Quilting Challenges

October had some design challenges for my quilting.  The first was the variable star for Block Lotto.  It was a lesson in value.  The background was supposed to be light, while the star was made from medium and dark fabrics.  I tried to ignore color and just look at the value of the material.  The first thing I found was that I didn't have many pieces of material in color that would be considered light in value.  That's something I will have to remedy.  The other thing I realized was that even neutrals like beige were not necessarily light in value.  Interesting challenge.  I hope these two blocks came out okay.

The other challenge was a for my Stay at Home Robin.  This is always a challenge in that I have no idea where we are going.  This month we were supposed to add a 3x9 strip to the left side.  I had a great piece of print that I knew I wanted to use, but as I laid it along side the quilt so far I realized I had a couple of problems.  One was that I had used sharp points and also curves already.  So I wanted to find a way to incorporate both shape elements in this piece.  The other thing I wanted to do, was to spread the hint of green a little further.  Here's what I came up with.  Hope it works.

Both were fun and made me think.