Tuesday, April 4, 2017

3 More One Patch Designs & Luminescence


Last Week's Layouts
 A First for Me: All Solids


Something that brings me great pleasure is working in the quilt room laying out comforters and quilts for charity. I've been very interested in different color schemes lately, and how colors interact with another. One color laid next to another will appear to change either lighter or darker. Maybe a dot or figure in it will be drawn out more. A good way to illustrate this is with the top and bottom layouts here.


Luminescence: I love a quilt that appears to glow. The one patch is ideal for trying to produce that as it's based on concentric rings of color. Two rings of peach were laid around the orange center cross with the lightest right next to it. This created the most contrast. Laying another darker peach next to it helped to created a feeling of glowing. I spent a lot of time squinting to see if it was happening as the design grew. (I suppose it would look fairly silly to someone watching.)

Another area to note is how the maroon squares sandwiched between the pink and green rings appear quite dark, and almost black from a distance.



This layout took me longer. The colors are unlikely bedfellows even though we can say they are red, blue and green. 

*For those of you that don't know, each of us laying out comforters is limited by the fabric in the bin that week. In this design the squares are all 4", and the intended grid is 17 x 20 to give a finished comforter of around 60" x 80". Staying within this size also works very well when trying to piece backs for so many, and most fabric is around 42" in width.

Again I played with luminescence using the greens and blues, using lighter and darker shades and contrast. I had loads of black in the bin, and also wanted that in the design. Black was often used in vintage Trips Around the World designed by Mennonite and Amish quilters as it was a color they used for some of the family's clothing. As the store is run my the Mennonite Christian Committee, it was well suited.

If you look closely, you can see I started to make some substitutions in fabrics, but stayed with the same tones. The corners were made up entirely of prints, and the ditsy black floral helps to make the inner black ring stand out even more. The black corners feel like exclamation points to me. 




The Last of My 5" Red and Whites

So many of you have offered such kind advice lately about taking breaks. Yesterday I did. Instead of sticking to my regular schedule, I dug out the last of my bag of squares a friend had passed me in January. It was pure fun just to lay out a baby quilt with what was left mixing red and white with peach, pink, and cream. 

I took it all the way through the process of chain piecing, quilting, and binding in just an afternoon. A pretty blue gingham toned it down, and a leftover piece of dark blue batik was just exactly enough to bind it. It's a 48" square, and a perfect little charity quilt now.

One thing to note: I hope you've tried the squinting method for the top 2 layouts, and could see the bit of glow there. If you give this one the same try, you won't see any. It makes a great checker board, but the combinations and contrast aren't here. It's fun to be aware how luminescence is achieved, and I hope you give these techniques a try in your own project designs.

The rain is pouring, and the dogs have all found a bed. Looks like a good day to hole up in the studio.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.


Linking up with~
Cooking Up Quilts
MOP Monday
Quilter's Monday
Design Wall Monday
Show and Tell Monday
Em's Scrap Bag
Love Laugh Quilt
Stitch All the Things
Fiber Tuesday
Building Blocks Tuesday
Freemotion By the River

10 comments:

Linda Swanekamp said...

What fun you had! Love the results!

evaj said...

Thanks Julie for linking and the inspiration you give us Show and Tell Monday !! Bambi Hug

Sew Surprising said...

Love these, Ive always said fabric melds no matter what it is, do like the top one the colours are super zingy ;) your so creative and clever relish your projects for inspiration and admiration :)

Barb Neiwert said...

LOL, my definition of taking a break must be a tad bit different than yours. But yours is definitely more productive. And pretty. Well done!

Kate @ Smiles From Kate said...

It's amazing what lovely quilts you can make from simple squares. The second one is my favourite, I love the red and black contrast and it reminds me of a poppy in the centre.

Unknown said...

Great work. MCC is so blessed to have your volunteering efforts!

Kate said...

Both of your color themes work really well. It's amazing what effects you can achieve with just the order of the colors. Glad you mixed things up a bit and just had a "play day". Happy stitching this week.

Janice Holton said...

Now that's my kind of relaxing. Playing with red! :D

Christine Slaughter said...

I did notice the glow, that is such a great effect. Thank you for sharing how you created it, and how to look for it. Thanks so much for linking up to To Do Tuesday this week!

Sharon - IN said...

That squinting thing really does work, and people can chuckle at us if they like. Have you ever tried looking through binoculars backwards at your quilts? That works too! I like that pop of rows in your quilts!