Modern Blocks in Eggplant and Mustard

My colors for the AMQ quilt blocks are Eggplant and Mustard.  I was so excited about contributing to this project that I went this afternoon to the fabric store to get some additional fabrics for the Eggplant palette and I already had plenty for my mustard block.  Below are the Eggplant and Mustard palettes I put together to use for my blocks.

Eggplant Palette

Mustard Palette

I actually don't make alot of quilts using quilt blocks, so this was a new experience for me.  BUT, I had so much fun doing the Rolling Dice block that I think I'm going to make a whole quilt of them in the next few months!

For these blocks, I first fussy cut the image I wanted to be the focus of each block: 1) a bird from the Echino fabric by Etsuko Furuya, to place at the center of the eggplant block, and 2) a flower from Patty Young's Flora and Fauna collection in Mustard, to place at the center of the mustard block.  I then pieced strips to each side, repeating this process until I had a final quilt block of 12.5in x 12.5in.  The blocks are shown below.  I've included a tutorial for how to make the rolling dice block as well!



Mustard Block in Flora and Fauna - I fussy cut the first two fabrics
to make it look like the hummingbird was landing on the flower.



Eggplant Block in Eschino, High Society, and some Batiks

Rolling Dice Block Tutorial

Here's how to get the rolling dice look for your blocks:



STEP 1:  Cut your focus fabric square for the center 4.5" x 4.5".



STEP 2:  Then piece strips to each side of the block with a width of your choice. 
I used strips anywhere between 1.5 inches and 2.5 inches. 
To add the strips, place right sides of fabric together
and stitch the first 2 strips to opposite sides of the block and continue to step 3.

STEP 3:  Press seams open and square up your block on both sides.
Repeat this same basic process for the other two sides of the block.

STEP 4:  Lay your block on your cutting mat, squaring it up with
the gridlines on the mat. Place your square ruler on the block,
tilting it as far as possible to the LEFT while keeping the ruler on the block.

STEP 5:  Trim around your ruler creating a square block. 
I repeated this process several times where I used my 6.5"x6.5" ruler 1st,
followed by my 9.5"x9.5" ruler 2nd, and finally my 12.5"x12.5" ruler last. 
If you’ve done this correctly, each square within a square will be set at an angle.



FINAL BLOCK:  Your final block will look someting like this.

I can't wait to show these to the AMQ group at the next meeting! 

Atlanta Modern Quilter {AMQ}

I've been MIA from blogging these last few summer months thanks to a crazy work schedule and traveling to conferences... but, I'm back!  I have so many new and exciting projects and things to write about, so I'll start with this one:  the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild.  I was on the Modern Quilt Guild checking out their new Project Modern Challenge and saw that Atlanta has a chapter.  So, I joined and am now a member of the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild, which I'm going to call AMQ for short.

This brings me to my next small project, about which I'll be blogging in the next few weeks, which is part of a bigger project by AMQ.  AMQ was asked to submit a quilt to the new Georgia Textile Museum.  The quilt is to displayed, possibly used for advertisement, and then auctioned as a fundraiser for the museum.

Each person is making color block squares that measure 12.5 x 12.5 and each block will be a different color.  I'm going to make 2 blocks and am currently awating my color assignments.  I think it's going to be a lot of fun designing my blocks.  Our only restriction, if you even want to call it that, is that we sew our block of almost entirely (95%) of that color. Otherwise, we can design it however we want, as long as we use modern print fabrics and put a modern push on the look.  No problem.

I'll post again in a few days about my color assignments, designs I'm thinking about for my blocks, and possible fabric choices.  I'm so excited about this project and that my blocks may be used for something so cool!