Spoooky

This is my entry for September's Creativity Challenge from A Creative Dreamer. It's only one block but it represents the quilt I'll be making for my husband over the next couple of weeks. As soon as I read the challenge back in the beginning of the month I knew it would be the perfect impetus to get his quilt started! It has taken me nearly all month to get a design plan settled however.

In the last post I think I showed you the Day of the Dead print I wanted to use with the spatter painted skulls print. Did I mention that the spatter print will be whole cloth strips separating two columns of pieced blocks? That's the plan. Deciding which blocks and which prints to use was what took so long. Finally I fussy cut some giant (to me!) 6.5" patches and some 5" patches out of the DoD print. I was able to get some smaller squares for future use but there's not much left of that yard now. I found myself mourning its' loss at the end.

Anyway, the plan was to make six 12" blocks in a variation of the traditional Shoo Fly pattern and then eight 9" blocks the same way. When I started auditioning prints for the corner triangles I discovered some things. Some prints were too big, some too dark. A lot were too silly for this quilt. I quite liked this combo, the white in the background of the DoD print is refelcted nicely by the little skulls.

In the photo below you can see I tried another print in two of the corners (sorry, the picture is a little blurry). The dancing skeletons didn't read as well as the skulls. They are too small and too dark.

I have to say, I wasn't really happy with the idea of all the blocks featuring the Day of the Dead vignettes. It just didn't feel right for my husband and his taste. But then I got to thinking about another skull print in my collection that DH had really liked. I pulled it out and cut a few experimental squares.

The largest skulls on that print weren't big enough to be comfortable in a 6" patch (in the 12" blocks) so I cut them for the 9" blocks. The dancing skeletons seemed to be just the right scale and tone for these patches. I'm very happy with the way this block turned out and am excited to get the rest of them sewn up.

And now, on to October! :- )