100 Day Project: Week 7 Update

Week 7: Blocks 43 through 49

Another exciting week of #designbydice.  On Thursday, I joined Pokey Bolton's What's On Your Wall series of Instagram Live videos. In addition to chatting about life during the pandemic, I shared my 100 Day Project and a tour of my studio. You can watch our conversation here. 

And here is a recap and personal critique of Week 7 and blocks 43 through 49.

43/100

• A variety of black & white fabrics were used for the achromatic color scheme, with care to include a variety of values including black on white background for light value, and white on black background for darker values.
• Contrasting metallic bathing suit fabric and solid black skinny strips were used to embellish both the solid dark squares and light colored frames. 
• Several of the skinny strips extended beyond the light colored frames off the edge of the block. Instead of trimming them, I added additional skinny strips to really carry the design off on the edges. When pressing the 3 skinny strips in the bottom right corner, they moved to create a slight and unintentional angle. 

44/100

• A variety of warm pinks through orange and yellow were pulled for a hyperbright analogous color scheme. While the heart started as a black and white zebra print, layering a magenta sheer on top helped me stay within the assigned color palette.
• Emphasis was achieved by using a patterned print for the heart, which was positioned in the center. The wedged lines radiate out from the heart center.
• This design beautifully merges elements from my series of Starburst minis with Always Follow Your Heart. 

45/100

• It's been a while since I used my collection of teal scraps (which is one of the larger scrap collections), so I pulled them out for the neutral plus 1 color scheme. A scrap featuring a wavy row of white dots was found first and placed along the 1/3 vertical mark. Leftover triangle scraps from Block 30/100 drew more focus to this shape. I love how the various sizes and values of triangles add wonderful movement, sparkle, and energy to this focal feature. 
• Sprinkled skinny strips of a black & white polkadot, dark and light teals create confetti for this festive block. Last but not least was adding the bullseye dots and eyelashes to draw more focus to the wavy feature.

46/100

• Earlier in the day I attended a Summer Camp Reunion with fellow camp staff and former campers from my 7 summers on staff, nearly 18 years ago!! After 2 hours of reminiscing about summer camp traditions, trivia, and memories, I found myself creating a feather design, inspired by the feather motif on our camp staff polo shirts.
• Light valued yellows and sheers were used for the monochromatic color scheme, and small cut outs to recreate a feather texture. Emphasis was drawn towards the feather through its placement and the gentle breezes blowing around the feather.

47/100

• I noticed a lack of blue-violet fabrics in my current collection of 25 blocks, so I sorted out some darker blue-violets and some periwinkle Cherrywood hand dyed solids, along with some reddish browns for the neutral. After stacking the blue-violet chunky strips in a diagonal pattern, I was inspired by the staircase in the Brady Bunch home. Additional lines of brown fabrics were used to recreate the railings that frame the blue-violet steps.

48/100

• It's been a while since I rolled a 3 for a triadic color scheme. After checking that I've used all 4 triadic color schemes, I returned to one of my favorites: yellow-orange, blue-green, and red-violet. I was very limited in my yellow-orange scraps, so I pulled out some unfused scraps and ironed on some scraps of Wonder Under to restock my yellows (and I plan to restock my oranges which are also dwindling in size and variety). 
• I've noticed that using a triadic color scheme means pulling out and sorting through 3 scrap collections. To help me cope with the chaos of all these scraps, I find myself creating very structured designs: triangles, hearts, rays, and now squares with triangles! 
• I wanted to study the interplay of these 3 colors with 3 different textures. Each row focuses on one color with three different textures represented: polkadots, lines/grid, and an all over texture/pattern.
• Three triangles were cut from the same solid and combined with one square from each row, including the same color background square. I made sure the value of the triangle would provide some contrast against the squares.
• Up until now I had completely dismissed the line requirement! So skinny strips were cut from a lighter value solid in all 3 colors and used to connect the squares. Initially I laid them out in random pattern, but found myself rearranging the strips to create a diagonal zig zag to help move the eye across the composition.
• This design reminds me of a map with the triangles leading the viewer across the bridges to other blocks and rows.

49/100

• We are experiencing a heatwave here in San Jose...so for neutral plus 1, I reached for a variety of cool aqua blues. Waves were cut out from three strips ranging from light to dark value aqua. I couldn't resist adding a shark fin to satisfy the neutral component. Some sparkly bathing suit fabric and sheers add additional texture and movement to this ocean view. Two seagulls were cut out of the same charcoal grey for some repetition and interest.

Tomorrow will mark the halfway point in my 100 Day project!! I've pulled down blocks 1-25 to start playing with a potential layout for my first quilt top. Soon, I will pull down blocks 26-50 to contemplate another layout, while making room on my design wall for blocks 51-75 (which will feature a different background fabric!)  So be sure to follow along for my daily posts on Instagram, as well as my Weekly Reviews here on my blog.

Blocks 1 through 49...almost to the halfway point!!