The Rules Find a Home

The Black Cat Rules quilt has a home in my new office. As you can see, it's a perfect fit!

A Friend's View

My friend, The Selvage Fairy, drove up to my favorite Quilt Shop, Quilted Threads, to see the two Rules Quilts together. She sent me an email.

"No offense to your photography but OMG!!! The reds and oranges in "FUN" look like they are on fire in the black one!

I was expecting beautiful, but I'm just blown away..."

Thank you SF! You have made my day!

The Same, and Different

In my quilts, I like to make the viewer on a voyage of discovery. I want them to keep looking closer, to discover the elements I have placed there. The two Rules Quilts exemplify this. At first glance, they are the same, except for the background - one white, one black. But they are also very different in some obvious, and some subtle ways.

The word RULES uses the same fabrics in each letter in both quilts.

The word MISS is NOT the same. I wanted them to LOOK like they were the same. I wanted you to THINK they were the same. Everyone notices the ladies are different, but I've used different fabrics in the M and the S's.

Look closely (click and then click the photos again to enlarge) to see the difference.

The Rules, Together!

Woo Hoo! The two Rules quilts, the "White Cat Rules" and "The Black Cat's Rules" are now hanging side by side at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH.

I've been waiting to see these two quilts next to each other for months. It's everything I could have hoped for.

The Black Cat's Rules

This little cat, sitting in the "O", has given me the title for this quilt. "The Black Cat's Rules."
I brought the quilt outside at 7 AM this morning, where the sun was shining directly on it, making the colors sing.A wisp of cloud floated by, enabling me to take this picture, which I think best represents what the quilt looks like in real life. As the cloud drifted away, the shimmering quilting began to pick up and reflect the light back, and I thought, "This is the way this quilt should be seen!"


Red Letter days will start again next week!

The Rules, in Black

The colors look a bit truer here. I'm happy with the way this turned out. I can't wait to see them both hanging side by side.

*Compare it with the White version, which can be found here.

Black Rules Finish

Not really, I still have to sew the hanging sleeve, but for all intents and purposes, this quilt is done.

Somebody is gonna have to tell me how to photograph a black quilt and make the colors glow like they do in real life. The quilt is AWESOME, and this photo doesn't show any of that.

The quilt is 47-1/2" wide by 54" tall (about 120 cm x 137 cm)

More Quilt Wrangling

I've finally got the binding all sewn on the black rules quilt, and now I'm in the process of hand sewing it down on the front.

Black thread on a black quilt... practically invisible! I think my days of doing the hand sewing down on the front are numbered!

¿Dónde están las reglas?

Translation: Where are the rules?

Usually I finish my quilts fairly quickly, but I needed fabric for binding.
I had intended to bind the quilt with the same fabric I used to bind the White Rules. (These gold scallops) I even ordered the fabric from an on-line quilt store, but after THREE WEEKS of hearing NOTHING from the vendor about delivery (even though I sent TWO emails and left TWO phone messages), I called my credit card company and discovered the money hadn't even been charged to my account. So I "cancelled" the order, and went to the lqs and bought fabric for the hanging sleeveand fabric for the binding.So this quilt should be finished soon.

Tomorrow, the Red Letter Along continues with the letter Q!

What Fabric?

Chris gave me a wonderful compliment when my sampler quilt, Letters From Home, arrived at her house for quilting. "I've gotta hand it to ya," she said, "You didn't drop the ball on the back." I used a Kaffe Fassett fabric for the back, and included a cat emoticon. I've never forgotten what Chris said, and I try to find the perfect fabrics for the backs of all my quilts. Here is the fabric I have chosen for the Black Rules:
I like to use large prints on the backs of my quilts. The back of a quilt is a big area, and if you use a small scale print, it just looks... boring. I like BIG prints. I simply adore a lot of the Westminster fabrics, and the large Kaffe Fassetts, and Jane Sassaman, who designed this fabric.

Yeah, I know these colors are not quite perfect for the quilt, but they match the feel of it, and it's my quilt, so I can break the rules if I want to! I had to piece two lengths together to get the backing wide enough (the quilt is 50" wide, and the backing has to be 12"bigger...) Fortunately the repeat wasn't big, and I was able to match the pattern with no loss. Woo hoo!

