Tuesday, January 15, 2013

15 Minutes Play with Black!

Last year (okay, it was December 30, but I love saying that), Victoria at 15 Minutes Play posted a suggestion to play a bit with black.  
The other night, my husband and kids were sleeping and I was feeling a bit of a creative itch. I had another project that I needed to work on the next day, so the evening seemed perfect for a little 15 minutes of play. 

Here's what I came up with:
 (Measures 11" square)

Here's how I did it:

I pulled out a bunch of black and white prints and created some made fabric (doing this really got me wanting to work on my Shades of Grey quilt...hopefully in February!)

Four "squares" became a wonky four-patch block.

I was tempted to leave it like this--I really didn't want to cover up any of the piecing! But after a few gray, dreary days, I needed to inject some color, and this piece seemed like the place. So I pulled out my new Bigshot and some leftover Eric Carle Hungry Caterpillar prints and started cutting petals.
 I hadn't ever considered the caterpillar fabric in a none-kid capacity before. I really like it. It looks all painterly, and a little like graffiti. 

I tried the traditional layout and it just looked too expected. I tossed petals around a bit and didn't find any layout I loved. So I set it aside.

I came back to it today and decided to try the whole flower, but not centered.



  I used a cool zigzag-type stitch on my machine to applique the petals, which I really liked.

I had planned to do a frayed edge center, but it just got too fluorescent. See?

So I stuck with the pieced black showing through. If I had to do it over again, I would have paid more attention to what fabric combination was sticking through the center hole. What's there is fine, but it would have been fun to pick purposely.


Oh, I forgot. Before I added the petals, I straight line machine quilted the background. Until I sit down and do some made fabric/random piecing, I always forget how much I love the look, especially with straight line quilting to finish it off. I'm seeing an e-reader cover on the horizon made using this technique.

I had known from the beginning that I wanted to use the white/black ticking for the binding. But I thought I needed a little more color, so I added an orange flange. 
I am calling this my graffiti quilt.

I love how this turned out. I had a lot of fun playing with the blacks. I don't normally use a ton of black in my quilting, and certainly never all black, so it was interesting to do it purposefully. I really like how it created a textured background for the brighter  colors, and how the combination was so artsy. 







Sharing today on Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

15 comments:

  1. I really like this little piece....a good spent 15 minutes...lol

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  2. You really inspire me to try this! Thanks for showing us.

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  3. Oh, I love how this turned out. I like how the flower is off center and the flange really adds to it too. And straight line quilting is my favorite! Very creative!

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  4. that turned out fabulous!!! love the colours. man, it makes my choices feel so boring haha. Janelle www.emmalinebags.com

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  5. I really like it! So creative and fun!

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  6. Love this! Added to my list of projects ;-)

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  7. I love it . So creative. I think I must make something similar.
    Thanks for sharing

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  8. What a great mini! Love all the texture going on!

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  9. That is a cool block and I love the fabric.

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  10. What a fun project, love the background!! Thank you for sharing on my Show and Tell post today!

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  11. I really love this project. I love everything about it. The pieced black, the bright petals, the aweseome ziazag stitching, the blac showing through the center, the ticking, the flange. So cool. I was thinking for our GLMQG maybe we could do 15 min to play during our sew in. That could be fun!

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  12. What a beautiful piece and I love my Big Shot too!

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  13. What a cute project! The black really sets thing off, I think. Great job!

    Karen

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