Lazy Honghorn

I love the name of Kerra Job of Live.Love.Sew‘s pattern, Lazy Longhorn. She is a cattle rancher’s wife, so she knows a bit about Longhorns.  However, my dad was a Texas Aggie through and through. He always said we could go to any college that we wanted except…..University of Texas. Fast forward many years later, my son is there and my brother lives in Austin, Texas and has really no other choice but to be a fan of UT.

So when I saw this pattern, I knew I had to make it. My dad would get a kick out of it being called Lazy, but at least I didn’t use traditional UT colors.

2 blocksI wanted to something a bit more funky, so I choose a floral from Lella’s Boutique’s newest fabric line, Little Miss Sunshine. It is a yummy coral color. From there, I choose  a variety of oranges to pinks.

This is the part I love about quilting, mixing all those cool fabrics. Choosing just 10 fabrics was a bit difficult for me, I usually like at least 50different combinations.

Who would have thought but I ended up with a range of fabrics from Lella Boutique to Zen Chic to Chloe’s Closet to Amy Ellis to Jen Kingwell.

color example Usually I lay the finished blocks on the floor and re arrange them, stretching and turning as if I were playing a game of TWISTER all by myself. Then I have to sew them all together. If I leave the blocks on the floor they are an open invitation for the dogs to make themselves right at home.

I don’t know why I haven’t thought about this before, but I used one of each of the fabrics to decide in what order I would put the blocks. I played around with the balance of color, value and design. I didn’t want all the oranges to be together. I couldn’t put the busy or geometric prints all together.

color example_1I rearranged a few times until it was pleasing to my eye. No great right or wrong way to do it, only a matter of my own personal preference. Once I decided on my favorite, I only have to keep the small swatches in order to use as my guide when I am ready to join the blocks.

color options

Do you have a favorite placement of the fabrics?
Here are 3 options side by side.

Version 1, 2 or 3 ?

Much like playing the game of twister, color is all about balance. choicesDo your eyes hurt yet?

This is much like going to the eye doctor… Tell me which one can you see better… 1 or 2, 1 or 2?
I always have to have him do it over again and again just so I can make sure.

BW-optionHere is another option. Look at the fabrics in Grey scale. Is the version you picked in the picture above, the same here? By taking all the color out of the picture, it lets your eyes concentrate more on the value (dark and light) of the fabrics. 9 times out of 10, if you are happy with the value placement, you will be happy with the balance of color. In quilting as in life, I guess the key is to finding the right balance.

I’ve got to get back to sewing these lazy longhorns, they are not going to sew themselves.

5 comments

  1. Sigi G says:

    I like version 2 best. I love the ‘tape measure’ fabric, but it seems quite dominant when placed in the center. Now this is just my preference. I’m still new at this wonderful quilting game. Love how all of these prints from different fabric lines fit together. Enjoy putting your lazy longhorns together :)!

  2. Ranch Wife says:

    Class of ’86 here…Gig -em Aggies! Whoop! Another die-hard Allumni here. Our poor kids grew up thinking there were only 2 schools on the earth…the ‘good school’ WHOOP and the ‘bad’ school..UT. Poor kids were brainwashed from an early age. That looks like a fun project… I wonder if I could make it in Maroon and grays. 🙂

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