Thursday, October 16, 2014

Design Indecisions: What to Do With My Bear Paw Blocks? And What's That Applique Block For, Anyway?

New Idea for My Bear Paw Blocks
I've had these bear paw blocks on my design wall for a couple of months now.  Originally they were going to be diagonal set with plain alternate blocks, then I thought I might straight set them with 4" wide white sashing and these sawtooth stars as sashing posts, but I just couldn't get excited about either of those two ideas.  So the new idea is something like this -- add white fabric around the sawtooth stars to make them kind of float in between the larger blocks.  Kind of like a square in a square block, except that the center square is smaller.  Alternatively, instead of floating the stars in plain white fabric, maybe I could surround my stars with some kind of newsprint or handwriting fabric to balance out the bright splashy print and marbled fabrics.  I'll leave them on the wall like this and see how I feel about this arrangement after I've lived with it for a few days.

Meanwhile, I finished appliqueing the tulips that look like duck tracks to my needle turn applique block:
Almost Finished, Just Needs Some Berries

Now all it needs is a smattering of stuffed berries that I haven't made yet.  My husband keeps asking me if this block is destined to be a pillow.  He usually asks me this while he is chucking other pillows onto the floor so he can sprawl on the couch.  The applique block will NOT turn into a pillow; it needs to grow into a throw sized quilt, but I have no idea what that quilt will look like.  Should I make a bunch more blocks just like this one?  Should I make a bunch more applique blocks in different patterns, but with the same fabrics, like a sampler quilt?  Should I make a mixture of different pieced and applique blocks in different sizes?  Once I get the berries done, I think I'll need to play with the block in the EQ7 software to explore some of those ideas.

This is what comes of starting off on projects with only a half-baked idea of where you're headed with it.  Not that that's a bad thing -- but it does present challenges!

3 comments:

Barbara Sindlinger said...

Have you ever read Sue Garmin's blog? http://suegarman.blogspot.com/
She's a big time applique person and might have a lot of examples of mixed applique/pieced tops or just applique. She only blogs about 1 time per month but she puts a lot in that one post.

Juanita Moore said...

I love both. Good job. The bear paws are like flowers. The flowers are so delicate.

Vivian said...

Wow, really nice applique block! No don't stifle those creative urges, all it means is that your muse is hungry for more input for inspiration. A resolution to all that good input (and it is good, just not laser focused yet) comes in its own good time. But for me, I'll just ask: are the Bear Paws still hibernating?