While this certainly won’t be a comprehensive post on everything there is to know about color and fabric choices, I thought I could pass along a little information while it was fresh in my mind.
Finished: Foundation Pieced Block
Above is my completed foundation pieced New York Compass. If I were doing this block over again, I would not choose that specific aqua or that red for the small second foundation pieced strip (next to the corner quarter circle). In the grand scheme of the quilt, it will be fine, but this close up it really takes away from the fine piecing of those spiky triangles. The reds, especially run into each other.
That second foundation pieced part is tricky for my particular version, because my quilt is a two color quilt. I can’t introduce additional colors into the blocks at this late stage and maintain the integrity of my plan. I could have paid more attention to the particular reds and aquas I was choosing and chose fabrics for that small foundation pieced strip that stood out more against the red dot of the spiky triangles.
My mistake?
I grabbed fabrics and started cutting. I did not look at all the fabrics together before cutting. I didn’t try different fabrics to see what the change in look would be. I didn’t make my visual decisions visually. This lesson is a good reminder.
This year’s shape is a 3.5″ square and I have an idea to do a kind of waterfall effect. Stay tuned to see what actually happens!
I had two fabri-lanches in the past few days, so I finally started pressing fabrics and cutting the squares for Fabric of the Year 2013.
There are fabrics for projects in process and also fabrics that just came up on the ‘to press’ pile. I might need to take a day off work that I dedicate to pressing fabric.
One of the things I love about this quilt is that I get to visit with my fabrics again as I sew the top together. I get to say hello and they get to tell me not to forget them and how they can be used.
I also love the anticipation of finishing this piece and hanging it on my wall and looking at it more often, walking by it every day and remembering the fabrics.
I finished the top yesterday and am very pleased with it.
I probably could have finished the back as well, but finishing this top is some kind of miracle, because of how slow I was moving. Working on it, I think it helped to keep my joints a bit more limber. It could just be a perception, though.
I have been a bit unwell and not up to a lot of contemplation about the meaning of this quilt. I thought that a slideshow of the progress might be just the thing to satisfy you. Enjoy!
I may cut a few more, but these are probably the last patches for FOTY 2012 you will see until I sew. I made an effort to press and cut some more pieces. With TFQ’s help I made a little progress.
I sorted all of the patches I cut into color groups, so I am pseudo ready to place the patches and then sew. I may not get to sewing this weekend, though I do hope to do enough placement to make some progress sewing.
I had a good amount of time off over the holidays. I was able to spend some time pressing fabric and cutting pieces for this project. It is a meditative process and was a good way to transition from the difficult last quarter at work to vacation.
The end is drawing near, so I need to speed up the process or work with what I have.
One thing I like about this is that looking at the fabric patches and thinking about the projects on which I am working as well as the new fabrics.
I haven’t taken any kind of inventory of pieces that I have. If I do I can fix any problems, if I don’t it will be a design challenge.
While I am making progress on preparing to sew the FOTY 2012, I still have a pile of fabric to press, not to mention the other pile I have to wash AND press. There is no way for me to get it all done, but I will get as much done as possible before I start sewing at the CQFA Retreat in January.
I do enjoy this process, however. I like seeing these photos and thinking about what I made from the fabrics.
I have FOTY 201o hanging in my hallway and I keep walking by thinking “I need to find that fabric; it would be perfect with X project.” That is really fun.
Time flies when you are having fun. I am enjoying musing over possibilities for this project. I didn’t think I would since I like to get sewing quickly, but I am determined to enjoy this fabric selection process and it, as it turns out, is not difficult.
I bought a couple of fabrics last week when most of the network was down at work, except the Internet. I did do work, really, I did – more than others, I think – but at some point, I couldn’t get into my email and there wasn’t any new work coming in. After you clean your desk and read all your piled up magazines, contracts and make a ton of phone calls that have been put off, what else is there to do but buy fabric? 😉
Dot Background?
The fabrics came yesterday, which was perfect timing, because I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and they made me happy. I was able to play a bit and I even washed a couple of the fabrics.
There is always a surprise when I buy multiple fabrics and the turquoise and chocolate dot on white (middle of photo, right) was one of those happy surprises. I really like it and think if it had purple instead of the chocolate, it might be a perfect background for the stars. Still, I like it, but the chocolate does stand out a little more than I would like. I suppose I could add chocolate to the entire piece to add a bit of spark. I’ll have to try some out and see what I think.
I have to make visual decisions visually, so I will make a sample star, as well, before I decide.
Leafy Background?
Really, there is no shortage of blues at my house, but I seem to crave the calm feeling they project, so I keep buying more. The three blues on white in the middle are also background candidates. I didn’t even buy them with that in mind, but thought of it when I saw them.
I almost bought more of the leafy V&Co print without even trying it. I stopped myself, because I want to make a sample and make sure the leafy blues and greens, don’t bleed into the other fabrics, destroying the crispness of the stars. I do think the leafy print would be a bold choice, because of the leaves.
Leaf and Dots
I think the large dot on the middle left would be a pain. I think the pooling of the color at the bottom (top in the photo) would make it hard to use as a background. I do think it will work as an adjunct fabric for a star. The turquoise squares on white are a more conventional choice and might be a good one to fall back on in a pinch.
I keep thinking of this see-through star from someone else’s quilt in the quilt-a-long Flickr group when I think of the background. I don’t think I want to use a solid, but I do like the effect of looking through the star to the background, so I want to be sure and choose something that will help achieve that effect.
Testing the waters
These fabrics all look good together and I think any of them would be fine, really. I think the leafy print looks good with the purples and the greens are similar, too.
At the moment, I am completely ignoring the purples I want, and need, to add. I like that Chicopee purple, but I need something that is a more bluey purple as well, like the background of the Philip Jacobs print. I’ll keep working at the fabric selection.
I have to admit that I thought about completely changing direction and going with pinks. Perhaps I will do two of these at the same time…except that that would mean I would have to pick background fabrics for two quilts.
I started talking about this project in a post a few days ago.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Yesterday was fun, but I am ready to get back to normal blogging. It was exhausting trying to keep up with the questions and the comments. Look for winners and more tomorrow.
I have been cutting and pressing fabric a little at a time. I realized that I needed to get my act together if I am going to work on this quilt at Retreat at the end of January. I do enjoy looking at the patches on my design wall and thinking about where I bought the fabric, what project I was working on when I cut the smaller squares and future projects I am planning.
I did find that this process was good for putting fabrics together that I might not thought of putting together. I got a Chicopee solids pack (Thanks, Temptress Adrianne!). While those fabrics were waiting to be pressed, they were on top of a large floral by Philip Jacobs and I noticed they all went really well together. There was another dot fabric that was perfect, too. Not sure what I will make, but something.
I have a big stack of fabric to press and cut and another big stack to wash, press and cut. Not my favorite tasks, but not horrible either. Great for calming me down in stressful situations. Too bad they won’t give me the space to set up an ironing board, iron and cutting mat at work. 😉
The time is really flying by. I was thinking about ordering my turkey next week (maybe the week after). I bought some pumpkin for Thanksgiving and Christmas pies last week in my attempt to get ahead of the major shopping in the next few weeks. I am behind. Behind in blogging, my house feels like a wreck, behind in cutting new and used fabric. Everything.
Case in point: it has been almost two months since I last posted FOTY fabrics. The last blog post was in late August! Gracious!
Still I was able to get some new fabrics cut up. I was also able to scrounge some squares from fabrics I have been using. Are you able to see the projects I was working on in this group?
I see some blocks I made, a journal cover I made and a few fabrics slated for journal covers I will make. One reason I love this project is that it is like a memory book in fabric.
My camera seems to be working again. I bought a new, smaller SD card and the camera is now saving photos to the SD card again. If only I had known (remembered? this is ringing a bell) to not try and cram 4GB of memory into my poor 10 year old camera, I probably would have been fine.
What do you think? I took the picture of the Bali Cracker (crazy name, BTW!) and only cropped. I didn’t adjust the color or anything.
Yes, retail therapy was my prescription on Monday after work and this Cracker came today with sister, Pop. I think I will make another Stepping Stones quilt from these. I just have to find some yardage, though I think I could find some turquoise in my fabric closet that would work just fine.
I don’t want to get into a fight with people about the right and wrong of Boy Scouts, especially after the latest scandal to follow the most recent scandal. Sigh. The Young Man is a scout, as you might have guessed. I find it to be a good program for boys who are not sports oriented. The national organizational leadership, IMO, needs some attitude adjusting, shall we say.
Moving on.
This group has come out with the new merit badges for the year. They are:
Both are useful skills, but I think that sewing would be much more useful than welding. The BSA needs to, SERIOUSLY, consider a sewing merit badge. Sewing on a button is a useful skill, don’t you think? Running a sewing machine? Reading a pattern to make a fanny pack or a sleeping bag? Dealing with denim, Gortex and ripstop nylon fabric? I know that many artists weld and it is a sign of power, but really, welding over sewing? Sheesh.
Also, I painted my toenails purple. Now I keep getting startled every time I see them.
My little sister (taller than me, BTW) is back from France. With her came some presents. I have a nice sister. 😉
The black Eiffel Tower print is the one I picked out when I bought my Kindle cover off of Etsy. I like it.
I have an idea for a quilt that I want to make for Lil Sissy, but haven’t found the right fabric. I don’t think Eiffel Tower fabric would work, but we will see. I almost used Hello Luscious, but she is not much of a pink girl and that line has a lot of pink.
The fabric in these quilts cemented my friendship with TFQ, though we were well on our way already. 😉
The idea of the series is to play with ratios of color in such a way that subtle shifts in color or fabric changes the feeling of a quilt, though the designs are essentially the same for all the quilts in the series. These quilts started my experimentation with color, which I continue working at today. These quilts are the precursors, in a way to the Fabric of the Year quilts.
These quilts made me into an art quilt maker.
I bought the first batch of fabrics at a shop in Seattle called In the Beginning, which has since closed. At the time, I was in Seattle for a conference. I had been there briefly the month before on vacation, but didn’t get to do much quilty stuff. The day I purchased the fabric was a gorgeous, bright, sunny day and the sun was spilling into the shop lighting up these fabrics, which were arranged in rainbow order. I wanted them all. I was slightly horrified, but also excited at this visceral reaction, the strong desire to possess all of these fabrics. I think I even saw the series in my mind almost fully formed as I looked at the fabrics.
Pointillist Palette #2: Ice
I bought some of each. I cut thousands of squares (WAY before Accuquilt cutting systems) and began sewing them into blocks. Though, I didn’t know it at the time, I did some chunking on these pieces.
I also paid attention to the use of color, which I had never done before. ‘Sun’ is much warmer feeling than ‘Ice’. I think ‘Ice’ is whiter and has a feeling of ice crystals or snow …. or something.
I had sense enough to concentrate the larger patches on the outside of the quilts to give a sense of borders. Definitely a happy accident, though I could have planned it. I just don’t remember.
The fabrics, by Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka, have multiple colors on each piece of yardage – the colors gradate from dark to light or medium to dark or medium to light. There are many more tones and values that can be used than is obvious when you see some of the fabric. I didn’t realize this until I had the fabric out of the store.
Pointillist Palette #3: Flower
In Pointillist Palette #3: Flower, I started to introduce other fabrics. The idea was that the last quilt (#6) would have barely any PP fabric in it.
The fabric I added was a group of larger scale reproduction flower fabrics. I think they were reproduced from a museum collection. I cut them up, sometimes fussy cutting, and included them with my Pointillist Palette fabrics.
I also started collecting other fabrics I thought I would use as the series went on.
Pointillist Palette #4: Night (WIP)
Pointillist Palette #4: Night is still in progress and has been for a long time. I took that back of #1 apart to get the black aboriginal looking fabric out of it, so I could use it for the top of #4. People, who shall remain nameless, thought I had lost my mind. I needed a certain fabric and when I made the back of #1, I didn’t know I would need the fabric for #4. I had to make the right decision for the design of the quilt.
I pieced a few squares together recently and feel much more interested in working on this piece. I wonder if I can continue what I started so long ago?
I don’t really remember my ideas for #5 or #6. I may have notes and drawings somewhere. If not, perhaps this 6 piece series will turn into a 4 piece series?
All of the pieces are machine pieced, machine quilted (I did it myself!) and made using commercial fabrics.
I noodled around enough so I didn’t have time to write a book review, so here is an update the cutting for the Fabric of the Year 2012 quilt. It has been nearly a month since the last update.
For those of you have forgotten or were never in the loop, the rectangles are new fabrics – lots of these are from Quiltology – and the squares are fabrics that were in my stash that I have just recently used.
I am having fun cutting into fabrics that have been around for awhile. That is another good aspect of the donation tops – fabrics get their day in the sun and I get some space in my fabric bins.
I’ll get my act together over the weekend and get you some meaty posts to sink your teeth into. Stay tuned.
