Last week, I did some blocks for the Safelight quilts project that my guild’s local area is coordinating. I used a couple of pretty prints, so I could do blocks with florals and whites. Making a lot of half square triangles at once means allows the prints to be mixed between blocks.

I wanted to show the ladies what I had in mind. Here are the florals with white tone on tones.

One question asked is could white backgrounds with tiny prints be used. The answer is really no. As you can see in the quilt top below that I went ahead and used for another project, the prints in the lights distract from the clear background and medium prints for the scrappy part. There are also some mediums in the background areas, and this just muddies up the lines. If your eye goes to it, it probably shouldn’t be in the background section.

Here’s a close up example. The beige tone on the background in the middle left sticks out because it is too dark.

Changing this to a lighter square makes the lines better defined. In the overall quilt, this becomes more important.

You know, nothing says they all have to be this design. Our group was recently given a top to quilt and give away, and it is just the right size. I have a piece of fabric for the back that I was given by another person. I’m going to donate batting, quilt and bind it, and add it to the Safelight donations.

But, I’d love to have some help reaching our goals. Our plan is to make a few in reds with cream / ecru backgrounds.

Another goal is to make a few with blue and white.

Medium dark prints in everyday colors are great as well.

Our size is 12 inch blocks and we will set them in 5×7 configuration to fit the bunk style beds of the shelter. The quilt size is 60×84. If you’d like to help, download this pdf – Safelight Quilts. The pdf has the instructions for the blocks, the color goals and a mailing address for blocks. If you have a fully made top of any design in the right size (or a shade larger) that you don’t want, I’ll take it too.

Can you make a block for Safelight?