HELP (with Grandmother's fan design)

[Marissa Vignali]

Hi.. me again.. are you fed up of reading my mail already? I don't want to be
classified as "spam".... :o)

I need ideas. I told you before about this grandmother's fan project in soft
pastels that I saw in some movie and decided to reproduce from the faint
impression it made in my tired and overloaded brain... (that means it could
have been any other motif in pastel colours too... )

I thought it would be nice to make each block in a different range of pastels.
So I checked my stash and rapidly cut and pieced the blue. Then I cut the fans
for the green. Fine until here. I have enough softs yellows, pinks and tans
for three more blocks. I have some lilacs/violets and have been begging for
more.. so maybe I'll complete that one too. That makes 6.

But I want either 9 or better still, 12 blocks...the final size is 9" (I
think, yeah, 12 seemed to big) so I either discover 6 more colour groups or
repeat them all twice.

Soft oranges might work, but might be difficult to find... what else????

********************************************************
Marissa Vignali
URL: http://www.bmb.psu.edu/597a/stdnts96/Vignali
********************************************************

[Christie E. Burke]

In article <353D33A3...@psu.edu>, Marissa Vignali <mg...@psu.edu> writes:
> I thought it would be nice to make each block in a different range of pastels.
> So I checked my stash and rapidly cut and pieced the blue. Then I cut the fans
> for the green. Fine until here. I have enough softs yellows, pinks and tans
> for three more blocks. I have some lilacs/violets and have been begging for
> more.. so maybe I'll complete that one too. That makes 6.
>
> But I want either 9 or better still, 12 blocks...the final size is 9" (I
> think, yeah, 12 seemed to big) so I either discover 6 more colour groups or
> repeat them all twice.

I have this problem ALL THE TIME when designing stuff. (Mind you, I design
mostly USO's these days... not much quilting getting done, what with my life or
lack thereof.) I always want every single block to be different, but it
doesn't always work out that way. Usually I change the design. :)

Here's my idea: You have all these lovely fan blocks with the fan in colors on
a white (I'm guessing?) background. How about, for the other six, doing white
fans (perhaps with white-on-white fabrics, ecru, beige, all those light
neutrals) with a colored background? For instance, pick your favorite of the
blues you used in the blue block; use that one as a background and do the fan
part in whites, etc.

I know *nothing* about this particular pattern, so I don't know if there are
traditions that disallow this kind of thing. But hey, there are no Quilt
Police, and seems to me this might be pretty. Let us know what you decide.

Christie :)
cbu...@macalester.edu

[Jill and Marcus Gibbons]

Hi Christie

<<< Here's my idea: You have all these lovely fan blocks with the
fan in colors on
a white (I'm guessing?) background. How about, for the other six,
doing white
fans (perhaps with white-on-white fabrics, ecru, beige, all those
light
neutrals) with a colored background? For instance, pick your favorite
of the
blues you used in the blue block; use that one as a background and do
the fan
part in whites, etc. >>>

I think that's an excellent idea! You never see Grandmother Fans done
this way - so doing it would be a "good thing" in my opinion. I
think it would be very pretty.

just my 2 cents

Jill in VA

[Marissa Vignali]

Hey thanks, that is an idea.. I'll have to pass it through the Quilting Plan
Inspection Board though (i.e. Fernando, my husband - I don't feel comfortable
about the DH stuff)

You guessed right in that the background is white on white.

I wanted it to be a kind of charm quilt (experts: can it be a charm quilt if
the background is the same fabric for all the blocks??? what about sashing,
borders, etc?)

Marissa
the only quilter without UFOs??
(I don't allow myself to start anything until I am done with the previous
stuff unless things like my brother suddently coming this summer make me
change the schedule....)

[Tiffany]

how about a mauve block.from burgundy to rose??????????
Ellison wrote in message <6hjkq6$8...@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>...
>Howdy!
> I made a fan quilt a couple of years ago; the fan blades
>are metallic fabrics on dark backgrounds, the 1/4 circle
>where the blades meet is a gold metallic on black,
>and then I went looking for a pattern for the big piece that
>surrounds each fan; I did Not want to applique those fans
>to the foundation. Couldn't find the pattern I wanted
>anywhere. So, out came the geometry tools ;-) ,
>& I drew that big arc myself w/ compass and protractor,
>then I pieced it as I would any circular pattern (Double Wedding
>Ring, etc.).
> Then, last year at the Dallas quilt show, I found a book
>on making fan blocks, by piecing or applique, and there
>was that pattern I wanted! Of course.
> Well, I bought the book, as it has great color ideas.
>I used a soft yellow print for the foundation/surrounding
>arc, and it makes the fans really pop out.
>My point: use any colors you want/have/can beg for. ;-)
>The fans my dad brought back from Japan 45 years ago
>are bright colors on a black background. I love the colors.
> Ragmop
>
>Marissa Vignali <mg...@psu.edu> wrote in article
><353D33A3...@psu.edu>...

>> Hi.. me again.. are you fed up of reading my mail already? I don't want
>to be
>> classified as "spam".... :o)
>>
>> I need ideas. I told you before about this grandmother's fan project in
>soft
>> pastels that I saw in some movie and decided to reproduce from the faint
>> impression it made in my tired and overloaded brain... (that means it
>could
>> have been any other motif in pastel colours too... )
>>

>> I thought it would be nice to make each block in a different range of
>pastels.
>> So I checked my stash and rapidly cut and pieced the blue. Then I cut the
>fans
>> for the green. Fine until here. I have enough softs yellows, pinks and
>tans
>> for three more blocks. I have some lilacs/violets and have been begging
>for
>> more.. so maybe I'll complete that one too. That makes 6.
>>
>> But I want either 9 or better still, 12 blocks...the final size is 9" (I
>> think, yeah, 12 seemed to big) so I either discover 6 more colour groups
>or
>> repeat them all twice.
>>

>> Soft oranges might work, but might be difficult to find... what else????
>>

[Marissa Vignali]

Are you talking about the quilting part??? I don't understand what it was that
you didn't want to do.... oh, I get it, the aplique...I didn't aplique it to a
square block as the books recommend, it looked like an awful waste of fabric
so I just apliqueed it to the cut shape...

The thing is that I don't know how to sew curves.. (remember, my machine
sewing notions are so limited that I flip and turn to see what happens... )

I could never put black and metallic together, well, not true, black and gold,
as they constitute the colours of my dad and Fer's dad enemy soccer team back
home.. they'd never talk to me again.... :o)

Marissa
Still begging

[Ellison]

[Merry Stahel]

How about soft teal? That turquiose green/blue? I've seen lots of
good greens in this tone - I'm also collecting fabric to make a green
grandmother's fan for Mom.

You said you had blues, yellows, pinks, lilacs, greens - so teal,
coral/peach, maybe some soft browns, some shaded grays, a white on
cream, or a cream on white - and one rainbow fan - that is all the
stronger colors of your pastel palatte - or even two matching rainbow
blocks on each side of the middle row....

I plan to embellish my quilt to - running lace across the top of the
fan, and have a lace applique on the solid curved piece at the bottom,
with ribbons and maybe even those ribbon roses dangling from it.

Oh, and Mom wants a scalloped edge!

Merry

On Tue, 21 Apr 1998 22:52:35 -0400, Marissa Vignali <mg...@psu.edu>
wrote:

>Are you talking about the quilting part??? I don't understand what it was that
>you didn't want to do.... oh, I get it, the aplique...I didn't aplique it to a
>square block as the books recommend, it looked like an awful waste of fabric
>so I just apliqueed it to the cut shape...
>
>The thing is that I don't know how to sew curves.. (remember, my machine
>sewing notions are so limited that I flip and turn to see what happens... )
>
>I could never put black and metallic together, well, not true, black and gold,
>as they constitute the colours of my dad and Fer's dad enemy soccer team back
>home.. they'd never talk to me again.... :o)
>
>Marissa
>Still begging
>

>********************************************************
>Marissa Vignali
>URL: http://www.bmb.psu.edu/597a/stdnts96/Vignali
>********************************************************

Merry Stahel, Editor, CALICO TRAILS
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania - wish it was the West!!
sta...@ezonline.com
http://www.ezonline.com/stahel/index.html
http://members.aol.com/hfur/calindex.html

[Ginger Glaser]

Marissa Vignali wrote:
> think, yeah, 12 seemed to big) so I either discover 6 more colour groups or
> repeat them all twice.
>
> Soft oranges might work, but might be difficult to find... what else????

Oh you should be able to find some - various peach colors would be
lovely. ANd it also would work fine to have 2 of each set of colors,
with different fabrics.

GInger

[sarah curry smith]

This would take quite a bit of shopping and planning (I'm really GOOD at
the former; really BAD at the latter ...), but you could take the
pastels of all the stuff on the color wheel (including your browns and
grays, which aren't on the wheel, but count, in my book). the true
purples (true violet), the red-purples (a purply pink), the reds (a true
pink), the orange-reds, the oranges(translate to peaches), the
yellow-oranges (golds, maybe?), the yellows, the yellow-greens (lots of
these, these days), the greens, the blue-greens (teals), the blues, the
blue-purples, and you're back where you started. -- and that's a dozen
...
Unclear to me how come the notion of the tans and grays is appealing
... I don't like either, but I think they'd surely make the "colors"
sparkle!
Good luck, and
Happy Trails,
Sarah in Las Cruces, NM

[M. Boyd]

Hi Marissa,
I would do one of two options. Either put a plain block in between,
perhaps with embroidery, or make another block of each kind. It sounds
lovely. A fan quilt, in pastels, is on my someday list. Oh, if you are
using pastel prints, you could use pastel solids, or vice versa.
Keep us posted.
From the Beautiful Emerald City
kayb

On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Marissa Vignali wrote:

> Hi.. me again.. are you fed up of reading my mail already? I don't want to be
> classified as "spam".... :o)
>
> I need ideas. I told you before about this grandmother's fan project in soft
> pastels that I saw in some movie and decided to reproduce from the faint
> impression it made in my tired and overloaded brain... (that means it could
> have been any other motif in pastel colours too... )
>
> I thought it would be nice to make each block in a different range of pastels.
> So I checked my stash and rapidly cut and pieced the blue. Then I cut the fans
> for the green. Fine until here. I have enough softs yellows, pinks and tans
> for three more blocks. I have some lilacs/violets and have been begging for
> more.. so maybe I'll complete that one too. That makes 6.
>
> But I want either 9 or better still, 12 blocks...the final size is 9" (I

> think, yeah, 12 seemed to big) so I either discover 6 more colour groups or
> repeat them all twice.
>
> Soft oranges might work, but might be difficult to find... what else????
>