Tag Archives: Kona Pomegranate

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Based on the classic precision pieced snake blocks, Sarah Ruiz asked us for improv snake blocks.

She pointed us to these two websites as examples of what the classic snake block looks like.

Sarah chose a palette of dark teal (for the arcs), magenta, coral, yellow, and cream. For each color family, we were encouraged to use various hues, and a minimum of two color families per section. We could include any type of straight-line improv piecing, with the only curved seams being the improv quarter circle arcs in dark teal.

After pulling fabric the first section I pieced was this corner section. I had pulled yardage and scraps in the appropriate colors and this quarter circle of magenta was calling to be a corner of one block. I slice and inserted three 1/8" wide skinny strips.

Then I started piecing boxy sections of magentas and corals to be a center section. Since I wanted to use different color combinations in the different background sections, I pieced yellow and cream for one corner.

For the second block I took inspiration from my round robin unit. I created a large wonky strip set wide enough to be trimmed on the diagonal to be the center section of my second block.

Again taking inspiration from my scrap shapes I used a triangular scrap and pieced around it to create the second corner for block two.

Finally, I decided to make another cream and yellow slab for the second corner of block one (below), heavier on the cream this time.

I attached the teal strip to the corner section first. Then I lay the resulting panel on top of the center panel of fabric (2nd photo above). I lined the edges of the corner up about 1/2" inside the edges of the center panel. Then I checked to make sure there was enough fabric in the overlap where I would cut and sliced through both layers at once (using this method) before piecing the curved seam (3rd photo above).

These blocks were such an opportunity to play. I loved choosing different color combinations and deciding on different styles of improv piecing.

It will be fun to see Sarah's quilt top come together. I like the visual interest of the teal arcs not lining up perfectly.

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In August, Emily pointed us to Bow Bridge in Central Park at spring sunny day by Helen Denisevich for our color inspiration. She asked us to choose two color groupings inspired by the vibrant colors in the watercolor and ink painting. She wanted a 12" x 12" block with a small section of one color group surrounded by the second color group. Any improv we'd like!

I loved the greens in the painting, ranging from yellow-greens into blue-greens, so I pulled fabric for that to be one of my groupings. Then I focused on the pinks in the tree and chose a variety of pinks, light to dark.

My finished block is approximately 12" x 12". The pink section in the center was informed by the shape of my scraps, starting with the largest triangle in the center.

The green section to the left of my center section was informed by scraps that were wedge shaped.

I pieced green strips for the top section, but when that was too boring for me I made a couple vertical slices to insert additional pieced sections.

I love having beautiful, saturated bold colors in a prompt. And the freedom to do any improv pieced we'd like meant that I could just play with the fabric. It was such a joy to create.

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This week's Project QUILTING challenge is Follow Your Arrow. Our one requirement was to include an arrow shape. "Chevrons can be a very modern, streamlined arrow shape. You can find lots of patterns for arrowhead-and-feathered-shaft Robin Hood style arrows."

Immediately I looked for arrow prints and landed on this black and white Alison Glass print. I love a palette of black white and one color. I chose pink and decided to use 8 different pink solids. (These included Kona Azalea, Bright Pink, Pomegranate, Punch, and Watermelon. The others were unlabeled.)

I went with a simple checkerboard layout of 6 1/2" squares for my 24" x 24" NICU quilt. As of Saturday evening I hadn't sewn a stitch. I got up at 5:45am (the new time after time change) to finish up my quilt Sunday morning. Some speed choices in the interest of finishing before the deadline included: single piece of fabric for the backing, no basting quilt sandwich before quilting, minimal quilting, quilting in just one color thread: Aurifil 50wt Fuchsia (#4020) (if I had more time and more thread options I would have used a variety of pinks), chose remnant binding from my binding box, attached the binding with the same thread I quilted with, machine bound (as I usually do).

Tada!

I chose a lovely pink Alison Glass print for the back.

I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING Follow Your Arrow challenge. One more challenge for the season, starting March 16!

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