Ice Cream Soda: The Third Round

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

After sharing some of the tips for selecting second round fabric for my bee themed Ice Cream Soda quilt last week, I was excited to jump in and put a few rounds together!

Some of the fabric pairings I showed in that post really spoke to me and ended up being the ones I chose to use, while others took a lot of auditioning and thought to select. There's even a few centres I haven't yet chosen second rounds for, which I'll continue to think about over the coming week.

I'm looking forward to sharing those when they're ready, but for now, let's take a look at the ten blocks that do have complete second rounds!

The Ice Cream Soda pattern was designed by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth. It is currently running as a quilt along through June 2024.

The Second Round

I had a lot of fun picking fabrics for the second round of these blocks! It was a little tough to find a balance between prints that spoke to the block centre, and those that left opportunities for the third round to expand upon, but I think I managed it well!

I really love how much variety there is across all my blocks, and that they each seem to have something different to say! Despite their differences, they still feel like a set because they have a collective colour scheme to connect them!

And even though I have a few centres left without second rounds, seeing how these blocks have grown has really inspired me and I couldn't wait to start thinking about their third and final rounds!

The Third Round

Moving into the third round, it feels important to check back in with the advice that Tales of Cloth has shared regarding fabric selection. I'm still pretty new to this type of pattern, so am happy to accept some help along the way!

Here's the specific post I've been looking at:

Godfrey, Jodi. My Quick, Easy Formula for Choosing Fabrics for Ice Cream Soda Quilt. Tales of Cloth, 29 January 2024, https://www.talesofcloth.com/blogs/blog/my-quick-easy-formula-for-choosing-fabrics-for-ice-cream-soda-quilt.

In this post, Tales of Cloth emphasizes the importance of the third round fabric since it makes up the majority of the block and frames the other two rounds. It can be used to tone down a particularly busy block, or jazz up one that doesn't have a lot of interest. And just like the second round, the third round should have some contrast from those that came before it!

In addition to that advice, I've found that some of my blocks have already told me what they need in their third round! That instinct comes from practice and experience and I tend to enjoy following where it leads!

With all that in mind, I've already started cutting pieces for round three of some of my blocks, specifically those that gave me a really strong impression of what my third round fabric should be!

Oddly, the blocks that I started with were very similar, containing a lot of pale yellow and silvery grey. Because the centres of these were so light, I didn't want to use an intense, dark border and throw off the balance of colours.

For the block on the left, I knew I wanted something that pulled from the colours in the central print, and I wanted a pale colour, not the dark grey. I tried several white prints and pale grey prints, but they made the block feel really cold.

The print I chose features geometric linework in gold and a white background. It uses two colours from the block centre, the gold helps to warm up the block, and the linework helps to draw the eye towards the centre of the block, a perfect fit!

For the block on the left, I wanted to use grey in my third round. The block centre features yellow flowers with silvery leaves, and the second round draws out the yellow flowers with a yellow honeycomb and bee print. Those silvery leaves were feeling a little out of place and needed to be balanced!

This is also a fairly busy block, so I wanted a less busy print for the third round to help relax it.

I tried some medium greys that matched the leaves, but those felt a little too intense, so I ended up choosing a lighter, grey and white print! I was a little dubious about how the geometric triangle print would play with the very organic floral and bee prints, but the first two rounds of the block are so busy and eye-grabbing that you really don't see the third round as more than a pale grey, exactly what the block needs!

Those are the only two that I've cut the second rounds for, but there are a few more that I have a strong impression of what I'd like to use that I also want to show off!

This sunflower block is one of my first attempts at fussy cutting and I'm really happy with how it's coming together!

The central flower is really bold and stands out a lot, but the grey florals in the second round do make it feel a little busy. For the third round, my instinct is to use a solid white to quiet down the edges and blend into the second round, but all I have are warm whites that don't blend well.

I tried a few greys, which also don't blend, but I think I'll be using the white-on-white print in the bottom left! The print itself is busier than I was looking for, but since it's so low contrast with the background, it's hardly visible, I might end up using the back side of the fabric to help tone down the print even more and get it as close as possible to a solid!

All the blocks so far have been very low volume and subtle, so I want to change things up and do some bold, high contrast blocks next!

Since the first two rounds both feature gold, I wanted to repeat that in the third round, I even considered reusing the centre print! I tried a few florals, but they both felt really busy, the yellow bee print on the right looks great in this picture, but in reality is a little paler than the golds already in the block, so it also isn't quite right.

I think the one I like best is the tone on tone print at the top. It's a close match for colour, but the subtle print allows the bees to be the focus of the block!

The next block I wanted to add to is the all black one!

For the second round, I wanted to make the fussy cut vines stand out, so I chose a solid black to extend the background of the first fabric. For this round, I want to draw on the pale yellows and off whites of the vines!

This creates a lot of contrast, so I had initially chosen fabrics with fairly subtle, tone on tone prints, mostly with viney motifs to match the block centre. But with the solid black second round, I feel like this block needs more excitement!

I've decided to use the pale yellow, framed bee print at the bottom! I think it will add some excitement to the block while drawing out the colours in the block centre!

Now for a block with a lot of colour!

This block uses a gold, black, white, and grey plaid in the centre, and a gold print in the second round to draw out the golden stripes in the centre. This was a pairing that I wasn't totally set on, but I was hoping that insecurity would give me a jumping off point for round three!

With so much gold in the first two rounds, I thought a grey or black print would balance the block nicely!

I tried a few tone on tone prints, and they felt like they were headed the right way, but made the block feel a little bland. I also wanted to bring in more of the bee theme since neither of the first two fabrics had any florals or honeycombs.

I really like how it looks with the two large prints on the bottom and left! They add contrast with the dark background, but bring in a variety of colours just like the block centre! But I'm really limited with the amount of fabric since those both came out of the Queen Bee bundle, so I don't have many repeats. Each of the six pieces might end up being different, which could be a fun detail!

Friends, those are all the blocks I've had time to play with so far and I can't wait to get back to trialling fabric and piecing my rounds!

I've had a lot of fun putting these fabric combinations together, so please let me know what you think! As I've mentioned, I've very new to fussy cutting and to EPP quilts as well, so any feedback or suggestions are welcome!

If you're working on the Ice Cream Soda quilt yourself, I would love to see your approach to fabric selection! You can share your own progress or blocks in the comments below or via email!

I can't wait to see these blocks continue to evolve and the quilt as a whole continue to grow!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA