Three is a lovely number

Quilt Therapy, my minigroup, issued a challenge to create a small quilt by 9/19/2012 for an upcoming community show. That's what I'm working on. 

Challenge parameters:

• size: 18x18
• colors: 50% to match three paint chips, and
• theme: three. 

Paint chips, mostly randomly selected:

red-oranges, yellow-oranges, & darkest neutral purples

Fabrics to match. In keeping with the theme, I'm using a 3x3 format - aka 9-patch. 

 paired squares

The number "3" makes a great shape. I selected a font, printed it large, enlarged it further on the copier, then cropped and traced for interesting mix of related shapes and positive/negative spaces:

patterns

Then I randomly paired patterns with fabric and outlined shapes with free motion stitches. Trimmed extra layers away - a raw edge reverse applique technique.

Then the fun part - arranging the squares in a 3 x3 format. This is similar to an exercise in the June shapes workshop with Terry Jarrard-Dimond posted here and here. From the trimmed layers, I made a polar twin 3x3 and arranged it in the same order:

arrangements v1, polar twin on left

Then rearranged in a dissimilar order:

 arrangement v2, related but not twins

Rearranged again in dissimilar order with some parts traded:

arrangement v3, traded parts

I really enjoy this design-play part of the process and could go on forever. Play more? or go with one of these? I've gotta put it together soon and get quilting. That deadline is looming!

Final crazy eight

I restored some organization in the studio. All the solids are back on the shelves. Gee, what a BIG stash!


shelves of solids

If I'd only known before I got another crazy eight collection. I could've stopped at the six yards of black for the next workshop. But you know how one thing leads to another. Since I was at it, got some other colors, too. Might as well.

final crazy eight

The latest stack of Moda Bella Solids: Baby Yellow (good light), Buttercup, Willow (good neutral), Betty Red, Purple, Peacoat (very inky dark) and Black. The last crazy eight collection.

Until I use up a lot of fabrics. Unless I have a yen for a particular color. Unless I find a new cool color . . . You know how exceptions do crop up.

Crazy Eight 2

Are you missing the old Monthly Solids Club as much as I am? 

Pink Chalk Fabrics now has a Charming Solids Club - a combo of charm packs of prints with coordinating fat eighths of solids. This variation doesn't work for me.

For my December withdrawal I selected my own eight solids - previously posted here. So this month I'm self-medicating again.

From top to bottom, these Moda Bella Solids (I love the hand of this line): (1) Fig Tree Olive, (2) Hay, (3) Paper Bag, (4) Dark Teal, (5) Weathered Teak, (6) Earth, (7) Golden Wheat and (8) Fig Tree Wheat.

They weren't stacked in packing list order, so I'm not sure I matched the colors - except for the olive and teal - to the fabrics correctly. The Weathered Teak especially doesn't live up to its name nor to its online image.

Oh well. Next time: a wider range of colors for easier identification. If there is a next time. I still have hope that Pink Chalk Fabrics will have another monthly solids option.

New center



re-quilted center



Compare this to before. Less thread contrast. Repeated lines stitched elsewhere. No more doubts. About the quilting anyway. Ready to move on to squaring, facing, and sleeve.

Crazy eight

The monthly solids club at Pink Chalk Fabrics will morph into a new version debuting in January  2012 (less than a week away!). They'd feature a charm pack of prints with coordinating solids. Don't despair yet fellow solids fans.

"A Solids Stack of the Month will be available for purchase each month in the shop similar to what is being offered now in the club - it just won't be an auto-ship."

Let's hope they'd offer the stack in 1-yard cuts.

With no shipment in December, and especially with the holidays, I needed my monthly fix. So I picked eight Moda Bella Solids. Here's what I got from top to bottom: Fig Tree Apricot, Lime, Betty's Orange, Tan, Rust, Horizon Blue, Stone and Kansas Troubles Red.

Hmm - not so pretty, eh?
What about this group?

Prettier restacked. Presentation does makes a difference, doesn't it?

Choices at a brick-and-mortar shop might've been different from these chosen online. I'm adding to my stash, not using them together. Otherwise I'd go crazy picking the perfect eight.

