It appears the magic is disappearing from my Magic Stars Quilt . I have made a few blocks up now, however when put together, they blur into a bit of a hot mess with no defined pattern. Some of my blocks lack the contrast I had hoped for and I think I have also been too matchy matchy with my colours rather than aiming for a strong contrast.
I sent a couple of photos off to bloggy friends for advice. Susan sent me back a black and white photo of my work so I could see where the colour values were too similar and I was losing the design.
I think for this quilt to work, I will not be able to make it totally out of my Anna Maria Horner fabrics, the designs are too large, the colour values to similar - so they get lost in each other. I need to introduce some smaller prints/florals, and perhaps more neutrals, (I'm trying to avoid solids) to give it the contrast it needs so my stars can be seen.
The worst offending blocks have been removed from the selection, unfortunately because of the way the blocks are constructed, I can't just unpick them and insert more highly contrasting fabrics, so these will be destined for the scrap pile (not thrown out though, my fabric is too precious for that).
I will persevere with a few more blocks and see if I am liking the result, however this may end up being another Hospice quilt in the making. So disheartening after starting this with such enthusiam.
