Fun Stuff & Fixes

 If, when you look at your quilt, and you see stuff that bugs you, you should fix it. (You really should. DON'T fix it, and it will bug you every single time you look at the quilt for the rest of its existence.

Take these two green dragonflies, for instance. They are too much the same too close to each other, and they create a focal point on that block that I do not want to be there. 

It was a simple fix, and now it looks better.

SOMETIMES you get ideas and you should act on them. Or at least try them out. With one of the background fabrics looking decidedly like outer space, when I noticed this scrap in my stash...

I thought I could fussy cut it to get a couple of the cute rockets and stars in a block.

Great block! Just what I was after.

Until I looked at in on the design wall when I stepped across the room. It was the biggest, brightest red orange thing on the wall, and my eye went RIGHT TO IT. (sigh)

I wanted the curious viewer to see it, but I didn't want to make the rockets "hit you over the head" obvious.

This is much better.

 I am going to use the little satellite in another block!

Regular readers know how much I like to fool my viewers. The light green center of the block on the right is one example. It clearly isn't white, or light blue, but there are enough light values in the quilt so the casual viewer might not notice it is green right away. I'm not quite convinced, but so far the presence of this light green in the quilt doesn't bother me. 

But look again at the fabric surrounding the green in the block above. It isn't black, and it isn't dark blue. It is a purplish brownish color. I am going to put it in the quilt anyway. Purple is close to the dark blue and the blue black I am looking for in this quilt, and more importantly this fabric exhibits another one of those color rules you know, but probably never put into words. It is this: Value trumps color. If you get a fabric close enough to the chosen value of another fabric, it will look like it belongs there, and not disturb the eye.

If you were in one of my classes, you would have heard me say, (if you, for example, said, "I can't use this, the color doesn't match...") "Don't be so darned literal. Back up. If you can't tell the difference from six feet away, your viewer won't either." This is another example of how you can get your stash to work for you You do not need to have a room full of fabric to find the right one to use. You just have to look at your fabric creatively.

I was at Quilted Threads last summer, and while I was waiting in line (six feet apart, masked), I happened to look over to where a lady and her husband were holding a pile of blue fabrics and conversing over a pattern the lady clutched in her hands. From where I was standing, six feet away, the four bolts the man held in his arms looked like the same color. I had to look away and think of something else. WHAT I REALLY wanted to say was, "Are you planning to use all four of those dark blues in that one quilt? Because from here they all look alike, and I don't know what you're planning to do with them, but unless you separate them somehow, they are going to look like one big blob and you aren't going to like it." Of course I kept my mouth shut.

What was the difference in the two situations? In my example, I wanted to fool the viewer into thinking the two fabrics were the same color. In the second, there was nothing to distinguish the various fabrics apart from a distance, and you know I've said more than once that you want to avoid areas in your quilts where there are too many darks clumped together, because it will read like a dark blob.

Finally, my friend Julie sent me this medallion to stick to my sewing machine. It's about the size of a quarter. As a member of the mask-making brigade, it is entirely appropriate.