Technique of the Week # 20 - Notan Japanese Cut Quilt

Project hours: 2 hours
Design and materials: 1 hours
Execution: 1 hours

I learned about this awesome technique many moons ago on Jane Dunnewold's website.  She has a great tutorial here about the art of Notan, or light and dark design principles usually demostrated with papercutting.  This isn't about Scherenschnitte, German scissor cutting, though they can be similar.  The voids you leave in the paper, flipped outwards are an extension of the design in this technique.  Be sure to check out Jane's website for more info than I could possibly explain here.   
Papercutting is a great design source for quilting, and I was stumped at first to come up with a design that I wanted to actually cut from fabric.  This is one instance where my "Year of the Cephalopod" comes in handy, it's an easy design resource.  I was able to make this octopus design quickly, and I was happy with the results.  Most Notan is done in black and white for easy contrast, but to take the technique one step further I decided to use grey and pink.
Sorry it's not quilted yet, it's been a hectic week!