BeeSewcial March: Waves, Depth, Flow

The prompt for March BeeSewcial was Waves, Depth, Flow for Felicity, blogged here.   She requested teals with copper accent and even mentioned that she enjoyed the puzzling part of putting the blocks together so there was freedom is the size.

 sizes: 8.5x22',  9x9 and 5x7" 

 I knew that I was going to have time at the end of the month while attending a 4 day retreat at Happy Valley to focus on the blocks so I wasn't too stressed out about the deadline.   The Paintbrush Studio color card and an assortment of Painters Palettes Solids was my jumping off point.

Turquoise, Cyan, Aqua and Gold

It isn't typical for my vision to very clear in advance of starting my block but this one was.  The version in my head was complex bubbles with busy kelp action adrift.  What I've gotten better at - with much conscious effort - is to listen to the direction the design wants to go rather than force an idea into reality.

In the end, wide range of color wasn't needed

Felicity's quilt is bound to be epic.  Check out the #beesewcial and #inspiredbybeesewcial on IG to see the interpretation of her theme.

Playing around with the linking of parts in the various blocks was fun.  I'm certain they won't actually end up this way but the opportunity to mess around like also sparks ideas for other quilts I might make.

Stretch - Puzzling

2016 February BeeSewcial Blocks "Stretch"

Now that I've accomplished the finish of my 2015 BeeSewcial quilt "Reflections" blogged here, I am working on the "Stretch" theme from 2016.  I've shared some and they were on my FAL Q1 goals but here's a better photo of them together on the design wall.

More block parts

These parts may or may not make it into the final quilt.  I thought it would be helpful to just start making things that could be used once I get to layout.  After sewing for a bit, I changed my mind after realizing that it would be more productive to approach the composition by identifying what's needed and filling in the gaps (like I did on the last one)   The bottom one was suppose to be stitching on jeans but it resembles a belt in loops instead.

Major progress was made on the quilt for my nephew before the weekend was done.  So much blue - including the sky.  

Do you see the Heart shape?

A tradition that I've been trying to keep up with is to bring a quilt to put  on the bed when I'm at a local retreat.  "Bend, don't Break" was my choice this time and I placed it sideways to have the pop of orange visible. 

Happy Stitching, Karen