Monday, September 13, 2010

The Nephew's Block


Time to make another block for nephew Ben's Freedom Quilt (#14), and I confess: I took the lazy way out. I know not all of you would consider this cheating, but I do, just a little. Still, I am so pleased with the results that it doesn't matter.

Ben had been on a very restricted diet once it was determined he had many food allergies that were effecting his ability to focus and calm down. This year he was retested, and it was determined he'd grown out of these allergies. So, many favorite kid foods once denied, he now can enjoy with abandon. I was told two of his favorite forbidden foods that he can now eat are chocolate milkshakes from Arby's and pizza. I had my theme for this year's block! I found some images on the internet, thinking I would print them on transfer paper or directly on fabric, then cut and fuse them to a background fabric. I wanted to add a caption to clarify the theme so was also thinking what font I could use that would make cutting out the individual letters easy. As I was cutting and pasting in my Corel Paint Shop Pro program, it occurred to me I could compose my design right there and print it out as wholecloth. While I was toying with what color fabric I could print directly on, I realized I could add a color background right there in Paint Shop Pro. Too bad I couldn't do something that might look like a tablecloth, you know, checkered or something. Oh look! Paint Shop Pro has textures you can choose from. This one is some kind of mosaic and just what I wanted. So yes, even the background fabric for my "appliques" is composed on the computer . I printed out the finished design on the Epson Workforce 1100 pigment ink printer.

I composed the center at 8-1/2" and added strips around the outside cut at 2-1/2". The half-square triangle units in the corners were some stored away in one of my infamous shoeboxes. Not sure what project they were left over from, but it is always nice to make use of leftovers this way. And so another 12" block is on its way to the birthday boy. Go here to see the block I made for Ben last year.

No comments: