wendy's turn

Your challenge this month is to help me fill this:

We moved to this house nearly 6 years ago and that expanse over the sofa is crying out for a quilt(not the best picture - the walls are a medium gold tone and the sofa's slipcover changes throughout the year - at other times it's brick red or gold striped). Sadly, the sort of quilt I want is out of my comfort zone. This is where all of you come in.

Improvisation is not my forte, not yet, but seeing all of your work over the past ten months or so tells me that it's something you all do very well. Think along of the lines of Gwen Marston's Liberated Log Cabin quilts or Denyse Schmidt's Drunk Love in a Log Cabin or What a Bunch of Squares quilts. (She even has one in this style called "Wendy's Quilt" that's probably my favorite.) Nancy Crow is also a quilter that comes to mind.

I started my search for images and found that nearly all have copyrights attached to them and I don't have time to request permission to post them. If you follow the links, I'm hoping that'll give you an idea of what appeals to me for this, though I imagine most of you are already inspired by all of those women. I love the wonky nature of their work, the pieced sections, the improvisation of it all.

I know I also want to stick with solids in colors that I love.

I've included several browns to creams, greens from olive to spruce, yellows from acid to gold, a few rust to reds, eggplants and grey(though they read as blue in the picture). In fact, the only color family not represented here is blue. I also realized that I forgot to photograph any black and that's an issue because I'd like all of the blocks to start with a black square. I use the term "square" loosely. It doesn't have to be a perfect square, it doesn't have to be in the center, it doesn't have to be a certain size and it doesn't even have to be level. I'm just hoping it will unify the blocks and tie them to the black sashing I've planned for piecing them together.

I'll be sending different color groupings to everyone. I'd prefer to stick with the Kona cottons that I've picked, but if what I've sent isn't enough or isn't working for you, just send me an e-mail.

The finished size of the blocks will be 10 inches square, so sending me one that's at least 10 1/2 square will give me the seam allowances I'll need to piece the top.

You should recieve your packages soon!