Monday, May 30, 2011

Sun Drenched Blocks for June

Hello there lovely ladies! I can't wait to tell you about the block for this month!

The Inspiration

The art of Ton Schulten sparked my idea for June's quilt block. I saw his paintings in a calendar and instantly fell in love with his use of big blocks of vibrant color and the way he organizes them giving the impression of shafts of light pouring through the paintings. I thought it would be a fun to play with those same ideas in a quilt and decided LIGHT and COLOR would be an excellent way to kick off the summer!

The Block

A package with two sets of solid fabric (a group of "shadowed" colors and a group of "sun-lit" colors) will be arriving on your doorstep shortly. The June project will be to make a block of your own design that:
  • is free-pieced. Improvise...experiment...make it your own. Don't worry about mistakes.
  • has a clear vertical dividing line between these two groups of colors. This line does not have to be one continuous seam or even line up exactly, but it should be obvious that there are two sides to your block...one "in shadow" and one "in the light". This dividing line can be anywhere you like in your block (left, right, middle) and created anyway you'd like.
  • includes big blocks of color. Feel free to include little details too if you'd like, but June isn't a month for an all teeny pieces crumb block. Be bold!
  • is primarily abstract. Ton Schulten's painting are often landscapes, however I'm mostly interested in free-form design for this quilt. No houses or trees please. :)
  • is basically square or rectangle. You don't have to square it up to a specific size or make it perfectly straight...please send it to me raw. It can be about any dimension you'd like (long, short, skinny, fat, very square). As for size, comparable to a 12 x 12 block would be fantastic. Bigger is always welcome.
The Leftovers

I don't know if solids will have the same impact, but when I've received your lovely fabrics, I always find one or two I just love and wish I could keep for my stash. I've often sent in the block and then immediately started hunting down yardage to order for myself! If one or two of the fabrics sings to you, feel free to keep some for yourself. I love a little fabric sharing! However, please return most of your leftover fabric and your scraps as I will be using them to fill in the gaps and piece all the blocks together.

And......The Lack of Images

I wasn't able to find any pictures that were not copyrighted to post, (grrrr!) but there's lots to look at in the link above and on flickr. I will send you cut-outs from the calendar as inspiration with the fabric as well. Everything should be in the mail by Friday. (Slight delay by having to order this fabric twice after trying out a new online site. Grrrr again!) I'll post pics of the fabric and my block once the packages are on their way to you.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need further clarification.

I can't wait to see what your improvisations dream up!!! Happy Sewing! :)

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