Moody Blue

It was so much fun to read your BLUE comments yesterday. There were so many good ideas. I had forgotten the song Blue Skies.. love that.

I can make more blue four-patch diamonds, but they read as too dark when lined up next to each other. I want those little diamonds to shimmer, and if they look like a row of diamonds of the same value (lightness/darkness) then they won't sparkle. I believe these small diamonds lead the viewer into these Diamond quilts, if they are too dark, they look like a hard edge; a dividing line, and that's not what I want. I WANT them to surge up and down from light to dark and from one color to another.

And I have to make sure they don't totally disappear. Right now there's a light yellow mini diamond in there that really isn't working. I have a slightly darker, warmer yellow (more like a yellow-orange) fabric standing by, but making those little four patch diamonds takes time, and hey, there are only so many hours in one day.

There's also a middle value medium sized blue diamond fabric that I am liking less and less. There are six of them in this quilt, and they just aren't doing anything for me. My problem is I have to replace them with something. I want something blue-ish, without a strong print and that will play nicely with the fabrics that surround it.

Here's an interesting observation. This is the very first diamond quilt I ever made. There is a bigger range in values of the giant diamonds. Some are very light and some are darker. But check out the medium sized diamonds. They are mostly "blenders" with no noticeable pattern to disrupt the design. And check out the background of the mini four patch diamonds. If you look closely, the backgrounds of these DON'T disappear as I have been trying to get the newer diamond quilts to do.  So this quilt "reads" as more soothing because pattern in this quilt is found ONLY in the large diamonds.

Now look back at the top quilt, whose working title is now Blue Rhapsody.  Should probably Blue Improvisational Jazz Band instead, shouldn't it? All those fabrics, all those prints, equals something MUCH HARDER to juggle. (Does not mean impossible, just trickier.)

There's a lesson here, and what it means to me is that I have to THINK about WHAT I WANT. Do I want a busier design, or a calmer one? There are no wrong answers. The top quilt is quite handsome, even in the poor light.

It's the difference between traditional long-simmered spaghetti sauce and pasta puttanesca. One has a long simmered flavor that's mellow, and the other one is fresher and spicier.  Both are good, the difference is simply whatever YOU are in the mood for.