Day 106 – Blind Eyes

I was going through some old photos the other day of my middle school years and remembering the funky clothing, purple hair, and very loud music of my youth.

While I’ve grown mostly out of that rebellious phase, I still love a lot of the designs and artwork indicative of that heavy metal subculture.

So let’s bring a few of those edgier designs to our quilts starting with Blind Eyes!

I used to be really into eye symbols and even once made a collage of eyes cut out from magazines and pasted them all over the side of a wine bottle.

It was pretty weird and after finishing it, well, there’s just not much you can do with an eyeball covered wine bottle so it got trashed and I eventually found other forms of amusement that were a little less weird and pointless.

Inspiration – I’ve been playing with the football shape since I think it has loads of potential. Unfortunately, I think it’s one shape that’s easier to create consistently if it’s marked.

You can get away with lopsided circles and ovals, but the points of a football shape really make inconsistencies in this design stand out.

If you do prefer to freehand it, just take your time and practice a bit before launching full tilt on your quilt top. It might save you a bit of seam ripping!

Difficulty Level – Advanced. Like I said, the football shapes are not the easiest to estimate, but the circle and swirl within the eye is pretty easy. Concentrate on forming your football shapes first and the rest of the design will come easily.

Design Family – Stacking. This is a design that will work just about anywhere on your quilt top. Just watch out for the weird areas on the edges where you’ll have to wiggle in half eyeballs in order to fill holes.

Directional Texture – All directions. This design has a nice all over texture, but the spirals in the eyes definitely stand out, so I wouldn’t stitch this in the middle of a landscape quilt for example, where it might look a bit strange.

Suggestions for Use – I’m thinking this design has loads of potential in single rows, almost like Chain of Pearls. The football shapes would be much more regimented and easier to judge distances, which would make the whole design easier to quilt.

If you placed it in rows, this design would work great in your sashing. Definitely put it where you want to show off a bit.

Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,