The "All That Jazz" Quilt

I've been thinking about what I want to do with my block for the "All That Jazz" quilt. I can't start on it for another week or so as I have two more Christmas gifts to complete but I wanted to begin getting my ideas together.

My first instinct was to work with the Mardi Gras theme. That would certainly give me loads of options for sparkly things like beads and sequins. But I did have to remind myself that it wasn't just Louisiana that was affected by the hurricane. Mississippi was devastated as well by storm.

I decided to do some Googling and found out that Louisiana and Mississippi shared the same state flower, the Magnolia. How cool is that?! And, I have a Magnolia tree in my backyard! So I know very well what they look like!

Considering that "All That Jazz" is the project title, I have to get some music in there too. My mom threw some ideas at me, my dad reminded me that Louis Armstrong was a popular Jazz artist and my friend Chris had some ideas for me too. But I somehow can't settle on anything yet except for wanting to use the Magnolia flower on it.

I think the first step and best option is to get my block pieced and go from there. I have two color options in mind. The first being the Mardi Gras colors - gold, green and purple. That might be my way of working Mardi Gras into my block without limiting it only to that theme. My second color options are bright yellow, hot pink and electric blue. Yes, I like to work with a limited palette rather than just grabbing a bunch of different colors and seeing what I end up with. I'll have to pull out my stash and see what clicks in my mind as I play with my fabrics.

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions for my block, please feel free to leave me a comment.

In the meantime, I'll complete the last of my Christmas gifts (sorry I can't post photos until after the holidays) and then I'll get started on my "All That Jazz" block.

Sharon, our organizer from In A Minute Ago Blog has set up a Flickr Group so we can post photos of our blocks as we work on them. If you'd like to follow everyone's progress, click here.