Churn Dash Remix with Stash Bandit, Part 2
While I was away from my studio for the arrival of new grandbabies, I dreamed up the Churn Dash Remix so that I could play with virtual quilt designs in Electric Quilt design software. I used a basic traditional Churn Dash quilt block as my starting point. If you missed it, check out Part 1.
In the first part, we left the block proportions alone and just played with the lights and darks plus some scrappy variations. Pretty entertaining! But now we’re getting to the really fun stuff: altering the size of the block’s grid.
Instead of having each column in the grid be equal, here I used a ratio of 1:4:1. In a 12″ block, the outer sections would finish at 2″ and the center section would finish at 8″.
First, just a few basic ideas for fabric and using lights for the background.
I love the vibrancy of this hot pink! It looks great against the navy blue Churn Dash.
But what if you swapped those colors around? The navy background is great. Using a dark for your backdrop is an easy way to create drama. (And who doesn’t need more drama?)
Here’s another color combo. I like the aqua at the center, too.
Sometimes a large motif in a large patch is dynamite. Above I have started to muddy the waters so the block isn’t so obviously a Churn Dash.
As I discovered in Part 1, blocks can morph into unrecognizable forms. Above is a giant plus sign—not as effective at these proportions as when it was three equal columns, below.
Fussy cutting might be fun! Aren’t those pineapples stellar?
And what about some polka dots? The irregular arrangement gives this block movement, below.
I love these dots, too:
I tried out a softer color scheme. Not my cup of tea, but someone might like it.
I learned from Mary Ellen Hopkins that putting different things in block corners can give you wonderful secondary designs. It’s always worth a try:
This one didn’t do anything great when it was repeated so I moved on to some settings, which we’ll cover in the next post.
Are you inspired to make some Churn Dash blocks yet?! I sure am!
~Diane~
Tags: churn dash, churn dash remix, electric quilt, EQ8, quilt design, virtual quilts