at night so everyone driving by can't see me eating Ben & Jerry's in front of the fireplace.  I want something dressy, more dramatic than just plain blinds or boring drapery panels.  I know the furniture is a bit of a mish-mosh, but I can't afford to change everything right now.  My budget is limited and I really need to work with what I have.  I like the arches on the windows and I don't want to cover them up -- one of my favorite things about this house is that there's so much natural light in this room, even in the winter.  Can you help me?"

So I took a little break from working on other projects for real clients who have actually hired me, uploaded this photo into my Studio design software from Minutes Matter, and gave this stranger's room a virtual makeover.  In the 45 minutes or so that I played around with this, I tried to better accomplish the client's objectives (the objectives I'm inferring from clues in the original photo), enhance and complement the client's existing furnishings, and -- most importantly -- I made sure that my new window treatments could realistically be obtained at about the same cost as the window treatments in the original photo.

Alaire in Persimmon, $30.50/yd Retail

I left the Roman shades exactly as they were, because they do a good job of keeping out the cold if they're interlined, and there's nothing wrong with them, and obviously the client likes them or she wouldn't have picked them.  I might have suggested doing the shades top-down/bottom up, so the client could cover the bottom portion of the window for privacy but have the option of letting more light in at the top of the window if she wanted to.  However, I think the satin striped fabric on the swag valances is too tired/traditional/formal for this space.  It doesn't feel fresh.  So I substituted this very affordable 100% cotton fabric from Robert Allen.  (Note: I am aware that this is probably not a perfect color match, it probably needs to be a bit more bordeaux and less russet, but it's hard to judge color accurately from a photograph, and I couldn't justify spending hours and hours searching for the PERFECT fabric for an imaginary project.  Obviously if this was a real client, I would take the time to nail the fabric selection).

Next, I added a stationary drapery panel to the outside of each window, and raised the swags up at the center above the arched portion of the window.  This plays up the drama of the vaulted ceiling better, and the stationary drapery panels will help to muffle echoes and give the room a psychologically warmer feeling, elegant, but still cozy and not too formal because the fabric is a soft cotton instead of a shiny satin.  I left the tassel fringe on the Roman shades to keep them looking custom, and because my imaginary client really loves tassel fringe, but I eliminated it from the swags because I felt like it was overkill.  Skipping the trim on the swag valance also offset the increased labor and yardage costs of the drapery panels that I added.  My swags are mounted on little fabric-covered blocks of wood with decorative iron medallion ornaments screwed through the front, similar to the candlesticks in front of the fireplace that my imaginary client purchased at one of her girlfriends' parties (you know, those parties where the ladies all eat hors d'oeuvres and drink wine while they shop for baskets/candles/food storage containers/makeup). 

Without further ado, here's how my new imaginary window treatments would look in this client's home:

Isn't it amazing how window treatments can totally transform a space, even when everything else in the room stays the same?  If I had more time to play with this, I would "paint" the walls in my software program, a color similar to the color of the Roman shade fabric, or possibly a few shades lighter, to warm up those stark, Builder White walls and make the crown molding, fireplace mantel, and other trimwork pop.  What do you think?  I love it when I get comments, hint, hint, nudge nudge...