All things sewing

I mentioned in another post I had made B a batik shirt. Here's a photo. This fabric is a Bali batik. Very colorful, very often floral or nature motifs. The Bali batiks are very different from the traditional Javan batiks from this island. The Javan batiks are more geometric with traditional patterns in earthy tones for the most part.

Several of my crafting friends are leaving in 2015. Someone suggested the group create quilt blocks for everyone in the group, a kind of memory quilt. It would then be up to each individual quilter to figure out how to assemble each of the different blocks they received into a final item. There were really no rules except that our blocks have to be signed ( have our name on them). They need to be unfinished at 9.5 inches square (to finish as 9 inch squares). The blocks can be any color, any pattern, any technique. This no-rules thing caused my head to spin. What block should I make? Being so new to this process I began researching and researching various patterns and discovered my desires far outweighed my abilities. I finally settled on a simple friendship star pattern. I am varying the exact fabrics so I will be offering a variety of base color choice to my friends.  There are 3 themes: brown, green and blue.  Even within each category I've varied the center block. Other ladies are doing applique or paper-pieced blocks. They are beautiful. My beginner blocks basic and simple but the group wants the block to reflect us as individuals so my block is appropriate. Because we are on the island of Java, I selected Javan batik prints.

I am pretty sure I will use a fabric marking pen to "sign" my name within the pattern of the "light" background of the block.

It will be a while before we actually get everyone's blocks and then even longer until this becomes a quilt. Be patient.

B comment: This project has been fun for both of us. First, we went to four new fabric shops. This lead to selecting 6 batiks, determining how much of each we needed, etc. Whilst we were there, we also bought some fabric for P. In one of the stores, the guy kept bringing us samples and we kept saying yes. This lead to more samples and finally a few no's. As P says be patient as this saga will continue.