denyse knows best

About a year ago, as I was browsing a pattern section of one of my favorite online fabric stores, I came across Denyse Schmidt's Cog + Wheel quilt pattern. Being a huge fan and crushing hard on "all things Denyse", I bought it without much thinking and could not wait for it to arrive so I could start making my own Cog + Wheel quilt. How totally exciting, right?

Well, as soon as the pattern arrived and I took a closer look at the actual quilt, I knew it was way above my skill level. There were templates (I hate templates), and curves, tons of curves and inset circle piecing!!!! At least I was reasonable enough to realize my limitations I set the pattern aside.

And then, the other day, I started thinking about this quilt again. I was really hoping that the last year of obsessive quilting has brought my skills to the next level and maybe, just maybe, I could try to tackle it now?

You know what? I totally did manage to make one of the blocks. Yay!!! It took a while and I had to concentrate a lot to make sure all the pieces were in the right place and the seams matched, but it was so well worth all the effort.

This block, however, was my second try for the night. My first block did not turn out that well. Not because of my sewing, though, but because of the wrong choice of fabric on my part. Want to see?

I wanted to make it using these pretty pastels and ignored Denyse's advice about more contrast in fabrics used, and the block completely lost its graphic beauty that drew me to it in the first place.

I'm definitely not letting this block bring me down, though. I was so excited about the successful Chicopee one that I decided to make the whole quilt. I'm going to make 9 blocks, taking my time with each one (because they do take a lot of time), and working on other things in between. And, I think I'll stick with Chicopee, and maybe some Hope Valley for the whole quilt because, really, Denyse knows best!

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday. Svetlana