I found myself in a bit of a quandary when Penny told us what she wanted us to make for her month of Busy Bees. To quote her: “The theme for April is crazy, busy, scrappy! ” Uhmmm…yeah. If you know my work, you know that I tend to be neither crazy (we’re talking sewing people, not personality!), nor busy (again sewing, not time). I do scrappy all the time. In fact I love scrappy….but together with crazy and busy? That I don’t do. I do nice orderly scrappy. 😉
Penny gave us this mosaic for inspiration:
I know, I know…they’re so pretty. It shouldn’t strike terror into my heart! lol. But I am out of my realm when someone wants me to put together fabric this way. It is so different from how I normally think about fabric. I think that I have a little equation in my head for how I determine what fabric to pick…and I’ve gotten very comfortable with that. So this block idea S – T – R – E – T – C – H – E – D me.
In the end, after putting it off and putting it off, I decided to do a little of me and a lot of Penny. I can’t help it. I had to have some order! So half-square triangles won the day. But they did so in a way that I would not have done on my own without prompting.
And you know what? I kind of love it. I kind of hate it too, but I’m surprised at what fabrics make this style work…they are of course the fabrics that I would shy away from in my nice little Joel Dewberry/ Anna Maria Horner etc. loving world. These are fabrics put together with (moderately) crazy abandon! And it’s really fun to see what crazy, busy, and scrappy can look like.
I didn’t use a brown bag method or anything like that because A) I’m too controlling and B) I wanted to evenly distribute color, light/dark throughout the block myself. Hmmm….it’s really just all about A) I’m too controlling. 😉
Some of these are scraps that Penny sent us, but others are my own. She wanted a bit of each of us in the block. I think my design alone is a bit of myself….but I happily traded her ridiculously fabulous scraps for some of my own. 😉
I just find it so interesting what you can do when you make something for someone using a technique or fabric that you are not naturally drawn to…and how much you can love it.
I hope you enjoy the block Penny!
Ah, "controlled" scrappy. Very nicely done!
I know what you mean. I've posted a string quilt, my first, on my blog. I've never done this type, putting strange fabrics together like that before. After a while, it gets more 'normal'
I love it! I'm sure Penny will too!
Very nice!
She should love this block…if she doesn't, you can definitely send it my way!
I'm so with you. It is extremely hard to just let it all go! This block worked out perfectly!
It's very cool, and I love it!! It is hard to step outside of your comfort zone, though – but good practice. Try just putting scraps together into "made fabric" sometimes – it's very relaxing, and it makes neat little blocks! Plus it uses up scraps!!
You sound like me. 🙂 I love your block!
So, you spent your time being crazy & carefree & I have spent the last two evenings IRONING quilt blocks. This is the final sign of the apocalypse.
Beautiful block!
I do!! I do!! I absolutely love it Angela!! Thank-you for being willing to s-t-r-e-t-c-h!!
It's great. I love those fabrics together, they remind me of an old style poster
Am I a total weirdo for loving it when you write a post about struggling with your limitations? I guess I'm just relieved that I'm not the only one who struggles with seemingly innocuous tasks in the quilting world. And your block came out beautifully–it does seem a nice blend of your orderly style and crazy style 🙂
First off, I ADORE Penny's inspiration mosaic. Second off, you did a great interpretation! My experiences with that kind of half square triangles did not leave me nearly as happy as your block does. She'll love it!
You did very well. I like it. I'm more like you in leaning toward controlled scrappiness and I sweat when I have to break tradition. Especially when it's for someone else…