Not quite

Well, this quilt top didn't work out quite as I'd hoped. The intention was for each column to have a distinct colour, creating vertical stripes from the triangles. But unfortunately the colours for each column weren't enough to emphasise them, given the overall colours and prints in this range. On top of that, the gradation of prints isn't as smooth as it appeared prior to cutting, and make it worse rather than better.

The moral of the story is that I should have laid out the whole thing together, rather than just planning each column and hoping for the best. Even while piecing, the truth wasn't fully evident until I laid out the completed top and photographed it.

It's a pretty enough quilt, but it's not what I had in mind. And unfortunately my attempts at creating a pattern mean that not only does it not have an effective design, but also it doesn't have an even, scrappy/random look. I'm not sure what I'll do with it for now. I don't really feel like going back and unpicking, especially as it was meant to be a quick quilt, but I'm not satisfied as it is, and am not convinced the quilting will 'save' it. I wonder if replacing the two 'worst' solids will help; the top one, which is a very pale sea green, is too pale, and the second and third from the bottom are too different.

I'm also not thrilled with the setting triangles and top and bottom strips, but they do look better in person, and I should be able to help them with the quilting.

For now, I've set it aside, and am well on the way to completing the next one. This time, once the rows are done, I'll lay it all out and see if any changes are needed while they can be done relatively easily.