When I got the blocks from Sharon they where in the plastic bags that they had arrived in and the first thing that I did was to remove each block from its bag, I wrote the makers name with pencil in the seam allowance on the back so that there could be no mix ups and I pinned the notes and bags of extra beads to the back of the block so that everything connected to each block could be kept together….
I handed the blocks, with its info attached, to my sister who enjoyed having a good look at each block before laying it down on the sheet I spread on the floor to protect them so that when all were done they where arranged in the random order in which they came out of the bags.
I am now going to try and tell you my thoughts as I rearranged the blocks into a visually pleasing quilt…The
All that Jazz blocks varied greatly in colour and style and comlexity and they needed to be blended into a balanced whole…
The first block that I moved was Marty’s, as winner of the popular vote I felt that Marty’s beautifull block deserved to be in the central portion of the quilt which is more a focal point for the eye than the edges.
Janet added no embroidery or embellishment to her block which I thought was going to make it difficult to position but when we read the words ‘Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans’ it seemed obvious that it should be in the bottom right corner like a signature block because the simple message seemed to summarize the feelings of the quilt.
Catherine takes the prize for the heaviest block received and I placed it in the bottom row where I felt that it would be least likely to cause the quilt to sag under its weight.
Willa’s ‘Sunrise in New Orleans’ was the most distingtive block and needed to be carefully placed and that was easy to do as the block told me that it needed to go down the bottom of the quilt where the sun’s rays could rise into the quilt.
Alison’s Lois Armstrong block needed to move to the right side so that Lois would be blowing his Trombone into the quilt. I put it in the central portion of the quilt because Alison’s block is one of my personal favourites.
Linda’s fan is also a distingtive feature and looked best on the left side where it had more space to show it off.
Betty’s peacock with his stunning tail needed to come into the centre of the quilt where it could be framed by the surrounding blocks.
Sharon’s Saxaponist looked a bit trunkated with other blocks around it so I moved it up to the top left corner where he not only plays into sharon’s block but plays into the whole quilt.
Kate’s Angel flew to the top row from where he could keep watch over New Orleans.
Pam I love your block but it did set me a challenge, being the only block to use white fabric, it was the most difficult to position….folding the seam allowances back so that there was less white helped, with less visible white I found the spot down the bottom where it is balanced by the light colours in Alison’s.
Leave a Reply
|
February 2nd, 2006 at 7:05 am
Oh Annie – has anyone told you recently that you are a Genius????? It looks wonderful. 🙂
February 3rd, 2006 at 12:57 am
You’ve done a wonderful job of bringing all the different styles together. Can’t wait to see the progress as it gets finished!
February 3rd, 2006 at 2:50 am
Annie, it looks so great! Sorry about the white in my block. Those stars just called to me!
February 6th, 2006 at 2:18 am
What a fantastic job you are doing! I love how much thought you are putting into the meaning of the blocks and how that helps dictate their placement.
Thank you sooooo much for taking this on.