We were gone all last week at Family Camp and now we’re back.  Schnap, the co-quilter, stayed with friends of ours and had a great time, but she’s back too now and ready to play.

I happened upon a blog posting by Bumblebean’s Victoria Findlay Wolfe that intrigued me.  So despite my vow to not start new projects before finishing off some of the myriad incomplete ones, I dove in.  You see, Bumblebeans has this cool concept and side blog called 15 Minutes Play which I interpret as “Get going (at least for 15 minutes) and make a block!”…  Prone to over-thinking, this is appealing as a way to stretch.

“Play” is the operative word.  Bumblebeans blogged about some Matisse quilt blocks she made and suggested a quilt a long,  with improvisationally pieced blocks inspired by art by Matisse, and off I went.  I decided to be inspired by this image.

After about 3 hours – not 15 minutes – I came up with this.

It’s a small piece and there’s still quilting to do, and perhaps a border, but I’m pleased so far to have created something approximating the figure in the painting entirely without a pattern or blocks or measuring.

Meanwhile, Schnap got down to business playing as I was attempting to take pictures.