Allie's "Chunk" Method

While Cathy was here I pieced the two blocks I'm taking to Sharon Boggon's 3-day workshop in April... One I wanted the inspiration focus to be this photo taken by my granddaughter in Morocco. I shared a couple days ago the steps I took to edit it a bit...

Then the search began for fabrics for fabrics... The printed piece was a scarf I found Tuesday in a thrift store... Cathy K. and Maureen F. donated some of the oranges... the greens I had. I will add blue accents with stitching and beads..

Last year when I pieced my AAQ entry I used a method on Allie's blog and she called it the "the chunk method" and it's in her new book which is rapidly selling out.... I loved it because I ended up with lots of irregular patches and endless seams.. The first step is cutting lots of "chunks" as seen in this photo... I arranged them on the block about where I wanted them and of course not one ended up where I planned. Then you start seaming them in pairs and then pairs of pairs, etc... My patches ended up all about the same size so the next time I try this method I will strive for more variety in the size of the patches..

But after it was done and basted to muslin foundation I was happy with it... The random irregular look is so different from what I've always done... So now I have it set out and will begin collecting embellishments to use on it.... I intend it to be a wall hanging with a lush fringe of beads and brass bells. All the seam treatments will be geometric..

Although Allie calls it the "chunk" method I refer to it as Allie's "chunk, dump and clump" method. The second block I did my usual method and I will share that tomorrow.