Finally, I am back on track! Hopefully.
My WW from 2 weeks ago needed to commemorate our trip to Key West.
Fantasy Fest in Key West is not just about the costumes and parades.
It's about the beads.
They throw the beads from the rooftops, from the balconies and from the floats.
People clamor for the beads.
I got my fair share while still remaining a lady!
To create this block,
I chose to use a photo I had taken of people throwing beads from a balcony
and use it as my "foundation" for construction.
I cropped and printed the photo on fabric. Printing the photo on fabric accomplished 2 things. It provided realism and relieved me of having to construct tiny little people!
To make it look more like a fabric block than a photo,
I fused and blanket stitched yellow fabric over the railing
Then I zig zag stitched over the vertical staves.
Then I added the large vertical posts.
And finished by covering the rest of the wood.
You can still see the people.
The next step was to add the hands reaching to catch the beads.
It was important to me that the hands be of many colors.
One of my favorite things about Key West is its diversity.
There are young people, old people, straight people, gay people,
and people of many different ethnicities.
This is the first "layer of hands"
One of my favorite parts of quilting is blanket stitching around appliques.
I could do it all day.
I used some of the beads that I snagged during the parades.
They are a little out of scale, but I wanted the actual beads on my block.
This is a block that will definitely remind me of that crazy week.
It's a week I will never forget.
