A little extra

My art group International Threads, eight quilters from four countries, makes quilts to a theme or prompt every couple of months, and a recent prompt was "green."  As happens so frequently with my smaller projects, serendipity plays a big role in my decision-making.

Faithful readers may recall that several months ago I wrote about a quilt I really liked in a show, and about the pieced "ladders" that were an important design element.  Somebody left a comment that she wished she could figure out how to make pieced ladders, so I did a how-to blog post.  I used some blue and green fabrics that were sitting on my worktable waiting to be put away (I had given them to a quilting pal who needed more greens for a project, and she brought back what she hadn't used).

So having pieced enough ladders for the tutorial, I decided to make more and use them for my Green quilt.

The quilt sat on my design wall for weeks.  It was technically finished, but somehow it seemed a bit lame.  Finally I decided it needed some hand stitching to give it additional interest and pizzazz.

So here it is in version 2. 

Not sure how much additional hand stitching I will do, but already it's looking way more peppy.  I guess the two morals of this story are first, that when a piece of art seems sad you should leave it on the wall and wait for it to tell you what it wants.  And second, that sometimes more is more.