I'm halfway through my block of the month rehab. My 2007 block of the month quilt was admitted to rehab last month because of a growing and worrying addiction to yucky greens and ugly prints. Together we've been working on finding substitutes for these illicit substances. And I'm pleased to say that the quilt is making progress.

the "Spools" block before

the "Spools" block after

the "Kansas Star" block before

the "Kansas Star" block after

I've replaced the offending green prints in these two blocks with a fabulous Martha Negley print called "tree rings" that I just love. It's bright and quite different from the greens, but I really think it works for a couple of reasons. The yellow is certainly in the same family as the green and this print has those sweet little touches of green hidden between the tree rings. But those original greens kinda just died there (imho) whereas this yellow really pops, actually highlighting more of the structure of the blocks.

a little yellow goes a long way

Now, yellow can be a dangerous thing because it's a very strong color drawing your eye towards it and away from the rest of the elements in the block. What I think is so perfect about this yellow print is that it's primarily made up of the white tree ring circles which recede back into the background. This cuts down a lot of the yellow, giving you just enough yellow to highlight the piece but not so much as to overwhelm the rest of the block. I think my favorite thing of all though is seeing the circular print within the angular shapes in the blocks. See how it works with the round cherry print in the spools block? Too cool!

Alright, enough block therapy for today. Rehab will continue this weekend...