Completed, nicely symmetrical, top

 I've posted a bit about this finished top on my blog, but thought I'd save my reflections on working symmetrically for here.  In a word, it was hard!  Much harder than I anticipated.  The difficulty lay not so much in the method; after all the rules of log cabins are quite simple and I'm not an idiot.  It was more that I never got over that desire to mess it up.  Not in a "oh no, this is a disaster way", rather that I was constantly battling my natural urge to disrupt the pattern.

The compromise I reached, which just about kept me on the straight and narrow, was that I started piecing strips from mismatched fabrics, or joining them with little insets of a different colour, or used a strip both horizontally and vertically.  I also threw in those little wedge bits and the more random flying geese as I headed out towards the edge.  To be fair they were a pragmatic as well as aesthetic decision, since I was running low on fabric by then.  

Am I glad I kept at it?  Well yes, I am rather, since in the end there's lots about this that I really like.  Will I be looking at more symmetrical work in the future?  Not any time soon.

A new challenge

A new month, a new challenge.  I'm going to keep this one brief.  When I was working on my tulip quilt there was quite a lot of discussion about our various tendencies towards either symmetry or asymmetry, so my challenge to you is to pick whichever of these is furthest from your comfort zone and see what you can do.  Of course there are lots of mid-points:  for example, you could arrange identical blocks in an asymmetrical layout.  I shall be trying hard to work in a symmetrical way, though that is going to require some thought (also some effort and probably a fair old bit of complaining!)  

I have been looking back, to try and find my most symmetrical quilt so far and I think it is this one:

My least symmetrical, probably is this:

If anyone else wants to share their most/least symmetrical pieces, even if you aren't inclined to participate in the challenge, it would be interesting to see them too.  

For the instagrammers amongst us, I think this could be #AHIQsymmetry 

Have fun!