Intro to the Stashbuster's Ugly Sunshine BOM mystery quilt

Work has been crazy these days and it doesn't look like it will be letting up any time soon.  I haven't been able to do much quilting and I hate not being able to post something for you my readers.  My apologies for stretching these posts out, but one has to do what one has to do.  I will try and make it interesting for you.

While I was racking my brain trying to figure out what I can post about, I remembered that I didn't show you the quilt tops that I have, that are just waiting their turn to be quilted.  For the most part they are still not quilted because they currently do not have a purpose or I haven't figured out yet how I want to quilt them.

I've decided to share this quilt with you, but beware, this quilt will be shown to you through numerous posts.  This quilt was a block of the month (BOM) type quilt.  I, as well as many Stashbuster's members, started this BOM challenge back in Feb/2009.  Yes, it was a long time ago, but after finishing the blocks, it took me some time to figure out the layout that I wanted to set the blocks in.  My top is now done.

The whole process was certainly something different than what I was used to, but I enjoyed the defined rules/parameters and the creative side that stretched my comfort zone and had me thinking outside the box. I really had fun doing it.

The name of the quilt is kind of misleading.  There was nothing "ugly" about any of the quilts that came out of this challenge.  The challenge was started by a moderator to do a few things.  One, was to use up you stash, hence the group name "Stashbusters".  Two, was to be creative in a group all across Canada with everyone doing the same thing, but different.  Three, was to make a charity quilt and spread some cheer to someone in need, hence the word "sunshine" in the title.  Four, was to challenge use to go outside the box, by using a piece of fabric that you may not have used, because you either think it is "ugly" or you find it difficult to use ii in an actual quilt.

For me it was using something that I found difficult to use in a quilt.  You needed to have approx. 1-2 meters and you needed to use it in each block. This was my fabric. It kind of looks like a stained glass panel with the black pains holding the stain glass together.

No matter how often I tried to put this fabric in a quilt, it just didn't fit.  Often it stood out too much comparison to the other fabrics.  It just didn't play nicely.

The second rule for the blocks was that you had to have yellow in each block.  Yellow represented the "sunshine" in the title. You could use different yellows in each block if you wished or one yellow throughout.  I chose this one yellow to go in all of my blocks.  It's a bit pale and helps to tone things down a little.

From there you were on your own to pick a couple of coordinating fabrics to go with your primary "ugly" fabric.  The third rule was that all the fabrics had to come from your stash.  You were not allowed to purchase any fabric to make these blocks.  Again, this was the purpose of the group called Stashbusters.

As this was to be a give away quilt, I decided to make it cheerful.  I pulled fabric from my stash that had the colours in the main fabric.  This first one I think was the last fabric I chose, just to file in the gap of the others.  It was a bit more of a medium fabric.  It was a deeper yellow with lots of orange and bits of pink.

In the main fabric it has the theme if rainbow colours.  There is orange, yellow, blue, green and purple, all with a black background.  I chose this next fabric because of it's purplish background that matches the purple in the main fabric and it has some of the orange and yellow with a bit of green.

I chose this blue.  It is difficult to see but this blue has shading that goes from light to darker all across the fabric.  You can notice it more in the individual blocks.

Lastly, I chose this green.  Another bright colour.  These fabrics by themselves do not stand out as being wow fabric, but they do end up going very well together.  So much so, that I was surprised to see the blocks come together.  I really got interested and looked forward to seeing the next block of the month.

The way that it went was that the moderator of this challenge would each month send out two blocks to choose from, one was sometimes easier than the other for different skill levels or sometimes she may have chosen an appliqué block for those that wanted to learn different things.  You had to chose one of the blocks and make it.  Each block had to have your theme fabric and yellow in it.  But what you did with the block was for you to use your imagination.

The blocks all measured 12".  In the end, by October you would have nine completed blocks.  That is where it ended.  From there, everyone had to put the blocks together, however they chose.  Let me tell you, that many beautiful quilts came out of this challenge and not any two were alike.

So.....stay tuned.  I will show you in the following days which blocks I chose to do and how I chose my colour placement.  I will even make a draft of each block, just in case you would like to do one of your own.  It won't be a block of the month, but you can still play with it and use your own fabrics.  Maybe even get others involve so that you can all have some fun.

FYI.  All of the blocks used are part of the public domain.  There are no copy writes being broken in the making of these posts.  Feel free to share with your friends any or all parts of the blocks.