The Bi-Annual Chore

Bento Box has possibilities without red....I do not want any 'color'...thus the real challenge.... I have all the way from stark white to black black and shades in-between but OFF-white will not be used nor will gray (at this point) the blacks will have prints from TOT to black/white and the same with the whites. I should check it out to see if I have enuf to get started, eh? Have a feeling this might end up being Queen size by the time I'm done. I had seriously thought of Bargello but I don't want to cut them up that much and I wasn't that crazy about doing it.(As an aside, I had leftover reds Bargello that I finally used for my SM cover. Leftovers were from a vest I made someone quite a few years ago.)

Thanks for the ideas

Butterfly

When we moved I kept finding little caches of scraps. A bag here, a bucket there. Boy I had no idea there were so many. I have been playing with them for the last month or so. Not sure when they will become anything more than scraps but surely they will keep and they are fun to pull out and threaten to use. Taria

Sandy Ellis> Howdy!

Liz Megerle wrote in news:RHAei.10007$jb5.79@trndny09:

What about something with tessellations - here is a black and white with a little red:

But my point is that you could make this going from stark black and "dark" white to stark white with a light black and still keep the contrasts. And of course, don't include the red :-)

Hanne in London

Another one where you can go from black/white prints to white/black prints (and leave out the touch of red) is Maiike Bakker's Optical Illusions, shown here

here Louise

I did this one in black & white with a red inner border. . It's easier than it might look; the 60-degree ruler simplifies cutting. I was really pleased with the result. This is definitely a pattern I'll use again. I haven't got the pictures on the 'net yet.

Julia > Butterflyw>

You're most welcome, Ms. B! The bento box blocks finish at 15.5", so it gets big very fast. I ran out of fabric, and didn't want to buy more short strips of each, so I laid them out on point and it was big enough. (about 72x90, I think) I bought 2.5 yards to make all the filler triangles and binding, and there's not much left over.

Louise, thanks for the pointer to the Optical Illusions pattern. That's my cup of tea! Liz

Thanks, I like that idea.

Keep send>>> Butterflyw>>>

IF it helps any, some of the fabrics have 'flowers/butterflies/roses/dominoes definite subjects that I'd like to keep whole if possible. No, not to the point of fussy cutting but squares/ tri/rec-angles that are big enuf to be identifiable without taking over the overall effect. Still leaning toward Bento.....

More ideas are welcome...

Butterfly (wanting this to be a fun project all the way around)

I am planning a Cat quilt for myself, using cat prints and cat applique patterns. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Have you thought about star blocks using the darker fabrics for background and the lighter ones for the stars? A Lone Star starting with lights and moving through the shades from light in the center to dark to light again at the points.

Milky Way would look cool in shades of black and white

This block seems to be designed for black and white: and so does this: The Red Herring block at Quilter's Cache is meant to be used with several shades of fabric. It would look nifty in B&W. I'm not sure why it's paper pieced since it would be easier to strip piece the four units of the block. Another block that might work well in black and white And here is a simple block that would be good to use in VA See my quilts at

You have 2 that have caught my eye: "Four and Twenty" would be nice for showing them off and then "Spiderweb" would be neat for the leftovers. Still congitatin.going to line all these up side by side and see which one calls to me...... Keep em coming, folks.......

Butterfly (please)

Ever since I went to that Machine Quilters show, I haven't been able to get that black/ecru quilt out of my mind. I think there's one of them in my future.

Cindy -

Love your friend's idea of "working retreats". Just wish I had a few cousins who were quilters. Out of 32 cousins you would think that one would be a serious quilter after all our grandmother quilted her entire life.

If my husband ever left for a week end I could invite a few friends to stay over. One friend has an annual quilting retreat at her house the week end her husband and sons go hunting.

Maybe I should just invite a few friends over for a cutting day in exchange for lunch and a bag of scraps.

Susan

What time do you want me there? ;)

And most importantly, would there be chocolate? :)

Oooh, my best friend and I used to do that with a couple of friends from the guild .... since she owned a quilt shop, we'd either do it at her house (where she had a sewing room the size of an average large bedroom - slept 4 on the floor ... surrounded by lovely fabric) or at her store (with a few freebies as "thank you's)."

Of course, very little sleep would be had over the weekend, but strangely enough, we didn't care! :)