The Crafting Shell: November 2014

Hello! It’s my day on the Optical Illusions Blog Tour! I’ve never participated in a blog tour before, so hopefully this goes well:)

It took a bit of time for me to come up with a design for this book. I happened to find some good research/inspiration from a project I had done in design school (I’ve kept almost all of my college work because it was so time consuming I can’t part with it, and I’m a hoarder). I found lots of patterns and studies on color and form that provided much needed inspiration (I found good research on Google too).

A lot of optical illusions work because of high contrasts in color, but I knew I wanted to include an accent of color as well, and that helped guide the design a bit. I also like the play with foreground and background, and how fluctuations in shape can create new forms or illusions. One of my favorite parts is how the quilt creates curved lines, even though all the forms are made of angles.

I kept it really simple and only did stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on this. I was totally stumped on what quilting to do, because I didn't want anything that would detract from the overall design and pattern. Luckily, this book also comes with quilting ideas for optical illusions, so I may go back and add more quilting to it later! You can also read my other post about my quilt Curvilinear here.

~~As part of the blog tour, I am giving away a FREE Optical Illusions book! Just leave a comment below to enter the contest. A winner will be selected in one week, on Wednesday, November 19th.~~ Also, check out the other blog tour participants and Optical Illusion designers below!

Congratulations to Lisa E. on winning the Optical Illusions book! Thanks to all those who visited the blog and left a comment. I loved hearing from all of you!

Nov. 3

My Stars – Kick Off www.mystarsblog.com (book)

Deb Rowden www.debrowden.blogspot.com (BB FQ bundle)

Nov. 4

Angela Walters www.quiltingismytherapy.com (Athena bundle)

Nov. 5

Penny Layman www.sewtakeahike.typepad.com (book)

Nov. 6

Melissa Corry www.happyquiltingmelissa.com (Oakshott FQ Bundle)

Lily’s Quilts www.lilysquilts.blogspot.com (3 - 5" Oakshott charm pack)

Fat Quarter Shop www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com (Naptime Bella FQ bundle)

Nov. 7