In case you are just joining us, most months I participate in a designer challenge. A group of quilt pattern designers challenge each other to reimagine a traditional quilt block. The rules are simple. Make the block as specified - but feel free to play around with it, remix it, stretch it, add elements, remove elements - whatever you are inspired to do with the basic block.
We post on Instagram for four Mondays each month - the fabric pull, a sneak peek one, a sneak peek two, and a reveal. The reveal day is my favorite part. I love seeing how other folks view a block and what they do with it. Really, the final products are amazing.
At the end of the month, Kate and I do a deeper dive into the block itself. Often, I give you general instructions on how you might make the traditional block, and then do a little sharing - sometimes of my thought process for my project, sometimes of the final projects from other designers.
This month, I thought I'd take a slightly different approach and share a bit about how I went from traditional block to my final version.
The traditional bear paw block is made up of four large squares, sixteen smaller HST, four rectangles and a center square (see the top left image on the picture above). My version - well, it's a bit (ok a LOT) different. But how did I go from the traditional to the final version? Let's look.
So here is the traditional bear paw block, as described. This is my base - what I started from.
The first thing I tried was simply stretching the block. I took it from a square to a rectangle. This is a fun and easy way to give a traditional block a new look, and sometimes that's all you need to do to create a fresh approach to traditional. But not this time.....
The next step was a bit more involved. I pulled those small HST units down toward the center of the block. I took the color into the rectangles (traditionally part of the background) and pulled in some angles there too. This is nice - has a flower type look, don't you think? But nope, I wanted more.
Next, I did some more stretching. I pulled the center light orange area out to create more of a center point, and created some overlapping opposite direction angles for the center teal areas. I liked the flower look, and tried to emphasize it by splitting those outside darker angles into two smaller units and colored the very outside ones teal to mimic leaves. Not bad. It has a spiky tropical flower look now. Fun. But....a MUCH more involved paper piecing block. Hmmm...what would make it better?
Can you tell what I did next? Yup - I simplified it! I kept the spiky areas I liked, but removed some of the smaller outside points, and simplified the light and dark orange units. It's nice - a very cool looking block with possibilities. But....it could be a bit more interesting. So far I've only tweaked the outside units. Let's edit the inside teal areas just a bit.
Ah ha! This is it! Ok so I edited ALL of it! But look at what I added and removed. A simple value shift in the teal center gave it a much more dynamic look.
What was light teal in the other versions became background. The dark teal became light teal. And that center is just - well - amazing - or I think it is!
I also removed the larger light orange pointed units. And I took the outer skinny points and added to the line, bringing it to the edge of the block, and then split it (not in half - more slivered than split). Why take the points out the the edge?
Well, if a block is "living all by itself" it will have one look. But looking forward, if the block is one of say NINE blocks in a quilt, what would happen if the lines extended all the way to the edge of the block? Yup - secondary design!
And just like that, a new block was born.
Ok - it took a while. A lot of "try this, ok no that didn't work, try this".....for days and days. But this is the boiled down version. Fun, right?
Head over to Kate's blog to see her insights into the Bear Paw block too! Click here: Kate's Blog Post
Be sure to head over to Instagram and check out all of the amazing projects the other designers created for this block challenge. I think it is amazing what can be done with what is often thought of as a "basic" block!
Hey - before you go, I wanted to let you know that the next free Mystery Quilt Block Challenge starts July 7th. Sign up and get all of the details for this free, fun month long challenge!
In a nutshell - I tell you how many fabrics you need and how much, then give you "clues" (instructions) on how to make units, and the final "clue" is how to put the Mystery Block together. We had fun in June with the Mosaic block, and July's block is something completely different. Come join the fun and click below to sign up!
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