The mini for the "For Love of Solids" swap on flickr is almost completed. My secret partner loves purples and her quiltie reflects her favorite color!! One of the things that makes swapping fun is that it makes me push the envelope a bit more with each new project. The Bee Blocks, Blocks Swaps and flickr swaps challenge me because most times I have not attempted the project or process before. For the Love of Solids swap is a perfect example of the road less travelled. This project is improvised from basic instructions that began with a block from the book "Thinking Outside the Block." This is the first block that was created for the mini quilt. A simple improv block for the beginning of a modern quilt.
Nine blocks were created following the same process and alternating the purple to plum color pallet. Several blocks that I made didn't turn out as nice as I would have liked, so they met the trash can!! This picture is of the first four that were acceptable.
This is an initial layout of the nine blocks that ended up in the quiltie. Each block varies in color and placement of the strips. Through the process, which was very fun I decided that somewhere down the road I would like to make a full size quilt with larger blocks...and perhaps the intermingling of Wonky stars!
The interesting thing about sewing the blocks together is that it felt like I was creating a whole piece of fabric. The blocks as they merged (and as you can see their orientation changed) really complimented each other. The straight line quilting started in the center with a triangle that I followed around and around, then ran off the edge of the fabric. Two secondary sections of quilting ran parallel and horizontal to the center triangle. It is pretty amazing in person and will be difficult to let go of once it has to be mailed.