The Road to Fortune

It's my turn to be the "Queen Bee" for That Stash Bee in February so I got myself all organized and ready today.  :)  This bee focuses on traditional blocks made in modern fabrics, but the Queen Bee doesn't send fabric out.  Each participant uses her own fabrics in the specifically-asked for colors.

I asked the girls if they minded doing paper-piecing since some people really do, but I got a resounding "Go for it!" so I did.  After breaking out my Electric Quilt software and designing some really fun quilts I will definitely have to come back to in the future, I decided on the Road to Fortune or Wheel of Fortune Block.

Here's a vintage quilt I found on flickr

This block just drew me in.  There are so many possibilities with this block based on how you lay out the coloring.  But you know me--there wasn't a doubt in my mind what my color choices would be.  Bright and colorful!  I thought about using neon colors--that would have been fun.  But I didn't know how many people had neons in their stash, I don't really.

So, I settled on using these color inspirations:

via this awesome shop

via Design-Seeds

And with all of that bright color running through the quilt, I asked the girls to use white and light gray fabrics for the background.  I thought it would be fun to use some low-volume fabrics though, so I told them solids or low-volume was fine.

Here's my sample block.

The only problem was finding a 12-inch block template for them to use.  I couldn't really, so I made my own.  I printed the templates EQ gave, scanned them and then went over all of the lines to make my own digital file of the templates.  Hopefully it works...

I can't wait to see what the my bee-mates come up with.  I hope they find this block as intriguing as I did.  Now if only I could send out all of the other ideas I've got floating around in my head and have people make them for me...

Here's a mockup of how it might look.  LOVE IT!!!  What traditional blocks do you love that you'd love to make modern?  My list is long...