Work two, play half

After chores Saturday and Sunday, Monday was a day for rest and relaxation. I caught Picasso, Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

There's no question about Picasso's place in the pantheon of modern art.  But afterwards I was hungry for color and expressive brushwork. 

Picasso

Compare that to these Bay Area Figuratives.

David Park Two Bathers



Elmer Bischoff

Which do you prefer?

The rest of the day was lost to computer time.  Really lost. After three hours and much frustration, my computer seized. Yikes! I prayed feverishly for recovery. It did, but it was a sign to back up everything. Eschewed the online system and called customer service. A live person and a quick successful transaction!

Whew! The whole experience left me beaten and pummeled! Watering the garden and washing the car will wait for another day.

Birthday every month

I'm getting a stuffed Priority Mail envelope each month.

Just look at the luscious blues in this month's little package.

 

I'd joined the Monthly Solids Club at Pink Chalk Fabrics.

At the beginning of each month, soon after an email notification, the package arrives. I don't know what colors, but always eight one-yard pieces with a card identifying each one.

When I go to the fabric shop, I'd stand in front of the solids for a long while trying to figure out what other color to buy. Yes, I do need more solids. There I'd be tempted by eye-candy prints. Or by nifty notions. Or by new patterns. Or by luscious silks. You get the picture. I'm avoiding temptation and relinquishing color selection to Pink Chalk.  

I feel like a birthday girl each month. What a pleasant treat. 

Sometimes a great notion

Sometimes not.

An idea for curvilicious seams tested using print fabrics to reduce my stash.

Ugg! Blame fabric & color choices on poor studio lighting. Can't hurt to cut it up.

Restructuring on the design wall. Better but not great. Possible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

Decompression Friday

Dog tired from the work week and home alone, I ate dinner in front of the tv. Wound embroidery floss around floss bobbins and re-ordered my solids fabric deck value scale back to hue groups. Decompression activities.

I did have one moment of creative productivity. Figured out quilting lines for the twisted log cabin for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

Made it to the camera repair shop Saturday. Wouldn't you know  - the camera's flash worked very ably there. It's still working now. Go figure.

Dilemma & choices, part 3

I have great respect for Nancy for teaching and sharing her knowledge. Because she willingly expresses her viewpoints, she deepens my understanding of art. She's an interpreter -she translates art into quilting.

Thursday night Annette accused me of getting into a fight with her over the colors of my final composition. What fight? There was no shouting. Just expressions of differing viewpoints. Okay, so I may not always agree with her, but I like to hear what she says.

It's a classic student's dilemma: whether or not to yield your own opinion in favor of the instructor's. In the process of going along with the instructor, you may learn something new. But ultimately, the work is yours – your decisions, your mark, your eye, and your convictions. How else can the work be truly yours?

Here are the three sets of blocks that make up my final composition. First, brown and blue. Colors are flat she said.

Second, blue, green and fuchsia. Colors are flat and combination is especially depressing.

Then finally, blue, green, fuchsia, yellow, pinkish cream, and another brown. She liked these - colors are rich.

She expressed disappointment because she thought I have better color sense and I could do better. I am a colorist but not every color combination will be successful. But then not every color combination needs to wow! For this exercise my intent was to start with a subtle two-color combo and build up from there.

This is my first draft on the design wall when I asked her for feedback. She didn't like the arrangement – the separation of areas. She said I could sew it up but it was only okay. She recognized it as an exercise I needed to work through. You know, I wasn't really happy with the arrangement either. Not so much the separation into blocks of areas, but the proportions.

Friday morning I worked on it more – a failed attempt to integrate the second and third sets. Worked on the proportions and arrangements. Then ran out of time. For the final presentation I basted blocks together and left seams unpressed. Didn't have time to add the first set of blocks. Oops - didn't have time for a photo either. I'll post one later.

I was about done with the final presentation, when Nancy pressed me to talk about my color choices for this. She's not afraid to retread murky waters. I like that about her. So I related my intentions for this piece and the story of our disagreements.

She thought it looked better. So did I. You see there is more than one way to skin a cat.

This piece is not done. I'll work on it more. One of my classmates said don't back the first set of blocks. But don't be surprised if those blocks worm their way back in.

