Black and White DWM

It's Monday, a start of a new week and I am having a little quilter's ADD. . . I have started a new project, I'll share a bit about this process in a moment. . . I watched Cindy Needham's Craftsy class yesterday on whole cloth quilts. . . Oh MY! I need to make another WCQ. . . I started watching this class and could not stop! I'm not kidding. I took Cindy's other class (Design It, Quilt It), loved it. I don't know why but I could watch Cindy FMQ all.day.long. My only complaint about the class? Cindy didn't FMQ enough ;) I just had to share that. It is taking all of the restraint I have to set everything aside and start a WCQ. . . but I'm not going to do that. . . yet ;)

On to my new project. I have always wanted to make a black and white quilt. I lurve lurve lurve text fabrics. . . so first I pulled these fabrics:

Most of these came from a low volume fat quarter bundle. . . I don't remember where I got it. . . BUT Pink Castle has a Word Up bundle of 10 different text prints right now and they are all black on white. I might need another bundle:)

These are various cuts. . . some from bundles, some from an awesome fat quarter sale at Thousands of Bolts

So now I have my fabrics pulled. . . what to do with them?? I made the mistake of taking a little skip around the internet doing an image search for black and white quilts. . . Why do I do these things to myself??? I had a pattern picked out for this quilt (prior to the search). . . even bought the fabric (none of which is in the photos above. . . LOL). It was this quilt. Then I saw this quilt on Vicki's blog. . . I even bought the book and the ruler. . . And then I did the image search. . . UGH! I saw lots of black and white star quilts - love. Lots of black and white HSTs - love. Wonky block black and white quilts. . . darn it, loved those too!! Yeah, going to have to make more than one. . . But what to do with this one and these fabrics???

Here's how my thought process went (I'll spare you the details, this is the abbreviated version haha): I love HSTs. . . I love how various text prints look when they are used as backgrounds of blocks. My solution? I'm going to sew the black on white fabrics into nine patch blocks. Then I'm going to sew the white on black fabrics into nine patches. AND THEN. . . I'm going to cut those 9 patches on the diagonal and sew them into half white/half black HSTs! What's the final layout going to be? IDK (I Don't Know). . . I'm going to make the blocks. Then I'm going to play :)

Here's where I am:

Here are the black on white fabrics cut into 4"x16" strips. Once I had them cut, I randomly placed them into piles of three strips to be sewn together.

Here they are all sewn together. I chain pieced these. It went quick :) we like that!

And ironed. It was at this point that I realized. . . I am going to be 8 blocks short. . . :( and no more fabric. . . The good thing about ultimately needing 4" squares out of fat quarters? BEST use of a FQ... The bad thing? No leftovers for those of us who are mathematically challenged and when they divide 56 by 2 they get 24. . . They will remain nameless ;)

I am in the process of cutting these into 4" strips. Then I will mix them up again and sew them into 9 patches. I think I might make those other 8 blocks by using the Kaufman Spot On fabric . . . solid instead of cutting a 9 patch in half. . . I'll play with that once I get the blocks finished and start playing on the design wall.

Today on the agenda is to get the back on white 9 patches done. The white on black fabric prepped, cut and hopefully sewn together so I can sew the 9 patches tomorrow. . . and maybe even get the HSTs sewn together. . . I can't wait to start playing with the layout! :) 

I'm also prepping fabric for another project. This one is pattern testing so I won't be sharing much about it. . . yet :) And I will be trying to resist that overwhelming urge to start a whole cloth quilt.... SO tempting!!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Let's Bee Social. If you haven't been, check out these great linky parties for a major dose of inspiration :)

Until Next time, keep on quilting!!