Flowerboxes

Here is a sneak peek at the pink quilt mentioned below. (The blocks are currently just lying next to each other, so the little ones have to overlap a bit to line up with the big ones. They'll look more regular when they're actually sewn together.) I haven't settled on a border fabric just yet, although I am leaning toward red-violet. (The blog's deep pink background does seem to work fairly well too.)



You could imagine doing a pattern like this for a Good Wishes Quilt (using the wish fabrics in the centers of the blocks) although I think you would probably have to provide the participants with color guidelines for it to work well.

P.S. Yes, those are the aggravating red and green blocks to the right in the photo.

Quilt sighting

I always try to photograph my quilts before I pack them up to go. Sometimes sending them away makes me a little mopey, so I like to make a few visual souvenirs before it is too late. (Of course I would prefer photos of the quilts with their recipients, but that rarely occurs to people, and I shrink from asking. Somehow it feels terribly awkward, like asking for a thank you or something. It is just simpler to snap the pictures myself.)

One of the quilts that I didn’t end up photographing was one that I finished for my friend B. She began the project herself, but since she had a young baby at the time, she had difficulty finding time to come sew. Finally she lost steam altogether. So I dug through my stash to find border fabric, and finished the quilt for her. I was really pleased with the way it came out.

At the time I rationalized that it wasn’t my project to begin with so it didn't make sense to take a snapshot. But later I wished I had one anyway...

Yesterday, we went to a birthday party for B's now 5 year old son. When I came into the living room, something brightly colored caught my eye – and I saw that it was the quilt! It was a real treat, kind of like running into an old friend after years apart. I was thrilled!

Who knew that on a little boy's birthday, I'd end up getting a present too? :)

The art of writing headlines

I ran across an article on the way that news organizations are learning to rewrite headlines for their online articles to make them more search engine friendly.

I wonder if this is something we ought to take into consideration on this blog too?

Not that this means anything of course...

but we dropped our completed paperwork into Adoption Services on Friday, and on Saturday, my nephew picked a ladybeetle out of my hair...

Troubleshooting a quilt layout

Currently the floor of my studio is strewn with fabrics and blocks for not one but two quilts.

Why am I making two in parallel? Inspired by a piece by Kaffe Fassett (the world's most fearless user of color), I started working on a quilt that uses a complementary color scheme. (Technically I suppose it might be more correct to term it something like a double split complementary scheme since I am using not only complementary colors but also the colors on either side of them in the color wheel.)

This is hard to do well, especially under poor lighting conditions. (Yes, I have daylight bulbs. No, they are not accurate.) I got stuck and couldn't get a handle on what I needed to go forward, so I pushed these blocks aside aside, grabbed some of the leftover reds and their friends, and began working on another quilt.

The second quilt includes red-violet, red, red-orange, and orange, with pink (a tint of red) as the starring color. It’s been remarkably painless to make. It’s simple and happy and playful, and really a very likeable look. (Sandie, it reminds me very much of the gerberas at Aimee's wedding!)

Imagine taking these cheerful colors (sans pink) and throwing them into a pit of greens (blue-greens, greens, and a few yellow-greens). That's the first (nemesis) quilt. The contrast is so striking and so frustrating!

I’ve been trying to think of what I can do to make it better. This is the current eye-popping layout (simplified to show only a single red and green; you'll have to imagine variations there).



Last night I went to my favorite book on color and found some keys that may unlock what's happening here and give me some ideas on what I can try to fix it.

Magenta and green are nearly equal in value on the color wheel. Thus, their partnership emphasizes the optical intensity they can promote with each other. [no kidding] For visual ease, one color must be made the dominant partner…. Once you choose the dominant color, use the subordinate one to help give the design visual balance. (Joen Wolfrom, The Magical Effects of Color, p 34)

As you can see in the above sketch, the colors do appear in equal amounts. Based on what Wolfrom counsels here, I should try alternating these four-patch blocks with a patch that includes red or green, so that this one color predominates.

[U]sing complementary colors at full strength… can make a harsh visual statement that completely overwhelms the eye. Therefore it is important to control the strong pure colors with large areas of toned colors – those that have been grayed to a variety of intensities in the complementary family. (pp 33-34))

Here is one option that takes her advice into consideration. I have used the four-patch units as part of a larger block, and then have alternated this block with a plain green square.



Easier to look at, isn’t it? I don’t know that this is "it" but it does seem to be going in the right direction...