Mayan Blocks

Finally, a finished quilt! I started designing this in October, inspired by various contemporary quilt designers. I then saw a picture of some wall decoration (maybe even poured concrete!) at a Mexican resort and played with many combinations of the various units. The wall had dark, medium and light areas depending on how deep the carving was, and I tried to interpret that in fabric.

Although I had many sketches, when it came time to sew, I was still improvising: cut and sew a few units, put them on the wall, decide what type of units to do next and how much space to put in between. So although the piecing is quite simple, it took a fairly long time to do.

The other interesting thing, to me at least, is how I react to the colors here. I still see this as a predominantly brown and beige quilt. In reality, the lightest batiks are pale yellow and pink with touches of blue and green. One medium is just shades of brown, but the other is golden and rosy and mossy green. The darks are plum, and the background probably has all of those colors combined. It's not my usual bright colors, for sure, but I like it. In fact, if the recipient doesn't like it, it looks awfully nice on my brown leather couch!