Bee Sewcial

The buzz…...

And I'm up to bat.
Derived Inspiration on a group level. Eeeeek! Follow along as we try to figure each other out on Instagram #BeeSewcial.

OK, here goes all you creative people:
The inspiration: The Chihuly Exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens. I love the linear but not rigidly linear aspect, and the unexpected, like the swirl of glass in the purple/green composition. I LOVE the blues in the top 2 photos and the reds behind them (And I picked this design and inspiration BEFORE Marsala got named the 2015 Pantone Color of the year- damn I'm good).

I digress, back to the story-  There is so much going on and yet it's still peaceful. (You can see more pictures of the exhibit on Instagram (#Chihulydenver) if you need that Chihuly fix or more inspiration.

What I'd like is the pieced equlivant of 2-12.5" blocks more or less, of your best improv interpretation on the theme above. You can solve that any way you like, for instance, by making several little blocks/rectangles, or one big block/ strip/rectangle, I don't care.  It's supposed to look improv when the whole thing is pieced together.  I may adjust your blocks once I get them to make them fit and be more cohesive but please let your inhibitions go and have fun with this. Please don't trim as I will be doing that as I piece, so no worries if your finish is an irregular shape. What I don't want to end up with is a stack of perfect 12.5" squares….. and perhaps no raw edge appliqué as I like the look of a pieced quilt.

Colors: I LOVE the colors in the first 2 photos, the different startling blues against the brick red.  I want you to play with the color palette. Go play! (When I put the top 2 pictures through the Palette Builder I got 3 different "reds" and 4 different "blues".

Below are some colors that inspire me on a personal level. Although the Chihuly exhibit is done out of doors, I want to stay away from greens in my quilt, but you have my permission if you NEED to use a bit of green to do so. (I do like that yellowy-green but not deep forest greens just in case you're wondering).

Remember we are working with solids only, and 100% quilting cotton. I have lots of Kona solids in my stash and will be using those, but again use what you have as long as it's solid.  I think all the colors and texture will only make the quilt more remarkable.

Design Seeds March 31, 2014
click on this link to get the "bigger" picture

 And IF I can get these creative pieces put together, I will enter it into the yearly Pantone Color of the Year Quilt challenge as a group quilt. So, Latifah, it may not be the first Marsala Quilt of the year, but it will be A Marsala  Quilt finished this year. Once done, we can all raise our "virtual" wine glasses and toast that finish!!

And here are my attempts just so you know I'm working on it. But do YOUR thing, you don't have to try and do what I'm doing. And yes, Hillary, if you want to try and get this into circle form you have my permission (plus I'm dying to see how you'd accomplish that).

some curvy

more straight

flipped horizontally the upper right piece looks like Islands or mountain tops...

3 separate pieces This is taken indoors without nice lighting.

some of the fabrics I used, see below

Some colors I selected using the Kona color card in case our monitors are not syncing as they should.

orange:Tangerine/kumquat and flame

yellow: corn/papaya/citrus
pink:azalea/camellia/pomegranate/cerise/sangria

red:brick/crimson/wine/ruby/chinese red/paprika/tomato/coral

blues:(dark) teal/caribbean/cyan/nightfall/prussian/celestial  (light) robin egg/baby blue/aqua/azure/surf

Remember your masterpieces are due 6 weeks from Jan 1, so in my hands by February 12th. Please post work in progress and any other questions you might have on IG and Flickr tag #BeeSewcial. My smart phone isn't smart enough to get discussions on Flickr through the app, so if it's important ask me on IG I'm @spontaneousthreads and we're #BeeSewcial.