Thursday, August 2, 2007

Season to season swap for fall.

The Crazy Quilting for Newbies group is doing a "swap" for each season of the year beginning this fall. We are to piece an 8" block and embellish approximately 1/2 of it, then send it to Gerry who will assign us a partner. The partner will embellish the other 1/2, then the block goes back to Gerry, and she sends it back to us. There's been some confusion about this process, I think since it's called a "swap", but the swapping is temporary. We will get our original blocks back, just 1/2 embellished by our partner.
Mine is Halloween themed. That orange, burgundy and black print near the center is the last bit of some fabric I've had for about 7 years. I originally bought it to make costumes for my two younger daughters. The piece I had left was so narrow that it didn't have a whole tree on it. I went ahead and pieced it in, using red, burgundy, black, a bit of honking orange, midnight blue, and purple. I love putting purple next to orange, so I did that here. It's not something one can do just anywhere, but for a Halloween block, it seems appropriate... sort of a colorful BOO! to you.
When I started embellishing it last night, I got the idea to have the black bat silhouettes extend out of the print and onto the neighboring shiny burgundy fabric. I satin stitched a third bat on the seam line, so it looks like one bat is escaping the confines of the print. Then I thought I should do the same thing for the branches of the tree, so they extend into the red and blue patches to the left. Then I got out my gold thread and extended the lightning! I am having so much fun with this block...

So come on, take a walk with me....we'll follow the dark path beyond the red and black hills, toward the setting sun....to see what lies behind the purple hill.....I dare you!



7 comments:

Charlene ♥ NC said...

Don't you just love when a plan comes together? I may have to MAKE myself stop on mine, too! I love your color choices, and those bats are wonderful.

Thelma said...

Wow!! Thats so beautiful! Love the tree and the colors, everything.

Gerry said...

This is a very cool block. Great colors and I love the bats! I really like the curved pieces.

NormaH said...

I'm not a Halloween person but this block sparkles.

Susan said...

I just love the look of your block! That tree was perfect!

Jane said...

Hi Janet, I love this block, the tree, the bats, the lightning... I just HAVE to see the way it finishes up... Have fun with the swap!

Amy a.k.a. dragonryder4 said...

I love your fall block , heck I like it a lot better than the one that I made . I'm liking mine more now that I've started embellishing it. Please come have a look at mine .
http://www.rattiemom.blogspot.com