AN EXERCISE IN GRADATION

My favorite part of quilting has to be playing with color and fabric.  That also has to be the hardest and most confusing part for me.

Even after all of these many years of quilting, I still struggle with choosing fabrics for a quilt.  I decided that I needed to study the properties and color of fabrics more in depth.  So, I set out on a small project knowing the danger of OVER-THINKING the whole process.

My self-imposed rules:

l.  I could only use fabrics that I already had in my scrap stash, with the exception of the black fabric needed to hold the whole experiment together. For some reason, I had very little black in the stash.
2.  I planned to choose 26 different fabrics in 7 different color ways being aware of the size of prints and their intensity and brightness.

3.  I could not repeat the fabrics -- that meant 182 different fabrics.  No problem -- I have a supply of scraps going back at least 30 years, all sorted into colors.

What I did:

I took each color way, cut the 26 pieces 1 1/5" X 2 1/5", and put them in some sort of gradation -- from light to dark or dull to bright.  Then, I sewed them together into strips of 26 pieces each; joined them with black sashing; and put a border on it.

What I learned:
1.  I have a hard time working with yellow and gold.  Evidently, I don't, however, have trouble BUYING yellow.  I had a bunch of yellow fat quarters never touched!  Also, just can't do purple easily.
2.  Red is the easiest for me to work with.  I picked the 26 fabrics in 10 minutes from lots of choices.  I didn't get into the pinks -- just gradated the reds from dark to bright and back again.  However, I included some pink in the burgundy strip.

3.   Greens can be tricky -- are they yellow-greens or blue-greens?  Also, blues -- are they red-blues or green-blues?

4.  I probably have more browns, tans, and beiges in my scraps than anything else; but I avoided true browns in this experiment.  Browns seem to be a non-color and expand a color way, not change it.  I did include some gold-browns in the yellow strip, and some red-browns in the rust strip.
5.  It can get boring fast without varying the size of prints.

6.  Yes, I have a tendency to over-think things!

7.  It can be a lot of fun playing with fabric.

If this experiment ever gets through the quilting stage, it will be bound with more of my red scraps.  Enough over-thinking for now!!

P.S.:  Check out my lifestyle blog, (click here), for a few pictures of Colorado Quilting Council's "Quilt-A-Fair" held this past weekend.

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Be Social Wednesday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

MORE BLOCKS FOR 'DEAR JEANNE' QUILT

Four more 5" blocks completed for my 'Dear Jane aka Dear Jeanne' quilt.

Garden Maze

Mother's Kitchen

Places to Go

I have to redo 'Places to Go' -- I goofed up somewhere -- funny right side!!

Quilting Connection

Here are the twelve blocks that I have done so far in a collage.

Hopefully, I can get to the quilt store (50 miles away) soon to check out ideas for sashing fabric.  I'm also thinking about different setting options.

Thirty-seven more blocks to do, plus one remake.  Slow going --- but that's O.K.!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social Wednesday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

THOUGHTS ON CHOOSING COLORS

I wrote previously about a couple of books by Jinny Beyer on drafting quilting patterns (click here).  Jinny was very instrumental through her books, quilts, and classes in the 1970s revival of quiltmaking.

Here is another one of her books, this one about color published in 1992.  It really goes into detail how she thinks about color and chooses fabrics for her quilts.

Even if you don't subscribe to her methods of shading, a dark color, and an accent color; this book is a visual treat if you love fabric.  All of the pictures really show you how any one color relates to another.
After taking one of her classes in the 1980s, I have used a modified version of choosing fabrics for my own multi-fabric quilts. 

 Below is one of my old work sheets from a quilt I made in 1989. I picked out a couple of fabrics (shown upper left in photo below) to use repeatedly to unify the quilt; then I chose fabrics from my stash to add.  I laid them out in gradation; then squinted my eyes to see if there was something that stood out in a bad way.  I remember I eliminated brighter yellows, and used the brighter red as an accent.

