Nightingale Number 2

 

Every single person who has seen the Nightingale quilt had the same reaction. 

"WOW!" 

I was quite surprised. I knew this was a beautiful quilt, but I love the unusual. I am also rather fearless. I mean, who ELSE would make a black quilt? And who would be crazy to encourage others to make them? I mean, who wants to make a BLACK quilt?

The thing is though, this quilt is remarkably simple in its construction. A beginner can make it. 

The only requirement is that all fabrics should have a black background. 

Anyway, after I made the first one, I made the second one. The first six panels are shown above.

In the photograph above, both quilts are shown. Are they the same? Of course not. While they share some of the same fabrics, they are not identical.

This is the second one. I had a title for it, but I forgot what it was. I'll figure it out.

Every quilter who makes a Nightingale quilt will make a quilt that is unique. Each quilter will select different black fabrics that will make up the quilt. Each quilter's own sensibilities will be reflected in the quilt itself. A successful Nightingale uses all kinds of fabrics: great big giant prints, medium prints, novelties. batiks, florals and orientals. It's not really a scrap quilt in that the fabrics are repeated over and over throughout.

It works because the fabrics share a common element: the black background. While this quilt is patchwork, the patchwork is secondary to the flow of color that moves around, which is what the eye sees first.

Susan from California is making one of these and when I talked to her she said to remind everybody that for this quilt you simply have to have faith. "Because halfway through you might think it's awful, but the farther along I get the more I love it. So tell everybody to just go for it."

Well yes. But then the usual rules do apply. Don't put too much busy right next to each other, distribute your colors and prints and avoid making BLOBS of too much dark or holes of too much light.

But Susan also said that "you could be blind and put this together and it will still work." How's that for an endorsement?

So yeah. I mean, what the hell. It's only fabric.

If you want to make one, you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Oh yeah! I remember. This is the Black Swan.