Optical Illusions Blog Tour and a Giveaway!

Welcome to my day on the Optical Illusions: Innovative Designs for the Modern Quilter blog tour! I'm so excited to share with you my quilt that I made for the book. We were asked to contribute a quilt that has some kind of optical illusion in the design. So without further ado, here's my quilt!

3-D Diamonds by Jenifer Dick

My influence was Victor Vasarely, a pioneer in the op art movement of the 1960s. I saw his poster, London Art Gallery online and was immediately drawn to it. I liked how the squares slowly morph into diamonds. I knew I didn't want to create and exact replica of the poster - although I was tempted! I started playing around with squares and diamonds on EQ. That led to tumbling blocks! But I wanted the squares to be represented, too. So I framed the diamonds with squares. I used gradations of the palest blue for the squares, and that became the background. To me it looks like the diamonds are floating in the sky. I was tempted to call the quilt Lucy! (Get it?)

I made a paper-piecing template for the diamonds to keep it simple. I normally don't paper piece, but it would have been more difficult to cut the diamonds with a ruler and rotary cutter since the angles aren't standard quilters angles! It also is fabulously quilted by the ever-talented Tia Curtis, who also has a quilt in the book.

I had such a good time with this challenge! And probably the best thing about it was it introduced me to the world of op art. There are so many images that can be translated into fabric. I see a series of mid-century inspired quilts in my future!

I invited my friend, Trisch Price, author of Accentuate the Negative, to review the book! Head to her blog and see what she thinks of the book and to enter her contest too!

Tomorrow is the last day of the tour. These three great bloggers will be reviewing the book and giving away more great stuff. Don't forget to check them out!

Jessica Toye www.jesstoyequilts.wordpress.com/blog-2/  

Jacquie Gering www.tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com 

Shea Henderson www.emptybobbinsewing.com  

Before you leave, leave a comment and I'll draw a winner of a copy of the book on Monday!