This is the quilt that resulted from that exercise.  It ended up having 96 different fabrics in it.

Starshine, 1989

For the current quilt I am working on, I also pulled fabrics from my stash in a color story I was considering.  I have modified the process even more as I now have more color confidence, but I still like to do the 'shading' thing.  It helps me see what fabrics I might be lacking; and I can take the cards along to shop, if necessary.

I'm anxious to see how this one turns out.  I had a miss-start as I first tried to work purple into the quilt (instead of the red), but I just didn't feel it.  I like it much better now -- maybe it was that I didn't have a lot of purple in my stash because I am not a purple person!  In the end, I usually go with any gut feelings.  
Color is so very personal!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social Wednesday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday

DEAR JEANNE UPDATE #2

My Dear Jane (Dear Jeanne) quilt has spoken -- the color story will be red, blue, and white/gray/black.

I finished four more 5" blocks for the quilt.

BREWSTER PATCH

CRAZY FRIENDS

CROSSING PATHS

GOLDEN MOMENTS

Here are the eight blocks I have completed so far in a collage.

Only 41 more to go, but no hurry as I'm trying to make this project last awhile!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social Wednesday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Quilt Shop Gal for Creative Goodness Party Friday

OLD-SCHOOL QUILTMAKING -- THOUGHTS ON DRAFTING QUILT PATTERNS

I've been working on designing and drafting the 49 patterns for my Dear Jane (aka Dear Jeanne) quilt.  Many of the patterns appear in the books I have authored, and are in the quilts I made for magazine publications.  But, I needed to resize them all into 5" blocks.

That made me think -- with all of the wonderful patterns and computer programs available on the market today, do newer quilters even learn about quilt classification and drafting techniques?

Granted, I was a math nerd in high school so when I got heavy into quilting in the 1970s, it was natural for me to draft my own geometric patterns.

In the early 1980s, I also took several classes from Jinny Beyer -- she was (and is?) a great teacher not only of technique, but of design.

The first book of hers that I owned was "Patchwork Patterns" (1979), then "The Quilter's Album of Blocks & Borders" (1980).  She re-released these at some point, and they should be available on amazon.com. These two books really teach the fundamentals of geometric quilt design and drafting.

Drafting of complicated geometric patterns may not have any application to the modern quilting movement; but if you are interested, her books are a great place to learn about traditional block design.

Patchwork was born of frugal necessity.  Some of us who were part of the quilting revival in 1976 learned from pioneer quilters.  Part of that lesson was frugality.  I still try to practice that.

 I have never made a quilt from a purchased pattern -- saved a lot of money over the years.  Thank you, high school geometry class and Jinny Beyer!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social Wednesday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

DEAR JEANNE UPDATE #1

I'm still working on the drafting of patterns to use in my Dear Jeanne quilt -- that part is easy.  But, I keep anguishing over a possible color story for the quilt.

Below, are three versions of the 'Sawtooth Star' (or Keepsake Star) that I've tried.  The yukky first one is already in the trash.  The second one is better, but I'm just not feeling the purple.  The third one I like.  Guess I'm just a red person and may break my self-imposed rule of no red in this quilt.  My Grandmother was always right -- she said every quilt needs some red in it.

I made two of the 'Court House Steps' block.  In my eyes, the red one wins (of course).

Here is the 'Calling Card' block in the two colorways.  In the purple version, I used one side of a blue dotty fabric; in the red one, I used the reverse side.

I also intend to include twelve 5" applique blocks.  So I experimented with this one (no red).  I've framed these pictures with a black border to kind of get the effect of the narrow black sashing I'm considering.

That's it for now.  I'm anxious to get going on this quilt.  Don't be surprised to see some more red in the future!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social Wednesday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Quilt Shop Gal for Creative Goodness Party Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

DEAR JEANNE

On my bucket list of quilts has always been a 'Dear Jane' quilt.  But, I'm going to call mine 'Dear Jeanne'.  In my line of women of my family there are four of us with the middle name of Jeanne; and hopefully, some day (but not too soon) there will be a fifth generation named Jeanne.  She can then have this quilt made by her Great Grandmother, Sally Jeanne.

So, I'm in the planning stages.  It will be in the format of a 'Dear Jane' -- a sampler of small blocks.  The original quilt contains 169 blocks (13 blocks by 13 blocks plus the border); I'll be doing well to make 49 blocks (7x7).  The designs were drafted 4 1/2" in size originally; mine will be 5 inches.  I'm in the design and drafting phase right now using designs of blocks I have used in quilts over the last 30 or so years rather than the designs from the original quilt.

I'm also pulling fabrics from my 30-year scrap stash to establish a color story.  I'm thinking purple, pink, blue, black, gray, and white.

I made a couple of blocks to sample the size and color.

Yuk!  Don't like this one at all.

I'll refine the color choices as I progress.  For instance, I'm throwing out that pink in the corners of the star block above.  Actually, I think I'll throw the whole block away!

So, here is the same block with different fabrics.

I'm liking the idea of the blues with the gray/white/inky black -- the purple not so much. 

 I'm dying to exchange the purple for red; but I promised myself no red or brown this time.  I feel it is so important to get the color story right for a sampler with scraps quilt to control the busyness.
It must be time to step back a couple of days; let the colors percolate; and the quilt might tell me what to do.  Maybe a teal instead of purple; or possibly break my rule of no red this time.

 Currently, I'm hand quilting a couple of tops; so there won't be any finish action on this blog for awhile.  I plan to take it slow on the 'Dear Jeanne' blocks, too -- maybe two or three a week.   You can expect some in-progress reports on those in the future.

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social Wednesday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday

MORE ABOUT THE QUILT SHOW

I promise this will be the last post about the quilt show of 37 of my quilts.

The opening reception was so much fun for me and my family.  So many of our classmates, old friends, relatives, and acquaintances came to see the show.  It was a wonderful time to share not only the quilts, but the experiences of growing up and attending school in our hometown during the mid-20th century.  In the 1950s, it was the iconic "Happy Days" small town.  We were very fortunate.

Some more pictures of the show:

The show runs until August 29th when we will go back to dismantle.

I'm joining the following:
Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social Wednesday
 Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday

BEHIND THE SCENES -- HANGING A QUILT SHOW

Over the years I have curated and/or hung quite a few quilt shows.  This has been the most challenging -- simply because there are no hanging devises in place that are conducive to displaying quilts, plus instructions that I was not to put any holes in the walls.  So, I have planned and planned and hope all goes well.

I was concerned that we would even be able to transport everything in our compact SUV the 100 miles necessary, but we had room to spare.  There are eight large tubs containing 37 quilts, 2 tool totes, hanging sticks and cardboard, etc. etc.

Ready to hit the road, and hope I didn't forget anything!!!

From a previous trip to scope out the venue, I knew this was what to expect (minus the displayed artwork).

When a gallery is not designed to hang quilts, here are some ideas.

  On the left below are my lifesavers when hanging if the venue has suspended ceilings.  These hooks clip into the cross bars of the ceiling, and quilts can then be hung with fishing line attached to poles through a hanging tube on the quilt.  I don't remember where I secured these clips 25 years ago, but I think they are still available as I'm told teachers use them in their classrooms for display.  Binder clips aren't the most pleasing aesthetically, but useful to attach quilts to the front of ledges.  If you can find bulldog clips thick enough, they look better.  And, finally cardboard cut to size of the small quilts; t-pinned; and then they are able to rest supported on ledges and easels.

The two quilts, left below, are hung from the ceiling.  The picture on the right below show two quilts clipped to the ledges, and a quilt mounted on cardboard suspended between the two ledges.

I had done a lot of preplanning, so the actual installation only took about three hours for 37 quilts in the two rooms of the gallery.

We go back tomorrow night for the opening reception.  I already know of a couple of small changes I'll make before we open.  It's hard for me to ever be satisfied!!!!!  I'm sure you know how it is with color-sensitive quilt people.  For instance, that orange/green quilt above HAS to be moved and exchanged with another quilt.  Oh, well!

I'm joining the following:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday

A NEW WEEK, A NEW PROJECT

The urge to start something new did not pass.

Back in THE day when I was very busy writing a couple of books which required lots of designing and making of quilts, I was always pressed for time.  Consequently, I was unable to explore further the possibilities of some of my favorite designs.

This is one of the quilts from my book, "Keepsake Signature Quilts", that I had wanted to try with different colors, fabrics, and without signatures.

KEEPSAKE STAR

Now is the time!!!

I have been wanting to make a small table topper to use for both patriotic and Christmas holidays.  So I went to my stash of scraps.  Pulled out the boxes with blues and teals shaded to green.  I found enough scraps to make each of the 25 stars in a different fabric.

 Added some red and some background beiges.

And got started.

Boy!  Was I in for a surprise?  This quilt looks so different from my original 'Keepsake Star' even though it is the same pattern.  

It's always amazing to me how different a quilt can look by using different fabrics and shifting the lights and darks.

Where have my stars gone?  The emphasis is now on an "X-factor" in the center instead of the stars. 

I was a little disappointed as I do love those stars.  Even after all my years of making quilts, I still can be surprised -- guess that's what keeps me at it.

The top is finished, and now ready for basting and some hand quilting.  It's growing on me even without its galaxy of stars!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday

A WEEK OF RANDOMNESS

I've had another week of busyness, but not much accomplished.

1.  I did manage to get my 'bright' quilt basted for quilting.  I worked on it last night for a little while, but couldn't get into a rhythm -- that happens to me sometimes when I haven't hand-quilted for a couple of months.  I'll try again tonight.

It has been suggested that I name this quilt 'Fireworks' or 'Fireworks through a Window'.  I like the idea.

2.  Lists and more lists -- I will hang my quilt show in three weeks.  So there are piles of quilts, etc. all over the house.  I'm NOT a procrastinator, which can be a detriment sometimes.  I'm always ready toooooooo early, so we live with piles and lists!

 3.  I can't help myself -- I'm thinking about a new project.  Starting to pull out fabrics from the scrap stash to determine a color plan.

Hopefully, this urge to start something new will pass.

Is anybody else spinning their wheels, too?

I'm joining the following:

Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Quilting Readers Garden for WIPS Be Gone Friday
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday

A LOOK INTO THE PAST!

Do you have those weeks when life happens and you just can't get into the sewing room to quilt?  That happened this week, so there is nothing new quilt-wise to report.  When that occurs, I can always pull out a quilt from the closet to show you.

 This is a little wall quilt, called Fandango, that I made in 1992.  It is machine pieced, hand quilted, and is 24" square.

It is made up of three different block patterns to produce secondary designs.

At the time, I was exploring and designing quilts that combined different blocks in one quilt.  This quilt and the pattern is published in the book, "Quilt Blocks X 9" by Bobbie Aug and Sharon Newman.

It's fun to look back and see all of the wonderful fabrics that were just exploding on the quilt scene at the time.  Among my favorites were all of the Jinny Beyer border prints.  To this day, they are still wonderful to use to frame a quilt.

Thanks for taking a look into my quilting past!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
What a Hoot Quilts for BOMS Away Monday

WEEK'S PROGRESS

 The top of my "bright" quilt is finished.  I must think of another name for it -- "bright" is certainly descriptive, but not very original!!

I hope to get it basted and ready to hand quilt in the next day or so.

My grandson commented that those were some 'weird' fabrics.  My family is used to my very traditional, muted quilts.  Guess this one shocked him.  My granddaughter, who has Bohemian tastes, liked it and is laying claim to it!

(I took these photos outside, and the colors are much truer than the pictures I took for the post a couple of weeks ago -- they were horrible!)

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
Quilt Shop Gal for Creative Goodness Party Friday
Quilter In The Closet for TGIF Friday