Thoughts on Design Star Challenge 2

In 1970 I was 5 years old.Actually on the back of this photo in Mom's handwriting I am 5 years 3 months old. 

The cut of fabric from Timeless Treasures I was given to use in Challenge 2 has a 60's to 70's groovy vibe going on in it.

Lots of color, lots of designs. Many, many possibilities to design around. My head was swimming with ideas--do I take some of the motifs and design around them, do I take some of the designs on the motifs and plan around that--or should I go with the emotion of the fabric piece and go with that....plus add in the requirement that 20% of the quilt needed to be the challenge fabric and this one had me in a quandry for a week!! I just couldn't settle on a final choice...

During my "Designing"--desperatly thinking phase--looking through 70's images and concentrating on the Peace, Love and Happiness symbols I came upon a memory of grade school. We had worksheets called "Happiness is..." We were to fill in the answer and write a story. Well now I was getting somewhere!!

This quilt is my answer and story to the "Happiness is.." McCall's Quilt Design Star Challenge2. It was a struggle to decide whether or not to go with a photo quilt this time. I decided instead to create my own block and concentrate on my piecing and technical skills--but still have a personal meaning to me. Even though I grew up in the 70's, I don't remember using the peace and love symbols much--but that smiling yellow face always makes me smile--which brought up the song by John Denver...

Sunshine on my shoulders...I don't know if I ever knew all the words or even understood any meaning to the song--I just liked listening to John Denver sing.

So to the drawing board on EQ7 software I went--along with some traditional tools. There were several false starts--I really wanted to try get a tiedye effect in the block--and in a test sample it did work--but was a bit too busy with the focus fabric--so back to the drawing board. Eventually in the moments before I started sewing the final product I finished my final drawing of the "Happy Place" block.  The journey was often a struggle with this quilt--but always a learning process.