muse monday: donuts!

Posted June 8th, 2009 by Laura West Kong and filed in Muse Monday
6 Comments
“MmMmMmM! Donuts!” —Homer Simpson

All joking aside, donuts have a great shape that can be adapted wonderfully into all kinds of quilts. The shape is simple and lends itself to quilts from precise to carefree … pieced or appliquéd … polka dots and stripes to represent candy sprinkles and icing drizzles or simply a collection of your favorite fabrics … echo-quilted or wildly embellished. The possibilities are as endless as the continuous loop of the donut itself.
Here I’ve turned the donut photo upside down and extended a few of the donuts outside the borders of a possible art quilt. It would also be fun to create a donut-themed quilt with actual see-through holes in the centers!

Next I attempted a more traditional quilt layout using all the colored donuts from the art quilt design above on a pieced checkerboard background. After I ran out of whole donuts I decided to use up the “cut” donuts as well, which gave a contemporary feeling to this design.
And lastly, variations on traditional blocks. Add another ring to Drunkard’s Path and you get Dunker’s Path. This block could be pieced in the usual way or appliquéd. These blocks would be fun to play with on the design board.
If curves are not your cup of joe then try this easy pieced block. By rearranging 4 blocks in different ways you can either get “X”s or “O”s (kisses or hugs). Make a quilt of “O”s to represent stylized donuts, or have fun creating your own unique layout. The diagonal lines of this block will bring movement and vitality to your quilt without having to set the blocks on point.

So grab a donut and a pad of paper and sketch yourself some sweet quilt doodles.

“Donuts, is there nothing they can’t do?” —Homer Simpson

6 Responses to “muse monday: donuts!”

  1. jovaliquilts says:
    June 8, 2009 at 6:30 am

    Such a fun playtime! What a great way to get inspired.

    Reply
  2. Julie ZS says:
    June 8, 2009 at 9:05 am

    Great inspiration! But now I want a donut to eat (and I don't really even like donuts), that first picture is too tempting…

    Reply
  3. Shannon says:
    June 8, 2009 at 10:53 am

    Did you celebrate National Donut Day last week? We did at Krispy Kreme. I was shocked at how much one donut cost $1.02 with tax. My daughter didn't get the right free donut so I "had" to get her another one. sticker shock!!

    Reply
  4. glenna says:
    June 8, 2009 at 3:48 pm

    Cute idea, but now my sweet tooth is killing me1 :-)
    Thanks for the twitter follow.

    Reply
  5. laura west kong says:
    June 16, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    Hi Shannon,
    I didn't even know there was a National Donut Day! We've also ended up with more donuts than we needed at Krispy Kreme when the free donut was not the right one. =(^_^)=

    Reply
  6. Lynda says:
    June 23, 2009 at 10:40 am

    I love the idea of a Dunker's Path quilt!

    Reply

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