Any Color You Want (As Long As It’s Blue…)

by Scott on September 20, 2013

Some time back, we were asked to participate in Clothworks’ Everything Blue Block Hop celebrating Marsha McCloskey’s new collection, Everything Blue. And why the heck not? We just knew it would be a great way to show how fun and challenging it can be to take a more traditional-themed fabric and give it a little modern kick.

And being our community editor, I took one for the team and accepted the task. (Hey, free fabric was involved! How could I resist?) My task was to make a 10- to 12-inch block using the three fabrics I was sent, adding up to two other fabrics in the colors of blue, white, and/or red. I took the three blue fabrics I was given and worked them into a simple wonky star on a blue chambray solid that I salvaged from an old shirt.

Then I added this ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons to the star to create a wand or scepter or rattle (whatever you want to call it). The Union Jack-y ribbon seemed to make this a perfect fit for Kate and Wills’ new little Prince George, who is almost two months old today.

Prince George’s Scepter will join the other blocks being created this month on the Everything Blue Block Hop in a charity quilt being put together by those wonderful peeps over at Clothworks.

And because I had some leftovers, I also couldn’t resist mashing them into a few blocks from the venerable Miss Tula Pink’s book, Official City Sampler – 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, to show how pretty traditional fabrics can be in modern design. (I am a huuuge proponent of blending both sides of the spectrum together!) These are 6″ blocks, so of course I made four blocks so they could be joined together into one 12″ block. But I like them so much, I think I may dash off a few more, and create table runner .

The Tula blocks I chose were two of No. 87 and two of No. 94 from the Haiku section of her book.

Because the last blocks came from the Haiku section, I thought it would be best to end this post with a little haiku of its own. Brace yourself for a bit of sheer poetic bliss: