Free-form Quilt--Quilter Beth

I've been playing with making an actual quilt from the larger free-form piece I have made. The last couple of days I have made some black "blocks" for the borders. Each block is made of lots and lots of pieces of black fabric. At this point, it is up on my design wall in the "thinking" stage.

Today, I think I'll experiment with adding strips of the striped fabric around all the sides of the center piece. I want to lighten up the border a bit too, so I'll also add a bit of the striped fabric in the border (to make it look like the stripe is trying to escape from the center). I'm planning on adding a striped binding to it when it is finished. Of course, everything is just speculation right now. We'll see...

Free-form Blocks--Quilter Beth

I finally had a chance to cut into the remaining portion of this quilt top. I removed the outside blocks and cut into those first. (I posted those results earlier.) I left these nine blocks together, because I wanted to see how different the results would be if I worked on a larger unit. These are the nine blocks I left together.

I went from the above nine blocks to this...

I liked this better than what I started with, but I didn't like the big white strip in the middle.

The strip was really too narrow to cut apart, so I used a fabric dye stick to put a blue "strip" down the middle. I liked it better but was still underwhelmed.

Then, I did some more cutting and added some black and white striped fabric along with two of the blocks I had previously transformed. I think this is something I can work with.

More Free-form Blocks--Quilter Beth

I had a chance to work on more blocks yesterday. I put them on the design wall with the first two blocks. This completes all the single blocks I separated from the original quilt top. Next, I'll be working on the portion of the quilt top I left intact. (I left nine of the blocks together--like a big nine-patch block.)

It was nice to work on these bright colors yesterday, because we had another one of those DREARY, gray days. These colors make me happy--they remind me of stained glass windows.

Working on the blocks is addictive. I understand, now, what Rayna means when she talks about "What if?" in the book. As I worked on these blocks, I said things like, "What if I slice into the border around the block?, What if I use a strip set as an insert in the block?, What if I shift each section of the block up and add pieces to the tops and bottoms of each section?, What if I use a slice from a strip set as a part of the block border?, etc." This is TOO MUCH FUN!

Once I play with slicing and dicing the remaining portion of the quilt top, I'll have to decide how I'll put the pieces together. Will they become one quilt top, two, or more? How will I put the pieces together? Hmmmmm, I don't know, but it will be fun to see.

My book is here!

Well, not "here, in my hands", but "here" I can pick it up at lunchtime!  

So, what I'm going to be working with are these birthday blocks that were the result of a miscommunication with my group. I asked for blue or purple stars, but most people gave me blue AND purple stars. So, they didn't go with each other at all, and consequently, not much could be done with them.

Given what other people have posted on the blog so far, I thought I would start with these two blocks as they needed the most help;

but in the end, decided to go with this block as I have a lot of fabrics that would fall within this range.

So, give me a chance to read the book, and I'll be on my way within a couple of days!

*rubs hands together*

Beginning a Free-Form Quilt--Quilter Beth

Last night, I had a chance to work a bit on my free-form quilt. It is SO much fun to work without rules. I started with the blocks I separated from the quilt itself. (I'll work on the remaining portion of the quilt later.)

It is so dreary and gray outside right now that working with lots of color feels REALLY good. This is currently on my design wall.