Sunday, January 9, 2011

Tiled Snowflake Sky

Do you ever have those moments where you think this is to much of a coincidence to be ignored?  I had that going on for the last week so I am putting my thoughts to paper and hopeful that will become a quilt.  Here is the back story for those of you who are still with me.  Growing up in Northeast North Carolina snow is not something I am use to.  When I was a child my family went to North Dakota every year around Thanksgiving to spend time with my dad's family so it wasn't like I didn't know what it was I just wasn't use to it.  I was probably to young to even notice then but a few days after Christmas we got a snowstorm here in Virginia and quickly accumulated over a foot of snow.  That just doesn't happen this close to the beach so it was a little amazing to me.  The one thing I noticed more than anything was how at night everything outside had this blueish/gray tint to it.  Immediately I thought this needs to be a quilt.  Since I had just gotten Elizabeth's new book for Christmas her birdbath pattern stuck in my mind.  I still just couldn't articulate the thought.  Then when I was flipping through I noticed that one of her alternate colorways was a blueish/gray tone.  It was exactly what I had in my mind.  Not too many days later I was reading my daily blogs and saw that the Modern Quilt Guild had announced their Round 2 Challenge.  A monochromatic quilt.  Now I have never entered a contest like this before.  Apart from winning a art contest when I was in elementary school (because of concept not necessarily talent) I do not participate in things like this.  I find myself easily frustrated when I think of my idea in comparison to those around me.  Maybe it is a lack of self confidence or a fear of failure but have you seen some of the blogs out there.  Killer creativity and talent!  So I was tossing this idea around in my head of entering the challenge and making something that would reflect the feeling of that blueish/gray night sky that only happens when it snows when I noticed the tile in the bathroom floor at my office.  So I snapped a picture with my phone (don't worry I was the only one in there).  And yes we actually work in a really old warehouse where everything is falling apart so the tile is really that dingy and gross.


To me this one section of tile looked like a snowflake.  I don't know if I just had snow on the brain because I was still thinking about this quilt or what but I imagined that if I could drawn an architectural picture of a snowflake which would translate into a quilt block it would look something like this.  So this morning I spent some time making translating a part of that tile into a quilt square and then making a mosaic so I could envision what the finished quilt might look like.  I'm still working out the numbers in my head but I think that I am going to go for it and make this quilt a reality.  If it's done in time I am even going to enter it into the contest but if not then at least I will have a snugly new quilt to remember how much I enjoyed the snow and the beauty of the night sky when it was here.   


The coloring isn't right yet because I still need to decide if I want to go with blues or grays but this is an idea of what I'm thinking.  What do you think?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, reactions, color suggestions.  You name it.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, I love it! I think it's great idea! If you want snow colors, I think it would look great with a palette of cool grays and blues. I personally wouldn't use pink though, no offense to your office bathroom. :)

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  2. Love it. This is an awesome idea. I can't wait to see it all come together!

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