Idea
I have trouble expressing my feelings and thoughts into words and talking about it. This quilt represents my wish that human nature can embrace difference. Different is beautiful, wonderful, inspiring and makes life and things around us interesting. It saddens me that often being different is used to divide us, introduce fear, hate or violence. We need to do better.
Design
The design and name of this quilt was inspired by the Sesame Street Song “One of these things“. It teaches that things are different and says “one of these things doesn’t belong” so are we teaching children that those that are different don’t belong??? I hope we can teach children and people to accept people who are different from themselves and listen, learn and understand each other.
I designed this being 4 panels, 3 being the same and one being different. I choose simple shapes, squares being on the three panels and a circle (quarter of a circle) in the different panel.
The color choices came of the squares and circles being used and reminded me of the childhood toy – Tupperware’s Shape-O Toy. I used blue as the background and yellow as the shape on the 3 square panels and reversed these for the circle panel. The red was added as the border to tie the 4 panels together and used to frame them.
Create
Most of this quilt was simple measurement and piecing. The most complex piece was how to get the large curve (5″ radius in the middle with 15″ on the outer circles. Luckily, I purchased a wood working compass for my husband a couple of years ago. I used this to mark and cut my circles (maximum radius for the compass was 15.5″).
The other big step for creating was matching the binding which I do often. I really like the effect. I matched some of the quilt while adding the red to a blue area. The best tutorial out there for block matching binding is from A Quilters Table.
Quilt
So for each panel I did decide to quilt them exactly the same way.
Outside of the shape – horizontal 1/2″ straight lines
Inside of the shape – vertical 1/2″ straight lines
Shape itself – 1 x 2″ grid lines
There was a bit of effort to bury threads so that you get a neat look where lines stop in the middle of the quilt. See previous post for some pictures.
Details
Name : One of these things
Design: Original Design
Fabric: Kona Cotton (Bright Light, Blueprint)
Backing: Ruby Star, Rashida Coleman-Hale, Stella, Moon Hills (blue and yellow)
Binding: Kona Cotton (Bright Light, Blueprint, Valentine)
Dimensions: 30 x 20 in. (total 60 x 40 in.)
Quilted: Straight lines walking foot quilting, Aurifil #6738 and #2120
Start date: 21 July 2018
Finish date: 21 April 2021
Factotum of Arts 
I really like how you boiled this down to the elements and executed with such attention to detail. I also wish that differences would be more embraced. My husband and I have a lot of silly sayings between us, and one of them is “It’s a good thing the entire population isn’t a population of Yvonne’s”. (Note that we insert our own name into the quote, usually after being impressed with someone with skills or fortitude for something that we do not possess. For instance: In a population of Yvonne’s, there would be very few, if any, nurses and doctors.)
Yes!!! I’ve been doing a lot of research lately mostly for work around the successes companies and people have, and the fact embracing diversity and differences of each of us makes companies and people more successful, makes a community richer (from experience standpoint) and more generous. I am hopeful that things can change as more progress step by step can be made
Great piece Michelle and important message.
Thanks Patty!!
Well said. Beautifully executed. I find it’s in the individual diversity of nature and people that the world truly flourishes.
So true!!!
We are used to suppressing feelings simply because we don’t know what to do with them. How to learn to hear yourself, accept your feelings and let them go free?