Cautionary plaid tale

Joann's is conveniently near my office and opened until 9pm. A coupon sale and the selection of woven plaids and stripes were extra enticements. Do you know how difficult it is to find woven plaids and stripes? They're mostly printed. Purist that I am - gimme a real plaid! A nice dark plaid.

But look what happened to my fabrics after they were laundered.

The plaid transferred color to the green. Arrgggh! After washing, drying and ironing, it still bled. I tested the plaid using Paula Burch's method.
But no time to fix this with more washing or Retayne. This baby is not going to Ohio. Neither is the green fabric. It will be salvaged for surface design.

I picked up another plaid by Dan River at Beverly's Fabrics. This is a long time well known national manufacturer - unlike the one at Joann's - but cost twice as much. It's worth it because it passed Paula Burch's test. I checked it before I launder. This time.

Shipping out

They're off! I've shipped my fabric and supplies to the Barn. Here're the stacks of fabrics before they went into the boxes.
There aren't enough fabrics. What? How can that be? Looks like a lot of fabric. Well yes, there are about 100 lengths of fabric. Not including black, white and grays and not including prints.

But look how many skinny folds as opposed to fat folds. For this two-week workshop Nancy calls for 1.5 to 2 yd. cuts. I'm bringing the one-yarders for more color choices and more fabric. But then I risk running out of a color.

Also need more darks. I think they went into my ribbons.

So I'm off for last minute shopping, washing and ironing.

Virtual ribbons

Still cogitating on the ribbons and filler strips. Initially I'd pinned up black strips on the design wall. But what if the strips were another color? Using Photoshop, I tried out a variety of colors. It's down to these three: black, or terra cotta or gold. I'll try the terra cotta and gold on the wall.



I know enough about Photoshop Elements 6 to get by. In this case it was easier to test out ribbon arrangements and different colors of strips virtually than on the design wall. Sometimes it's not.

Fan deck

These are views of my fan deck described here previously.

So much fabric, so little time

How to make fabric work for you and save you workshop time - a continuation of hints and suggestions as a result of my experience at Nancy Crow's Strip-Piecing I & II in October 2008.

Wash the chemicals out. Do wash and iron your fabrics. If you're building a fan deck, cut a little ½" wide strip for your card and take measurements.

You will be cutting selvedge to selvedge with one fold. So fold fabric in half lengthwise – selvedges meet - and trim at least one end to square it up. This will save you an extra step and workshop time.

Make mini bolts. Place an 8x24 cardboard template at the uncut end and flip and fold to the other trimmed end. Pull the template out and fold in half. You will end up with an 8.5x11 bundle.

Folding this way will minimize handling and save workshop time when you cut strips. Just open up the last fold and flip out enough to cut.

Nancy wants your fabrics laid out with only one bulky fold showing rather than distractions of selvedges, cuts, or multiple folds. Stack fabrics with the single fold all facing the same way and save workshop time.

Organize your fabrics into color groups. Organize each color group by value, i.e. light to dark. Finding fabrics for the exercises would be easier this way. Stack fabrics this way to save workshop time.

At the workshop, Nancy may tell you to put them in value order regardless of color. DON'T DO IT. After everyone did this, Nancy gave us permission to not do it. Maintaining a handle on a 100 fabrics - even if organized by value – is difficult. Make the module smaller - organize into color groups.

Because you've used a template, the fabric bundles are similar in size and two tall stacks will fit nicely into a 17x11 box. To ship I lined boxes, which formerly held reams of paper, with a big plastic trash bag – then stacked a little beyond the brim. Even so they did crush down some. Update: FedEx no longer accepts boxes with separate lids, like the ones for reams of paper. Use boxes with the integral flaps that fold down.

During the workshop fabrics are flying. You have so many exercises and so limited time. Keeping a handle on fabrics will help.

When you cut from a fabric, put it on back on top of your stack. It'll be easier to repull a color you've already use. Plus you get a better sense of what and how much you've used so far. If you pulled out a color but don't cut from it, try to insert it back into its color group. You won't need your template to refold fabric at the workshop. Just follow the folds.

I think some limits on the palette will make the final quilt more cohesive. However, you don't want to use a color so much that you'd have none left after the workshop. You may want or need to duplicate the pieced fabric later.

