Patterns

August 1, 2012

Tetris Block 3

Week 3 of the Tetris QAL and it just keeps getting better. This week I had a harder time switching Melissa's colors over to my color scheme. It just got confusing for a bit between shapes and colors. I should have made my little color chart right from the beginning. Plus, it would have helped if I had kept her blue and green my blue and green. But alas I didn't start out that way so now just need to be very careful about which color goes where without getting confused by the shapes.


I know this might seem too exacting, but I'm determined to play the game for real. No switching shapes, colors or the order to suit the design. That way I have to work with what I'm given and have less control. Not something I'm used to.

But I must admit I was awfully tempted to cheat this week. I did more layouts than in the previous 2 weeks and at one point came up with a way to fill all the squares . .

Did anyone else notice that there were 2 different L shapes? The blue and orange L's read like an uppercase L no matter which way you turn them. The last 2 L shapes in green and red are the mirror image or backwards L's. Maybe this shape has been flipped before and I haven't noticed?

Oops. Just checked and sure enough, for week 2 the L shapes were flipped. Oh well . . . I'm learning. That's what I get for using the shapes in Illustrator and assuming they were all the same just in a different order. Probably won't bother to remake the block but at least I know to pay more attention. 

Anyway, if only that last red L shape (my dark blue L shape here) had been flipped I could have filled all the spaces. I even considered flipping it just so I'd have a full block. It would look like this:


But once I looked at the 3 blocks together I realized how much the empty spaces are adding to the overall design . . . so no need to break the rules after all. Here's my block for week 3. Haven't sewn it up yet so this is my photoshop image. Yes I have 4 empty spaces. I'm definitely not going to win any real Tetris games that's for sure.


Now that there are 3 blocks, I'm beginning to see the whole quilt top come together and have some ideas for how I might finish it up. Glad this is a quick 6 week QAL because the end is in sight and I'm excited for the final results.

This is my WIP of the week too. I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday's for the first time. Hop on over and take a look at what everyone is working on.