Design Challenge: The votes are in!

The votes are in on your choice for the challenge design that I should make first.   I'm often surprised by which designs others like most. I first discovered it when designing quilts for patterns; once in awhile I can guess which will be most popular, but often I can't.  in fact, a couple of my favorite patterns are not the most popular ones.  Isn't it grand that there are so many different ideas and tastes in the quilting world?  There are always new things to discover and learn.

Back to the design.  For awhile it looked as if the voting wouldn't be much help, as it was evenly divided but, in the end (you did vote, didn't you??) the design with the most votes was "Different Paths."

I'm starting to work through my stash to select the fabrics.   As this design turned out to be about Iowa, with its green fields and its two boundary rivers, I'm giving some consideration to adding some deep, rich brown to the "fields."   Iowa has rich soil underneath all those green crops, so I might insert a few narrow strips of brown into the greens, for the soil (admittedly, at this point, it is mostly mud) peeking out between the rows.  The background fabric is still in question; originally, I had thought it would be a creamy white but perhaps it should be a little more beige or light gray, for those gravel roads cutting through the fields.  So many choices!

There is also a possibility that the fields will move through the seasons, with some different colorings.  We'll see.  It may turn out that the simpler design is the better design.

Construction won't be too much of a problem; I'll have to work through sizes and proportions, but the primary technique on my mind is the introduction of the river strips.  They'll be bias, but this morning I was pondering the quilting and it occurred to me that I might want to do the quilting BEFORE I applique the river strips.   I suppose the quilt will tell me what it wants as I get closer to that point.

So, though I wouldn't have predicted that this would be your choice, you have spoken and it's on its way!

This week's challenge, btw, is to design a quilt around your favorite dessert.  I fear that it is going to make me hungry for all my favorites.  The sacrifices we make for our art, right?