Quinobequin Quilters 2004/5 Block of the Month Archive
		This year's Block of the Month can best be described as a series of "creativity challenges."  We will make a small quilt each month (8" x 10", 8.5" x 11" or 8" x 8") using different themes and techniques.  Your blocks may be oriented horizontally or vertically.  Choose the size that appeals to you or gives you enough room to experiment.  You may choose to use traditional patterns or not.  Each month will have specific colors, fabrics or techniques assigned to the block as well as themes for expression.  Some techniques will echo the monthly program or speaker.  The goal is to try something new or different, experiment with techniques you want to try that are not part of your usual repertoire, to think (or quilt) "outside the box", to develop new skills, to see what happens, and to see the many different ways we approach the same task. September:            What we call the beginning is often the end            And to make an end is to make a beginning.            The end is where we start from.            ....            Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,            Every poem an epitaph.  And any action            Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat            Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.                                                --T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding Theme:  Beginnings Technique: Use crayons watercolor paints or fabric markers somewhere in your block.  Use regular, not fabric crayons, and color directly onto the fabric.  When you've finished coloring, press the block between layers of brown paper to get the excess wax out and affix the color into the fabric. October:            Autumn will heap the granaries high.            Whatever you reap, corn, wheat or clover,            Barley or rye, when autumn is over...            Whatever you reap you will be raising            Again and again.                                                --Anne Persov, Whatever you Reap Theme:  Harvest Technique:  Embellishment - beads, buttons, bows, threads.  If you can sew it, glue it or attach it - go for it! November:            I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying            And I'm crazy for loving you.                                                 -- Willie Nelson, Crazy Theme:  Thankfulness Technique: Crazy Quilt.  Cut a piece of muslin an inch or so bigger than your block.  Somewhere in the middle place a piece of fabric with four or five sides.  Layer another fabric over one side, right sides together, sew it down and fold open.  Continue this way around the block.  This is a grand and glorious way to use fabrics that you don't normally use.  This can either be machine or hand sewn.  In clude somewhere in the block something you are thankful for or something that represents something you're thankful for.  You can hand or machine embroider the edges where the fabrics meet. December:          "You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in."                                                 --Arlo Guthrie Theme:  Light Technique:  As the year gets darker and darkness falls earlier, let's light up the month using "glitzy" fabrics and stars.  Piece or applique a block that contains a star (or many stars) somewhere in it.  Use bright, sparkly and glitzy fabrics to drive away the dark. January:           "And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that            country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and            fierce storms."                                                 --William Bradford, of Plymouth Plantation Theme:  Cold Technique:  Make your block from blacks, whites, and/or grays.  Any design. February:            "Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."                                                 --Charles M. Schultz (Charlie Brown in "Peanuts")            "We can do no great things; only small things with great love."                                                 --Mother Teresa Theme:  Love Technique:  Make a quilt valentine - any style.  Your quilt should not have a straight edge border - try prairie points or lace edging or beaded fringe. Here are some links to get you started: http://www.mccallsquilting.com/artheblk/prapoints/ http://beadwork.about.com/library/weekly/aa081897.htm http://www.knitting-crochet.com/lacekni.html March:             Whimsy: n 1: an odd or fanciful or capricious idea; "the theatrical notion of             disguise is associated with disaster in his stories"; "he had a whimsy about             flying to the moon"; "whimsy can be humorous to someone with time to             enjoy it" [syn: notion, whim, whimsey] 2: the trait of acting unpredictably             and more from whim or caprice than from reason or judgment; "I despair             at the flightiness and whimsicality of my memory" [syn: flightiness,             arbitrariness, whimsicality, whimsey, capriciousness]                                                    Source: WordNet 2.0, 2003 Princeton University Theme:  Whimsy Technique:  Make a whimsical quilt in the spirit of the month of March.  Use yo-yos in the quilt.  If you've never made a yo-yo, follow these links: http://www.cddesigns.com/YoYo/how.htm http://www.quilterscache.com/V_Z/Yo-YoQuiltingBlock.html April:            "Weird, isn't it?  Somehow in the dead of winter when it's 40 below, so cold              your words just freeze in the air, you think you'll never hear a robin's              song again or see a blossom on a cherry tree, when one day you wake up              and bingo, light coming through the mini-blinds is softened with a tick of              rose and the cold morning air has lost its bite.  It's spring once again, the              streets are paved with mud and the hills are alive with the sound of              mosquitoes."                                                  --Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider,                                                    Northern Exposure: "Mud and Blood" 1993 Theme:  Spring Technique:  Applique a spring design.  You may choose to do traditional applique, raw edge applique, hand or machine applique.  Use pastel colors in your block.  Here are some links to get you started: http://www.craftown.com/app.htm http://www.mccallsquilting.com/lessons/applique//index.html http://www.mccallsquilting.com/lessons/fundamentals//index.html#handappli May:             "The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being               perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself."                                                  --Anna Quindlen Theme:  Your block; your quilt Technique:  Any.  Take everything you have tried this year, think about what you liked and what you didn't like; what you tried and where you failed.  Make your own block.  Any colors, any pattern, any technique.