Here's my take on it.
Mine should probably be titled, " Big block. Little block."
I've wondered for a while about using a simple block design as an opportunity to play with scale. The standard shoo-fly block that I've featured in quilts and pillows seemed like a good vehicle to explore this idea. The standard block measures about 10"square while the super-sized one measures 36" square. My current thinking is to make four of these blocks and quilt the top in the same dense pattern that I use for the pillows.
This particular project is a little slow going because I want all the patterned fabric to come from my own hand dyed stores and that means I have to make the fabric before I sew the block. Based on this block it takes about a 2 yards of fabric to make a single block with one of those yards being patterned and dyed.
I don't especially care for seeing the finished product in my mind's eye before I've finished the project. I like the surprise of discovering it as it comes together. Though I don't have much trouble imagining the four blocks, what's keeping me interested and excited is the scale of the thing. I don't have a feel for the scale of the blocks. Even when the parts of this block were separate, I didn't really "see" what they would look like when I sewed them together. And then there's the difference that quilting is bound to make.
Dr. Suess was right. Scale does make a difference.
13 comments:
This is great! And it will be different yet to see it on a bed. I think a lot about scale as well, so I loved this post!
I just saw in the Austin Quilt Guild's newsletter that you'll be doing a program for us in May 2011. All I can say is, YAY!
It's thought provoking because not only is there the scale of the blocks to consider, but you could also think about the scale of pattern within each block too; the scale of stitches, quilting... It gets my thoughts racing for sure!
It is all about scale. And sometimes I feel like the little dog trying to pull the big dog and going nowhere :)
i think the most interesting part of the comparison in scales is that you used the same PATTERN on both the big and small blocks. so, it looks like polkadots on the large block but is almost illegible on the small block because it overwhelms the scale.
gorgeous!! Love it. Perfect.
(do you quilt on your machine or do you have a long arm quilter thingy-bob?)
having more than one sized block in a quilt makes the whole design more vibrant I think....
What a fun way to play with scale.
Ok, that's officially the biggest block i've ever seen!
I think your take on scale is wonderful, in both look, execution and inspiration! ("Go Dog Go" was such a beloved favorite in our house, that we wore out several copies... and now having just adopted a very small dog, it has been much on my mind lately!)
I love doing this myself, but it's been awhile. So much Malka inspiration!
I love this idea of playing with scale. Very clever! I too like to see what happens as things develop. It feeds your creative juices.
Can you share the technique for the cross hatch design pattern? I love those waffle-looking blues
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