The quilt is flying to Chris in Tennessee today for quilting. I can't wait to see what she does with it!

The Last Fun

An idea is only an idea until you make it real. Sometimes it's a great idea, sometimes, not so much.

But you never know until you try. Here is the last BOB Fun for the Black Rules quilt.
This one is going to disappear for sure, and it was NOT my intention. Oh well! Live and learn. It's in the quilt.

Speaking of which:
It needs a bigger strip of black across the top. Again I have to apologize for the lousy picture. The quilt is positively stunning in real life, but taking photos in my sewing room at 10 PM at night of a black quilt is a recipe for mediocrity. When it stops raining, I'll take the quilt outside and get a really good photo. I promise.

My quilt Laughing Out Loud is due back from Chris by way of Julie today. Woo hoo!

Black RULES!

The flimsy isn't quite finished, but it's getting close. The word OBEY is too tall, and needs to be trimmed. I haven't sewn the last hidden fun to the IF YOU panel yet, and I need to add a bit of black at the bottom, and square up the sides. This is shaping up to be a favorite.
So why do these letters POP so much? A couple of reasons...

First, visually, light areas always pop forward, and big dark areas recede. You can't get darker than black, so the most intense light/dark contrast will always be black and white, but lighter colors against black will really attract your attention.

Secondly, we see color when light hits an object and reflects back at us. Different colors absorb different amounts of light. White reflects all light back at us, black absorbs all of it. So bright colors next to black appear to really jump out at you.

A more intense color will jump out at you more than a less vibrant one. Think of an orange (a real orange you can eat). You can't get a BRIGHTER orange than an orange. If you make it lighter, it loses some intensity, it gets a bit duller. It's the same thing if you make it darker, you lose the intensity, the brightness. (I swiped this picture from earthinpictures.com)

I used a lot of bright colors and bright fabrics in this quilt, so they really jump out. In the White Rules,the brightest color is probably the big pink F, but that doesn't have as much light/dark contrast as the U next to it. These colors are much more subdued than the colors in the black quilt.

The letters "YOU OBEY ALL THE RULES" are exactly the same in both quilts. I used the same fabrics. Actually, the reason I made TWO quilts was to show how differently the same colors look when using a white, then a black background.

Amazing, isn't it?

Sewing up the Black Rules

I've started sewing the big panels of the Black Rules quilt together.

It's great, and the colors positively glow, but -damn- is it hard to photograph!
This quilt will be slightly larger than the White version. Like Julie, I am very eager to see them side-by-side!

Dear Clare, Dream On!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

I sewed up the big FUN in the Black Rules quilt, and made the exclamation mark.
This isn't exactly how the letters will line up, but I am really loving the hot colors.Now I have to make one more BOB "fun" and then I can start putting the words together into a flimsy.

Outside!

There's nothing like natural light on a slightly overcast day to show off a quilt. Here, finally, are photos of my last two big finishes - the White Rules (which still doesn't have a proper title)
and Nine by Nine.
I've photographed them both at the highest resolution my camera will allow, and I haven't compressed them, so you can click the photos, and then click again for all the little details.

Happy FUN!

OK, so you don't get much sewing done when your team is in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup, and then win it. Go Bruins!

Possibilities

Wild yellow batik fabric, right? I bought this fat quarter at my lqs over the weekend. I thought I'd use it in small pieces.I certainly didn't plan on using such a wild print in my Black Rules quilt.But it works!

(sorry it's such a crappy photo. The light in that room is lousy. I promise better photos soon. You can click the photo to enlarge.)

Arthritis

For those of you who know I have been having back pain for the last month, I've finally got the results from my MRI.

I have arthritis in the lumbar region of my spine. There is physical therapy in my future, and I'll have to exercise and stretch each day. If that doesn't work, I may get some pain injections. We'll see.

I've raised my work table so I can work pain free, and I've had to make other adjustments. It isn't the best news, but it could have been so much worse, so I am grateful.I am working on the Black Rules quilt, and choosing fabrics for the big FUN.

So Far..

So far, so good. I made a second hidden FUN, and have chosen the fabrics for the last big FUN.

Black Fun

You didn't think I was going to forget some hidden FUNs in the Black Rules quilt, did you?I have to say, working with BOBs (Black-on-Black) is a lot harder than WOWs, because it's harder to see!