Saturday, June 30, 2012

Mimicking Mary

Gypsy Kisses

Have you ever fell in love with someone's style?  It was love at first sight when I saw Mary's quilt Gypsy Kisses.  I started following her blog, Molly Flanders, and have seriously loved everything I have seen.  I totally want to be more like Mary.  :)  I even tried out chunky quilting with perle cotton on a pillow recently - chunky/primitive quilting with various bright colors of perle cotton is Mary's signature quilting style.  Love it!

I wanted to start another English paper piecing project this summer that I could bring with me to the park and pool and decided that I wanted to recreate the look and feel of Gypsy Kisses.  Ironically, I have not been able to work on the project at the pool or the park - those crazy kids want me to play with them, not sit and stitch - who would have thought?  ;)  But I have been working on it every evening after the kids go to bed.  I love to put my swollen feet up and stitch while watching a show.

Anyway....This was my first block - a star in a hexagon.  Nice, but lacking.  Would Mary just use one color of gray for the star?  No way!

So I gave it another try.  Stars with two black/white/gray fabrics.  Perfect!


They look pretty good all together, but...

...I think I am going to spread them out and put some turquoise floral fabric in between the star hexagons.

I am planning on using Turquoise Bouquet from Flea Market Fancy.  It mimics the fabric in Gypsy Kisses and I love it as fabric, but I must admit that I am going out of my comfort zone here.  I tend to use smaller prints and don't usually do bright and scrappy.  What do you think?  Will it work?  Am I crazy?
  
I have made 14 star hexies in the last three weeks and have enjoyed every moment.  Only 30 or 40 to go!  :)

12 comments:

  1. oooh, that sounds gorgeous!!!! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

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  2. I love your pattern and the fabric, it is going to be beautiful.
    Gisela - Omaha, NE

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  3. Go for it Leila. Don't agonise about colours, just think about values and tones and then it will be fab. Trust me ;-)

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  4. Go for it! I love the idea! You have the high contrast fabrics with the black and white and the turquoise will give it a great scrappy, vintage feel! I am still working on my Rose and Star and I agree, it is simply addicting :) It was so sweet of you to mention me in your post....I am blushing!

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  5. I like it & can't wait to see it when you start putting it altogether.

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  6. I'm going to make Gypsy Kisses one of these days, I just love it! You're certainly on the right track with your hexagon stars.

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  7. I am loving your blog!!!!!

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  8. Love it, i'm doing something similar. Those diamonds are very versatile, you can make all kinds of patterns i've never thought of.

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  9. I love those!!!! SO awesome!!

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  10. Sou totalmente viciada e a favor,vá em frente ficará lindo o trabalho.Já tive em estoque 23000 hexágonos.11234 estrelas e mais de mil peças prontas. Tudo que faz fica bonito,a insegurança faz parte do processo. Exageros a parte... já devo ter peças para 30 borboletas suas,e umas tantas feita só com hexágonos ficam lindas.Como prometi vou mandar fotos para o seu E-mail,me empolguei empapelando eu ainda não montei.Me aguarde,beijos.

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  11. I adore Mary's style also and fell in love with her Gypsy kisses and the smaller pickledish she made more recently. Definitely on my bucket list, and with my new skills I think it's probably achievable. Good luck with your stars in hexies, they look beautiful. That aqua FMF is wonderful, go outside your zone, i reckon it'll work perfectly.

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  12. I love it when we quilters take inspiration from each other. It's fun to "try on" another's style, or simple take bits and pieces from it to change up what we've been doing. This post is a great description of that process, plus I love those star hexies!

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