Marie's Optical Illusion Rule 8

This block is quite different from my others.  The 3-d doesn't show up as much as I had hoped--I think because I didn't have enough contrast between my two yellows.  The whole block turned out much different than I thought it would.  I didn't like it when I was finishing it, but when I stood back and looked at it I liked it a lot better.  I found the pattern at piecebynumber.com and it is called "arabesque".  

When I put 4 blocks together and made the center, it was really cool, but since it couldn't be a square block I had to add more to the top and bottom of the block.  (The picture ended up sideways when I posted it.)  It didn't work to put another set of four blocks because it made the block a little too tall and there was no focal point to the block so I had to get creative to finish it to the size it needs to be.  It's a little strange, but it surely would be a beautiful quilt if it was in multiples of 4 blocks.  Maybe I'll try it some time.

I love paper piecing because it is so accurate and neat.  I thought it was a fun rule. 

I was surprised to see how much larger my quilt is when I put it all together.  We're really making progress, and I'm having great fun with this!