I've got it covered

I am making a sewing machine cover! I had a lot of fun on Sunday morning making the Japanese x and + block for this, so I spent a good chunk of the rest of the day continuing to work in while the sun was shining into the room. Admittedly, there was quite a bit of time after the sun went down, too. 

Having no particular plan in mind, except knowing I wanted to feature this block on the front of the cover, I set to work. Having a limited supply of solids, I wasn't sure I had anything appropriate to go with these colors, so I put it aside and started working on the back. Bring on the improvisation! I sketched out and calculated the sizes I would need as though I were making this out of whole cloth. This way, as I put together the front and back, I'll know how big of a piece I am aiming for when they are joined. I am loosely following this pattern. "More like guidelines, really," as Captain Barbossa would say. 

I took these little half square triangles I had leftover from making the x units on the block above and played with them for a while before settling on this arrangement. I started out wanting to make a vertical stripe of hourglass-ish blocks or a couple of pinwheels, but settled instead on a horizontal patchwork strip.

I rummaged around and found a unique yellowy green fabric to use as the complementary solid. I wasn't sure about it at first, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. There is no green whatsoever in these fabrics, so it adds something new and makes the other colors pop. Also, I broke up the blue extravaganza that was happening on this side with some fuzzy pink pom pom trim. This is so far my favorite detail... maybe this will end up being the front side!

After adding the end pieces and a pocket, I of course had to try it on my machine. It is not sized for mine and of course it isn't lined yet so it's a bit slouchy, but it at least gets the general idea across.

Here's the side with the x and + block. It's missing something, especially considering it has to compete with that cute band of pom poms on the other side. I'll have to sleep on it...

Linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced