Day: March 29, 2006

More on Judy Martin’s Scraps

In my post called “Happy Geranium Block Dots,” I paraphrased Judy Martin’s theory on making quilts with scraps. Here is the actual quote:

“When you make a quilt from 35 identical blocks cut from the same four fabrics, you’re done with the creative part after the first block. The next 34 blocks are just pushing a needle. When you make a scrap quilt, you get to savor the creative parts and prolong the artistic decision making. Throughout the process of cutting and piecing, you are making creative choices.”

I love that phrase ‘pushing a needle.’ It makes me think about thte quilt work that I do, huh?

Anyway, I like to make quilts with different blocks and I think that Judy Martin explains why with her description of scrap quilts above. The reason for enjoying scrap quilts is the same for sampler quilts.

I think it is worthwhile to read some of the text of quilt books. I am certainly guilty of buying books and then only looking at the pictures. If you read the books, you come up with some gems sometimes.

Color as a Neutral??

WARNING: If you plan to read this blog entry, you have to be prepared to think outside the box. I plan to play with your mind and disregard most of the ‘accepted’ color rules. I will also have more questions than answers.

Definitions for this post only:
Color: notblack, grey, beige, brown, tan, white
Neutral: black, grey, beige, brown, tan, white

I have been thinking color as a neutral. The basic question is: can a color be a neutral. Related to this question is another question: can a color act like a neutral?

I have made a number of quilts that do not use a neutral as a background or main color.

The Punk Rock Quilt uses hot pink/fuschia as the background color. In this case, my test didn’t work so well. I like the quilt, but as far as using fuschia as a neutral, it didn’t work. I think the failure had to do with the proportion of pink to black/white.

Additionally, if you use enough of a color, will the ‘rules’ of hot/cold colors force it to not recede or not jump forward? Again, is this a proportion thing?

I actually think proportion may be the key. I haven’t had time to further investigate, so stay tuned. Comments are welcome.