Taking these measures does not necessarily mean you will not be working from 7am to 10:30pm.

Building a deck

When I started this tack, I didn't think I'd be so verbose. I went to the Barn without much notion of what I was getting into. May your experience be less mysterious and more fruitful. Here's part 3: buying and tracking colors for Nancy Crow's Strip Piecing I & II workshop.

I don't dye fabrics. I buy commercially made fabrics from the local stores. Where I live there are a number of quilt shops and fabric stores within 25 miles. A few have a good selection of solids, most don't. So I get a smattering of colors from various places.

For online shopping a friend suggested equilter . They offer 189 Kona solids. With your order, they'd send a color printout – similar to their web page. I'm more bricks and mortar.

Shopping for solids can be daunting at the fabric store. Would this color look different in other light? Can I find one a little lighter, darker, brighter, duller, red-er, blue-r, yellow-er? And do they even make it? How does it compare to what I already have? How can I keep track of it all?

The human mind is capable of remembering about seven things. Darn impossible to remember a hundred colors. Even with good color memory. Try visual aids.

Mine is a deck of 3x4 index cards. If you build this, you could cut the card size in half. There's still plenty of room for information.

On one side of each card glue an actual 1/2" wide strip of the fabric along the edge for a visual match or comparison. The other side has information: when, where, what (manufacturer, color), and width and length. This helps when you want more.

I'm not good about noting the manufacturer and color when I'm buying the fabric. At least I can visually match it. If I bought it within the last year, there's a chance it's still available. In reality though, store stock changes.

Stack the cards by color group and in value order. Imagine dropping the deck and scattering them to kingdom come. That would be so embarrassing. Make it secure: punch a hole at one end and put it on a 2" ring. Watch for a photo post of my deck later.

At the store, I compare the bolt against my fan deck. I don't like to be conspicuous but this is not so easy, yet better than nothing. Since colors change on a continuum finding where it may fall in your deck takes time. Is this gold yellow or yellow-orange? Is this periwinkle blue-violet or purple?

If you see someone doing that - that might be me. Say hello. I now whip out a smaller (fewer cards) deck with colors to replenish.

Build your deck. Throw it into a Ziplock or your tote bag. Enjoy your color adventure.

Another installment tomorrow: preparing and packing your fabrics.

52

Addendum and correction to the last post regarding colors.

Yesterday I'd said I had cut into about 25 pieces of my solids collection. That was a very crude estimate. Way off.

In preparation for the next workshop, I'd pulled out all the fabrics that I'd used at the last workshop. Didn't want to pack them in case I'd still be working on my ribbon quilt. Make that will be still working. Already enough color variety - no new colors please.

That pile looked like a half box full. 100 fabrics, 2 boxes. 50 fabrics a box. Half a box must be 25. Right? Big oops! Didn't take into consideration that some of the fabric has already gone into the ribbons and stripped-pieced fabrics. Smaller pieces make a more compact pile.

This morning I counted - 52 different colors! Not including black, white and grays. I could have used fewer.

I feel you can have a very satisfactory experience and put together a beautiful quilt with a more limited selection.

But can you see how you can easily go beyond that with the myriad variations in colors, values, and saturations? Look at how many yellow paint chips can you collect at the paint store. Albeit fabric is more limiting, but color nuances can be nearly infinite. That's part of the fun and challenge.

Culling all colors

Continuation of yesterday's post about the Nancy Crow workshop.

Nancy Crow asks for lots of fabric for the Strip Piecing I & II workshop. 60 to 100 different solids. More if you count neutrals and non-solids. If you are considering her workshop, you'd say Holy Moly! do I really need that much?

Out of more than 100 solids, including the neutrals, I actually cut into maybe 25. So did I really need them all? I could have gotten by with fewer blues and reds. Hardly used. Mostly yellows, oranges, greens, purples and black. A sprinkling of other colors. I used five out of the six yards of black. I didn't decide in advance what my palette would be. That's just what turned out.

Some got by with a more restrictive selection. If that were so, then that's what I would've worked with. Some chose a more restrictive palette. If that were so, then that's what I would've brought. Maybe either would've been easier and quicker – meaning less thought required. Because while you're there, you are busy doing. Mulling over choices is a luxury.

