Bee, Myself and I - Take Two

When I learned of Carla's personal challenge to make a few blocks each month for herself it sounded like a good idea. I wanted to use it to keep on top of hand embroidery projects at that time. Since then I've joined the monthly stitch along (SAL) organized by Avis and her friends and my Bee participation dropped off. Now I think I've found a specific project that fits the bill.

One type of fabric I can't seem to resist collecting are batiks in pure, tropical colors. I haven't been able to come up with a plan for using them however. Something fun to make, something that would show off the colors to advantage, something that would make me happy on dreary days. Then I started using up my 3" scrap strips to make Truly Scrappy Trip blocks (as opposed to scrappy trips in organized color palettes). Shortly afterward I had a light bulb moment: what about scrappy trip blocks in the batiks I like best? Duh! Once I get the strips cut it will be fun to sort them into potential blocks. The assembly process is familiar enough now to be fairly mindless on those days when my brain isn't working well. The challenge might be in restricting myself to just a couple of blocks each month! To that end, here are my first two blocks:

My plan at the moment is to keep the blocks pretty monochromatic. I think I'm going to stick to a yellow, orange, and pink palette for the most part too. I may add in some bright blues and lime greens later on, we'll have to see. I already have my Grandma's Box of Crayons quilt...

So I think I'll want to try to blend the colors of the blocks from one block to the next instead of keeping them separate like I did with this one.

Look for my next Bee post toward the end of February. This weekend there will be an RSC link party and a SAL post. I'm happy to report there's been progress on both of those fronts!