architectural block for Debbie

This one had me stumped for a little while but I sat down last night excited to experiment with some bricks (which I think was in your original sketch, Debbie). I'm loving the effect... hope the end result plays nice with the other blocks!

atomic barkcloth doodle block (for cheryl)

After feeling a bit intimidated by the open-endedness of your challenge, Cheryl, I'm now completely in love with barkcloth... especially the atomic kind! I can't wait to see how this quilt comes together and thanks for the chance to experiment. I've been eyeing those split hourglass shapes since we started this bee - what a perfect chance to try them out.

And, of course, I think I should get extra points for my photo - with fancy mid mod chair. All this mid mod stuff is kinda bad for my chair habit.

minty chevrons - the plan!

I knew October was going to be hectic, so I always had my vacation as a backup plan in case I didn't have time to prep my fabrics to send out before that. So here I am - at the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, packing up little bits of fabric to send to you! Here is the plan... I've been looking at a little post-it note on my desk at work for about four months now. I think I drew it pretty soon after joining this bee, and I've been pondering it since!

I've loved all the research this bee has required. I keep finding that I'm particularly drawn to all the wonky geometric shapes from this period, especially little triangly arrow shapes. My plan starts there: I'm sending you 1/2 yard of a main solid color fabric (green or brown), a 5-inch wide strip for the chevron, and little strips of solid fabric (brown or green). I'm asking each person to make a 20-inch block with the chevron in the center. My hope is that the chevron will take up a goodly portion of the block (maybe 12-16 inches tall and wide?) and the rest can be filled with little blippy strips (minus signs?) or squares or hollow squares or even a teensy plus sign if you feel inspired... Here are the fabrics - lots of browns and greens (mint chocolate, maybe?).
Hopefully this isn't too prescriptive... wonky, curvy-I welcome it all. In fact, I was thinking those chevrons may look even more "atomic" if their bottoms were small and the tip of the arrow was fatter... feel free to play around and explore and have fun with it. Fingers crossed that I've sent enough fabric! I can't wait to see what you come up with.

kelp strip for rossie

Rossie, you've rekindled my love for kelp (though I'm not certain it ever unkindled). This was so fun... though I didn't mean to make so many hollow shapes, but I started and couldn't stop. You know how that goes, right?

Housekeeping!

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Bee members, here are your month assignments!

July 2010  - Rossie
August 2010 - Jess
September 2010 - Cheryl
October 2010 - Amanda
November 2010 - Debbie

January 2011 - Rebekah
February 2011 - Robin
March 2011 - Lauren
April 2011 - Blair
May 2011 - Malka Yahaira
June 2011 - Jacquie

I do believe I have accommodated everyone's wishes.
If something comes up and you need to swap your month, that's fine; but please try to arrange it yourself and let me (Rossie) or Cheryl know if you need help.

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Flickr group

If you would like to share your blocks on flickr, I recommend posting them to this group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/quiltingbeeblocks/

That way they'll be seen by more people!  

The groups for individual bees don't seem to get much traffic, so we're not planning on setting one up.

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Blog button

As requested, here is a blog button

html code for above

<a href="http://midmodbee.blogspot.com/"><img alt="Mid Mod Quilt Bee" border="0" img="" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1276/4672802101_3d0bb05c58_b.jpg" width="200" /></a>


In Blogger, add these by going to the "layout" tab;   click "add gadget";choose "HTML/JavaScript" as the gadget type;  paste in code; save your changes!

To make the button bigger or smaller, change the "200" to a bigger or smaller number.

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Words of wisdom

Cheryl put this so well in her email that I asked her permission to post this for posterity:
"We have a phenomenally creative group of quilters, artists, authors, and designers. We are all fans of mid century modern design. We believe that we can come together to create some amazing quilts. These quilts will capture the spirit of the artists involved. They will also, hopefully, capture the essence of mid-century modern design.

"So, instead of sending out precise rules and pre-cut fabric, please share your inspiration and a pile of fabric. Let go and see what comes back to you. We can trust each other to produce quality blocks, so trust the process."

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Please post each block you make

When you post a block you made, please attach two labels: (1) your first name  (2) ______'s quilt <--- filling in the name of the person for whom the block is destined.

This will make it easier to search back through posts. 
I have added ALL of these labels to this post so that you can add them to future posts just by clicking on "show all"



and then select the relevant labels.

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Feel free to post about other mid-mod stuff here.
I'm loving the inspiration posts, and their comments. Keep them coming and please use the "inspiration" label! 

I have figured out how to get the byline up below the title of each post, hopefully this will help us know who is talking when. (I'll try to clean up the way it looks soon).

Also, if any members want me to add their email address to the list of those who get emailed each comment, shoot me an email.  (You can also subscribe to the comments by RSS, but I like the email method myself.)


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I'm beyond pumped to get started!
Thank you all!