For a few exercises Nancy would ask for a particular color. Blue for example. But she doesn't specify a particular blue – choose any blue that'll work. For most exercises, it was my choice. So I'd pull out a piece of fabric– because it's on top, because it was on the bottom, because it caught my eye, because I've used it before, because I haven't used it yet, because I wanted to use that color, because I wanted to use that value, because I wanted to use that saturation, because I have a particular combination in mind, because . . . just because.

Then I'd pull out other colors to work with it. Here's where thought and time comes in. Sometimes the combination comes together quickly. Sometimes I'd really have to work to make it come together. Sometimes I couldn't make it work quick enough and started again. Sometimes I'm not happy with the combination, but it would just have to do because I don't have time to fuss more.

I was glad I had so many choices because I love playing with color. I could have gotten more done if I didn't love the color play so much. Love can be a liability.

So did I really need them all? Probably not. That's easier to say now after I've gone through the workshop. So what do you really need?

A full spectrum of colors. By that I mean the color wheel with primary, secondary and tertiary hues: i.e. yellow, yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, red, red-violet, violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, green and yellow-green. If you bring a minimum of five in each of these six groups, that'd be 30. The minimum. Of these five in the group, it is important to cover the full range of values from light to dark and cover the full range of saturation from bright to dull (or Nancy calls it warm and cool).

Some exercises called for a wide value range of a color. Try to have at least seven values of gray and seven values of at least one color. These seven values should work as a pleasing progression of a color set. For example a blue-gray would stand out in a group of warm grays, even though its value may be correct. A red-orange may clash within a group of red-violets.

The off-whites, beiges and tans could be low saturation variations of a color family. They may be a very neutral yellow, orange or red. Just be sure you do have some.

Bring the non-solids but don't worry too much about them. Exercises using them are at the end. Unless you are speedy, you may not get to them.

If you find your choices lacking during the workshop, you may rely on the generosity of your fellow classmates for giving / trading / selling you a strip or two.

These last two posts got long! I'll continue tomorrow about shopping for fabrics.

Color exercise

Recently I made up a color exercise on request from a reader. Disclaimer: I'm not a quilt (nor art) instructor. I've started quilting a year and a half ago. How best could I teach someone what I know about color? I tried to approach it from an artist's viewpoint.

This exercise ended up in four parts – two in mixed media, two in fabric. It's a start. I'm waiting for feedback from my reader before developing a couple more complicated color exercises. I'm curious if these exercises succeed in elevating one's comfort with color and developing a sense of color.

If you want to try this first exercise, promise me some feedback. E-mail me (click on view my complete profile) and I'll send it to you.

La colorista

I've been an interior designer for 19 years now. Add another 6 years of art and design classes, that's 25 years altogether. Though color is not the only thing an interior designer selects, I've been through the paces. A few times I get to start from scratch. But most of the time it's a work-around what will not change. Ever try creating a color scheme that includes an oddball color from 20 years ago? I can't claim success every time.

Despite the years, I am still learning about color. What works for interior design may not work in a quilt. Sure, the basics are there. I don't have to look at a color wheel to find a complementary color. I recognize a color even when it is muted. I know color gets the credit but value does the work. But I love the eye candy!

I am a colorist. I love playing with color. Others complement me on my color choices. Yet I'd get into a color rut if I'd relied only on myself. So I keep an eye out for fresh color perspectives anytime, anywhere. Often it is serendipitous – from a momentary juxtaposition of color objects. Often it is subconscious – it resurfaces from long ago. Other times I deliberately seek out new color combinations. I just play. It looks easy. But really - I draw from a huge color selection tank.

Good color sense doesn’t develop overnight. In a recent Robert Genn's Twice Weekly newsletter, he cited Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers author, about how cognitively complex pursuits require ten thousand hours to get good . That's 3.4 years of 8-hour days 7 days a week. Or more realistically, 10 years at 1,000 hours each year or about 2.74 hours per day. So if color is a struggle for you, be generous with yourself and just keep working at it.

How do you go about selecting colors? Where have you found your color inspirations?