lines and curves

I'll admit that I kept pushing this block back because I was intimidated by the challenge. but at the same time I loved the challenge. isn't that what bees are about?

I made my own little challenge by cutting everything freehand (no rulers!, no measuring!) which may have made my curves a little too subtle. you can probably see my progression from left to right! finally got it on the last one!!

Barkcloth for Cheryl

I'm busy catching up. First, Cheryl. I love barkcloth too, so narrowing down the inspiration was hard, but I picked the shapes I loved and went for it.

First, I pieced in the arc shapes, then I let Cheryl's background fabric lead me and I went with that Philco tv shape that I'd still have in my living room if it would get a station. I fused and appliqued that. I would love to do a whole quilt of blocks like these. Thanks for the push, Cheryl. I can always count on you for that.

The hardest part was cutting the shape of the final block. I learned...I have crappy scissors that desperately need sharpening.

Catching Up

Saturday was my catch up day and I finished these two blocks for Cheryl and Amanda.

First up is Cheryl's right angle block. I searched for right angle pictures in an image search and was inspired by this balcony image:

from here.

Here's my very literal translation into a block.

For Amanda's block, I started cutting prematurely and with no plan at all which resulted in one of the arms of the chevron being crazily pieced. Thanks for sending so much fabric! It was a lifesaver for me.

Jon was looking through the pictures on my camera and stated, without prompting, "Ooh, this is really cool! It looks very 1960's." He laughed when I told him the purpose of this bee.

And, here's the full on shot. I almost cropped out my thread catching sock, but left it in there because I'm sure you can all relate!

Block for Cheryl

My block for Cheryl was heavily inspired by barkcloth.  I hope I haven't been too literal.  The amount of detail in barkcloth steered me away from my usual larger, more graphic style.  Making the finished block a curved shape was fun.

I hope my block "plays well" with the rest.  I noticed that Amanda and I used a similar motif.  I described my process in a little more detail on my blog.

Leafcloth

Cheryl's request had me a bit stumped.  Curves, not curves, barkcloth, huh?
I thought that once the fabric arrived I would be inspired, but I found the combination odd, stymieing me further.

Robin's blocks gave me a boost of inspiration and I sat down on Saturday resolved to figure something out.  I decided to focus on a single element from Cheryl's inspirations:

And so...

 It will be in the post shortly!

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.

Another block for Cheryl

Trying to use up the fabric Cheryl sent, I made this 12" block:

All I can say is "heaven help Cheryl!"

Open-ended:

Wow Cheryl, You really had me stumped here! I'm not sure if this is what you were aiming for, so let me tell you about my thought process. The words that stuck out to me in her directions, were barkcloth and curves. I googled barkcloth and came up with this:

It didn't contain the curves she was looking for so I came up with this:

Still, this design seemed plain and quite circular, so I moved on...

Now this was both atomic and curved... but I wanted to do something other than boomerangs...

After more searching, and many more images, I realized a commonality to all this was that the shapes were neither symmetrical or complex. Some of them stood alone, and some were embellished with lines and other shapes layered on top:

I tried here to use each fabric more than once, thinking that they would play off each other and unify the piece. I also kept my shapes rather simple... for ease of construction as well as simplicity in design. The fabrics you chose Cheryl are lovely indeed! Looking at it now, I'm thinking perhaps the black fabric should have been used for larger shapes or at least outlined with another fabric, but all in all I think these work well with each other. In the end, I'm thinking if I have time, I'll put together simpler blocks with the leftovers... smaller simpler blocks may help to offset this loud little puppy.

I'm very excited to see how the rest of you interpret Cheryl's instructions. I'm thinking this really could work because the fabrics she gave us are all related. It will be interesting to see the thought processes that went into this one. Please do comment on your trains of thought when posting your pictures! Good Luck!

Curves

It is my month for the bee. And boy have I struggled with this. Too. Much. Influence.

Idea #1 Charlie Harper quilt. I picked up a Charlie Harper colouring book and debated sending out images to ask for blocks based on them. But a) that seemed too prescriptive for you and b) I would have ended up with blocks that seemed to beg (in my head) for a straight set with sashing and that is so not me.

Idea #2 Imitation of a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass pieced. This was actually Hubby's idea. While I love Frank Lloyd Wright this idea again seemed too prescriptive for my liking.

Idea #3 Because I love the mid century clocks and chairs so much I thought an Ingrid Press inspired layout could be quite interesting, despite my aversion to straight sets and sashing. This idea was okay, but it didn't feel original enough for me, especially when it comes to bees.

Are you sensing a theme? Original and challenging. Bold and graphic. Colour and no straight sets.

Soooo..... This is what I've come up with. In the end I went back to two of my first mid century modern loves – atomic barkcloth and curves. Seriously, I couldn’t get curves out of my head.

But it is really hard to ask people to simply be inspired by curves. For me, it is the curve in so much of the furniture, like the Saarinen Tulip table, an Eames chair (pick any one), or the Noguchi coffee table. It is the organic shapes of Alexander Calder mobiles and sculptures or Alvin Lustig graphics. It is the George Nelson clocks. It is the fun styling in atomic designs and even things like the Jetsons’ set.

Half of you have been sent fabric to produce a curved block. If you have a fat quarter of a light background, then this is you. There doesn’t have to be curves in the piecing, just that the final block has an organic, curved shape. As for what the block itself looks like, well be inspired in your own way by my inspirations.

The other half of you were sent an alternate package of fabric for a different block. If you’ve got a teal/turquoise fat quarter, then this is you. If you could finish your blocks with right angles that would be great, so please, square it off.

I hope (and fear) that this is a challenge to all of us. But it is such a great group or artists that I have no doubt something amazing will happen.

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!