Pumpkin Time

Buried deep within the contents of my drawer of panels, I resurrected an autumnal scene of a rural path wending its way up to the door of a rural home. The ¾ yard length of fabric featured a central scene roughly 20" wide by 24" tall, flanked by two other half-size scenes of houses and paths on each side, each roughly 10" wide x 12" tall  . The colors were rich and cornucopia-like and seemed to draw the viewer in. I separated the five scenes and spread them apart from each other, planning to fill in the top, bottom, and side edges with some other fabric. But what would be interesting enough in that large of an expanse and yet would not compete with the the striking landscapes?

I liked the tan and brown checked border on the large scene and noted that the half-size scenes sported a similar motif. On one, the border was an orange and yellow check, and on another,  it was a two-toned green check.

Even the other two had a contoured green check on the hillside and a wonky green check in the wavy border.

I recalled that I had some checkerboard blocks squirreled away. I'd made them up from houndstooth fabric and then had decided not to use them in a quilt for my grandson which I titled Be Happy, post for 4/27/18. I dug them out from my "Blocks to Make into Whatever" plastic bin. I liked the muted tones of the houndstooth colors, and also that houndstooth is like a tiny mini-check. I scattered them in the open spaces on my design wall and contemplated that with some creative unstitching and restitching I could make them work. The blocks were not an exact size fit; but if I took off the borders, rejoined the central check parts, and compensated for size in the borders, I could incorporate them. True, the taking apart and resewing probably took more time than mass producing more checkerboards from additional houndstooth fabric, but where is the challenge in that? Having one side be the color-pairing complement of the other, (yellow in orange and orange in yellow) and the top and bottom be complements of each other (brown in red and red in brown) added visual interest and used the colors in equal amounts.

I still had to do some fill-in around the perimeter of the large central scene. But I had some green houndstooth that was a close color blend with the outermost border on the central panel.

I used light tan thread to puff quilt around the checkerboard squares because I wanted uniformity plus, I did not want to keep switching colors. I used green thread to outline the pumpkins and hillsides, to stitch in the ditch around the central panel and any green borders, and to add a ridge-like texture to the diagonal golden furrows. 

My choice of backing fabric kept up the check theme with. After consideration, I rejecting several names... Pumpkin Paths (hard to pronounce and sounds to much like Pumpkin Patch)... Pumpkin Pathways (too long)... Paths to Grandma's House (too maudlin). I chose simply Pumpkin Time and made up the two corner grosgrain ribbon labels accordingly to my custom.

It was a kind of funky choice, but I picked a spotted Kaffe Fasset ombre stripe for the binding. The colors were almost a perfect match except for the lime that introduced just enough spark to brighten up the edges a bit and draw the eye outward in places. The Pumpkin Time finished at 42" wide by 50" tall.

I wanted this quilt in a complete enough state for the November Hang a Quilt Day, so I halted there. Perhaps I may go back and quilt some dark blue texture in the skies amidst the moon and stars. (My pebbles have improved.) I know for sure those deep brown ridges in the main walk of the central panel need some parallel horizontal lines to go with the adjacent diagonal-lined furrows I'd stitched in green. It is the Thanksgiving season and I am thankful Pumpkin Time is complete enough to enjoy for this year's holiday. Additional adornment will be like the whipped cream on the pumpkin pie – not really necessary but certainly delectable.